Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

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

Democrats are back in array!

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

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

“Joe Biden deserved better than he got from some folks in his own party.”

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

He really is that stupid.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

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

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday / Monday, November 21-22

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Sunday / Monday, November 21-22

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… As vaccine supplies have increased, some doctors and public health experts in India have urged the government to start a booster programme for the most vulnerable like many Western nations have done.

But authorities will instead concentrate on having most of India’s 944 million adults complete a two-dose vaccination by January before shifting their focus to a big expansion in exports, said the sources who are involved in vaccine-policy discussions.

So far, 81% of India’s adults have received at least one dose while 43% have had two doses. Vaccination for people under 18 has not yet begun…

India reported the most COVID-19 case and death figures in the world in April and May and government surveys have shown that nearly 70% of Indians were naturally infected by July. The country has so far logged 34.5 million infections – the most after the United States – with more than 465,000 deaths.

Although India celebrated two of its biggest festivals, Diwali and Durga Puja in October and November, infections have fallen to multi-month lows…

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Things can *always* get weirder…

Reader Interactions

53Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    The Monroe County website took the weekend off; NYSDOH says 489 new cases.

    My brother and niece are coming on Friday night for a belated Thanksgiving. They’re both vaccinated but I don’t know if they’ve had boosters yet. I had 3 boxes of Binax Now “at home” tests delivered from Walgreens yesterday, for whatever it’s worth.

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 4,885 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 2,591,486 cases. It also reports 24 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 30,002 deaths – 1.16% of the cumulative reported total, 1.19% of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 1.00.

    437 confirmed cases are in ICU, 184 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 5,628 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,493,437 patients recovered – 96.2% of the cumulative reported total.

    Seven new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,888 clusters. 233 clusters are currently active; 5,655 clusters are now inactive.

    4,867 new cases today are local infections. 18 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 36,028 doses of vaccine on 21st November: 2,244 first doses, 4,325 second doses, and 29,459 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 51,938,646 doses administered: 25,670,034 first doses, 24,980,505 second doses, and 1,475,531 booster doses. 78.6% of the population have received their first dose, while 76.5% are now fully vaccinated.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    because now you want to know what’s in my DNA

    Certainly not intelligence above the basest level needed for living.

  5. 5.

    lowtechcyclist

    Proud Boys are at an anti-vax rally in NYC right now. They say they’re providing security, but they’re been putting out calls to violence in the wake of the Rittenhouse verdict. NYPD nowhere in sight.

    What Frank Wilhoit said.

    (bolding mine)

  6. 6.

    New Deal democrat

    Once again, due to most States not reporting over the weekend, the US data will not be useful until tomorrow.

    Noteworthy again that there has been no increase in the Midwest for the 4th day in a row. This is how waves peak. But, because it includes the weekend, the data might just reflect non-reporting.

    Also, Michigan’s data is strange. They only report 3x/week. They had a slow increase, then suddenly doubled between Nov. 10 and Nov. 15. I haven’t read any good explanation for the sudden spike.

  7. 7.

    Cermet

    @lowtechcyclist: Why should they be? I mean only ‘those people’ of a certain type are the real danger; these are white boys that only follow the amerikan way. No need to have police get in their faces; besides, most cops are fucking cowards and know they can’t hid behind their badges if these proud boys start shooting and the police respond – real charges will be brought against these cops if they shoot any white boy and can’t really justify it and they know it.

  8. 8.

    New Deal democrat

    This is very interesting. The Delta variant may be undergoing ‘self-extinction’ in Japan:

     https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/11/18/national/delta-variant-self-destruction-theory/

    “the chief reason may be related to the genetic changes that the coronavirus undergoes during reproduction, at a pace of around two mutations per month. According to a potentially revolutionary theory proposed by Ituro Inoue, a professor at the National Institute of Genetics, the delta variant in Japan accumulated too many mutations to the virus’s error-correcting, non-structural protein called nsp14. As a result, the virus struggled to repair the errors in time, ultimately leading to ‘self-destruction.’”

  9. 9.

    bjacques

    The only comfort from the riots in n Rotterdam and The Hague is the that they pretty much mean the “wappies” (antivaxxers) and far right are losing.

  10. 10.

    Matt McIrvin

    So I spent the past weekend in New York City. We saw a couple shows, went to some restaurants.

    I know cases are increasing even there, but from a much lower base than here. And I know that vaccination doesn’t 100% stop transmission–there’s going to be spread among fully vaxxed people (maybe less if they all get their booster).

    Even so, the thing that really struck me about NYC is how completely different it feels in an environment where most public gathering places have vaccination checks at the door. It’s a truism that if you tolerate white supremacists in your discussion forum, you end up with a white-supremacist forum, because the white supremacists will drive everyone else out. That’s how it is in most of the country with public places and the unvaccinated. Right now, in most places, the people who disdain vaccinations and masks effectively rule in public, because they make the places where they hang out undesirable for everyone who actually cares whether or not they get infected–and that’s everywhere. The only way to keep your probability of infection low is to just hole up at home.

    But in New York City now it’s the opposite. The vaccinated are the ones who have freedom. It’s something I haven’t fully experienced in a couple of years. And I can see why it pisses off the Proud Boys, and the rioters in Europe. People like them are effectively in control in most of the US.

  11. 11.

    Cameron

    @NotMax: My immediate response was “WTF?”  My next response was “Damn.  Another contender if Trump doesn’t run in 2024.”

  12. 12.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 11/21 China reported 7 new domestic confirmed (none previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Dalian in Liaoning Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases (4 mild & 1 moderate), all traced close contact already under centralized quarantine. 19 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 6 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 268 active domestic confirmed & 30 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 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.

    At Xi’an in Shaanxi Province there currently are 4 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.

    At Yinchuan in Ningxia “Autonomous” Region 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.

    Gansu Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 18 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed cases (6 at Lanzhou & 1 at Zhangye) remaining in the province.

    At Hebei Province 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 49 active confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • At Shijiazhuang 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 17 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.
    • At Xinji 1 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 32 active domestic confirmed cases remaining. The High Risk zone has been re-designated to Low Risk.

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

    Jilin City in Jilin Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 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 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed & 5 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.

    At Sichuan Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 25 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • At Chengdu 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 24 active domestic confirmed remaining. 1 residential compound is currently at High Risk. 1 Medium Risk residential compound has been re-designated to Low Risk. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Zigong there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining.

    Chongqing Municipality 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 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed case remaining.

    At Heilongjiang Province 14 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 149 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • At Heihe 14 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 148 active domestic confirmed cases remaining. 1 residential compound remains at High Risk & 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • At Harbin there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining in the city.

    At Shangrao in Jiangxi Province 3 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 17 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 2 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Ruili (via screening of persons under centralized quarantine). 1 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 30 active domestic confirmed & 30 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture. 1 zone & 1 village at Ruili are currently at Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 11/21, China reported 31 new imported confirmed cases (5 previously asymptomatic), 28 imported asymptomatic cases, 2 imported suspect cases:

    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 7 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Argentina, India, Kazakhstan, Equatorial Guinea, the UK & the Ukraine (all via Frankfurt), & a Filipino crew member off a cargo ship w/ last port of call in Malaysia
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 6 confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 1 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Shanghai Municipality – 5 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Ghana (via Paris CdG), Namibia (via Frankfurt), Nigeria (via Frankfurt), Jamaica (via Frankfurt) & the US; 2 suspect cases, no information released
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 4 confirmed cases, 3 Chinese national returning from Myanmar & 1 from Laos; 5 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Laos; all via land border crossings
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 2 confirmed cases (both previously asymptomatic), no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Bangladesh & the UAE; 9 asymptomatic case, 1 Chinese national each returning from Japan, Laos, Vietnam, the DRC (via Nairobi), Zimbabwe (via Nairobi), Saudi Arabia, the UAE & the UK (via Paris CdG), & a foreign national coming from Ethiopia
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Cambodia; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Cambodia & 1 from Egypt
    • Shenyang in Liaoning Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), no information released
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic); 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Spain
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, a foreign national coming from Pakistan; 2 asymptomatic cases, a Chinese & a foreign nationals coming from Pakistan
    • Tianjin Municipality – 4 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning Italy & the Philippines, & 2 Chinese crew members off a cargo ship
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released

    Overall in China, 85 confirmed cases recovered (8 imported), 14 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (8 imported) & 5 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all imported), & 3,088 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,051 active confirmed cases in the country (395 imported), 11 in serious condition (1 imported), 489 active asymptomatic cases (354 imported), 4 suspect cases (all imported). 30,852 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 11/21, 2,437.252M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 6.509M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 11/22, Hong Kong reported 3 new positive (2 asymptomatic) cases, all imported, 1 each from the US, Indonesia (had been fully vaccinated w/ Sinovac vaccine) & the Philippines (had received the single shot J&J-Janssen vaccine).

  13. 13.

    oatler

    Today is the projected end of lockdown in the nursing home when patients can leave their rooms. Or maybe not. I know they’ll keep putting Q-tips up our noses.

  14. 14.

    Matt McIrvin

    …Also, while the NYC vaccination checks are only theoretical in some places, for the most part they’re actually checking cards at most sit-down restaurants, and given how much the NYPD hates the whole situation, that kind of surprises me. Could they render the law null and void by refusing to enforce it?

    I guess it’s hard for cops to nullify the condemnation of a restaurant by the Board of Health; most of the associated mechanisms don’t directly involve them. And they may be past some critical threshold where proprietors recognize that being seen as caring about COVID vaccination actually helps them instead of hurting them.

  15. 15.

    rivers

    @Matt McIrvin: This is such a great point. I live across the river from Manhattan and post-vaccination I’ve been in the city nearly as much as in the past. I was at a Broadway show this weekend and it’s striking not only how “normal” New York feels right now but also how completely normal it has become to produce my vaccination certificate for restaurants and all indoor activities. I’ve yet to be in a situation in which someone objected to the rules – I’m sure it’s happened but I haven’t witnessed it. It’s true, the vaccinated are the norm here.

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    @The Thin Black Duke: I’ve been seen a lot of “how stupid is it that Republicans are promoting a lifestyle that kills their own voters?” but I think that misses the advantage of physical dominance in public spaces. Only a percent or so of the unvaccinated are actually going to die and be rendered unable to vote; meanwhile, their team has a way of bullying the other team in an omnipresent way just by being there and taking up space, spreading virus or the threat of virus. Being dangerous to health and not caring about it is a kind of superpower.

    Corporeal politics matters. The Republicans were helped in 2020 just by being able to do in-person and door-to-door stuff that the Democrats were unwilling to do, and they tried their best to use the pandemic-induced partisan differences in voting method to push a fraud narrative so they could overturn the election. We saw how upset they were at people actually showing up for the George Floyd protests and how much whining there was about how the gatherings made COVID hypocrites of liberals–that was in part because the right-wing anti-maskers had lost control of public spaces, for just a moment. And that was before the availability of vaccination made it even more stark.

    There are only a few places in the whole country right now where antivaxxers don’t have this de facto physical dominance. And even though I live in a supposedly blue state, I’m definitely not in one.

  20. 20.

    Skepticat

    A friend had her booster shot Friday and has had quite a reaction, though it was mostly intense fatigue. Her first two doses were Pfizer, but she had a Moderna booster, as that’s said to last longer. I’d been considering the same thing for when I’m finally eligible (not until January because I returned to the States so late), and I’m curious whether other people who mixed vaccines have had reactions. I think it’s a small price to pay in any case.

    Hospitalization numbers here in Maine are climbing, mostly in areas with low vaccination numbers. I’m not leaving the house unless I have to, and I just ordered a snow shovel from Target for curbside pickup. I’m not looking forward to my first New England winter in many years.

  21. 21.

    Tony Jay

    I spent a fair chunk of Saturday afternoon in city centre Manchester (the UK one) having a 50th birthday meal at Wagamama’s for my significant other’s eldest sister, after which I was dragged around the Christmas Markets for what seemed forever. I can report with some confidence that weekend Christmas markets attract too many people x infinity. I haven’t been in a crowd like that since the queue to piss on Thatcher’s grave, but in this case fewer people were wearing masks and there was less singing. Other than us, Lady Jay’s Dad and stepmother and the odd rational person, everyone was unmasked and happily breathing in each other’s damp exhalations at a proximity that would usually require third-party introductions and the use of sturdy prophylactics. And still any televised talk of the UK facing a really, really shit Christmas season is scarce on the ground.

    Also, there was a Massive Wanker March through the city centre by the Anti-Vax subculture, with a couple of hundred ill-formed jeenyoosiz waving barely legible signage and exposing others to their plague-ratfucking. In the words of my eminently sensible 8 year old from his seat way up on my shoulders, “Hurry up and stop being silly!”

    So say us all. Dickheads.

  22. 22.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Skepticat: I got a Pfizer booster after two shots of Moderna (no reason beyond that these were the shots available where I got them) and I had no reaction beyond a sore shoulder. Some of my mundane body aches might have been worse for a couple of days but it’s hard to gauge these things–I was in NYC, as mentioned, and was walking around a lot.

    My wife got Pfizer after J&J, similar story–I think she might have had a bit of an elevated temperature but nothing beyond that.

    My in-laws who went triple Moderna found that the booster affected them much less than the second shot had.

  26. 26.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Skepticat: Reactions to original-series vaccinations and boosters vary all over the place, it doesn’t matter which mix you choose. Just get whatever booster you can as soon as you can. Over-the-counter meds for headaches and muscle pains seem to be the best option if and when a reaction to the booster sets in (for my booster jab it took about five days for some reason, go figure).

     

    Take a day off if you get a reaction and enjoy the bleurgh feeling, fever, chills etc. which confirms you are producing antibodies. The alternative is spending two weeks lying in bed and trying hard to breathe normally after developing a mild case of COVID-19.

  28. 28.

    Fair Economist

    @New Deal democrat: That makes no sense. It’s not going to accumulate the same deleterious mutations in every one of tens of thousands of cases running around. This the the latest pseudoscientific excuse to not take action to stop COVID.

    Japan is going down for the usual reasons – good population wide immunity from large-scale *recent* vaccination, plus good public health measures – mask mandates, and a general social attitude favoring commonsense measures like staying home when you’re sick.

  29. 29.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    I *tried* to get the Moderna booster, but the pharmacist said that its Apple chip would fight with the Microsoft chip in the Pfizer vaccine that I already had.

     

    No improved 5G reception also, too. Now I haz a sad.

  30. 30.

    Skepticat

    @WaterGirl:

    @Robert Sneddon:

    Thanks. I’m more curious than I am concerned. I’ll get a booster as soon as I can, and I figure any minor discomfort will be simply proof it’s working hard to energize my immune system.

  32. 32.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Fair Economist: ​
      Japan’s infection rates and hospitalisations are low for the moment but that’s not a guarantee it will stay that way. There have been many nations which have been touted as success stories which have later made their way up the infection rate charts as this disease and especially the Delta variant gets a grip on the population. This often happens after the decision is made to open up society, remove restrictions on access to public buildings, shops, bars etc. because no-one is getting sick from COVID-19 any more.

    Japan does not have a large number of people who gather regularly to worship in churches and cathedrals, singing loudly and breathing in each other’s exhalations while praying that their God will protect them. This may help.

  33. 33.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Matt McIrvin: It all binds their voters together with the collective hardship and the fact that the rest of the society views them as insane plague rats makes it harder for conservatives to leave their movement.

    But this isn’t something the Right just came up with, Creationism and then Flat Earthers are part of this, just with COVID not wearing a mask as a tribal identity makes to easier

    As for COVID killing voters, considering how Republican voters are age wise time is doing that anyway.

  34. 34.

    Ohio Mom

    There are a few sites I check every morning before I get out of bed: the weather, covidactnow for my local numbers, and this, Anne Laurie’s post for a broader, deeper understanding of the pandemic.

    At this point, my reaction to the Covid stats at covidactnow is similar to my reaction to the weather report: Yup, it’s November, going to be colder than I like (or, alternatively, Yup, it’s August, going to be a scorcher), Yup, it’s still Covid, the numbers have been at this high level before, I know the drill, masks and no dawdling at stores, restaurants, the library or any other public indoor space.

    In other words, I’m inured to it. There are days I look at the weather report and think, Foof, it’s going to pour all day today, think I’ll put off those errands until tomorrow when the sun will be back out, and days I look at the Covid numbers and think, Hmmm, a downward trend, maybe Friend and I can risk meeting for a cup of coffee. I’ll call her and see.

    Still not tired of Anne Laurie’s posts though because I learn so much about the world and science here.

  35. 35.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Robert Sneddon: Delayed reactions several days after getting the mRNA vaccines were fairly common when people were mostly getting first and second shots. The most common situation was that some people’s sore arm would come back about 8 days after getting the Moderna shot. A day or two later, it would go away again. I’m not sure if this was ever studied in enough detail to figure out what was going on.

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I see it as of a piece with open carrying. They lucked into another way they can scare the shit out of the out-group people just by being present.

    The panic about vaccinated people “shedding” might be a way of turning the tables, but since it’s a bullshit belief we can’t actually spread it in good conscience.

  37. 37.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: A lot of old Republicans are vaccinated anyway, though they might not let on that they are. The unvaxxed skew young, and 28-year-old numbskulls who get COVID are overwhelmingly likely to pull through.

  38. 38.

    Drkld

    @New Deal democrat: Your post reminded me of a paper I read in the journal Heredity in 2020 titled Considering Mutational Meltdown as a potential SARS-CoV-2 Treatment Strategy by Jensen and Lynch. It suggested using certain pharmaceuticals to increase the viral mutation rate paving the way for a viral mutational meltdown. It looks like maybe the delta variant in Japan is reaching that meltdown point on its own. With that being said I always fall back on one of the first things I teach my students; Orgel’s Second Rule. The rule states that “evolution is cleverer than you or I.” This concept is what has me concerned about this winters wave.

  39. 39.

    Sloane Ranger

    Sunday’s figures from the UK, where we had 40,004 reported new cases, but usual caution re weekend numbers. The rolling 7-day average is up by 9.4%. New cases by nation,

    England – 33,513 (down 2826)

    Northern Ireland – 1406 (down 440)

    Scotland – 2677 (down 79)

    Wales – 2408 (includes cases from Saturday).

    Deaths – There were 61 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported yesterday, but with Registry Offices closed, this will be an undercount. The rolling 7-day average is down by 5.9%. 47 deaths were in England, 7 in Northern Ireland, 0 in Scotland and 7 in Wales.

    Testing – Not updated at weekends.

    Hospitalisation – Not updated at weekends.

    Vaccinations – As of Saturday, 50,759,550 people had had 1 shot of a vaccine, 46,152,913 had had 2 shots and 15,064,693 had had a 3rd shot/booster. This means that 88.3% of all UK residents aged 12+ have had 1 shot of a vaccine, 80.3% had had 2 and 26.2% had had 3 shots/booster.

  40. 40.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Matt McIrvin: The panic about vaccinated people “shedding” might be a way of turning the tables,

    These people are scared of an absurd number of things including brown paper bags. Their fear is hole in their minds than can never be filled and that’s why they are always escalating.  At this point they are over the Wingnut Even Horzine were normal folks can’t understand what they are babbling about, so they are alienated from society and resorting to terror tactics as you are noting.

  41. 41.

    Fair Economist

    @Robert Sneddon: Oh, absolutely. We’ve seen it over and over again – fresh immunity from vaccines and/or infection plus public health measures (formal and just people being cautious) drives cases low; then over time immunity wanes and people get less cautious; and it comes back. But the current drop in Japan is absolutely NOT from a spontaneous population wide mutational meltdown. That’s simply impossible.

  42. 42.

    Fair Economist

    @Drkld: Molnupiravir works by inducing mutational meltdown in coronaviruses in people who take it. You will not see a meltdown in the general population.

  43. 43.

    Mart

    @NotMax: She also said something along the lines that America is about having the freedom to not do what the Government is trying to force you to do. You know, like paying taxes to pay that idiot her salary. Honestly, how we keep losing to these imbiciles?

  44. 44.

    New Deal democrat

    @Fair Economist:

    Yes, as to Japan I said it was interesting. I didn’t vouch for it as being correct. In fact the article itself asks why this should only be the case with Japan.

    That being said, I would like to see responses from the experts, and not an a priori dismissal.

  46. 46.

    New Deal democrat

    @Fair Economist:

    That is hardly on par with what they said. I’ll bet you didn’t even bother to read the article. Here’s more of it:

    “researchers from the National Institute of Genetics and Niigata University set out to discover how the APOBEC3A protein affects the nsp14 protein and whether it can inhibit the activity of the coronavirus. The team conducted an analysis of the genetic diversity data for the alpha and delta variants from infected clinical specimens in Japan from June to October.

    “They then visualized the relationships among the DNA sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to show genetic diversity in a diagram called a haplotype network. In general, the bigger the network is, the more positive cases it represents.

    “The network of the alpha variant, which was the main driver for Japan’s fourth wave from March to June, had five major groups with many mutations branching out, confirming a high level of genetic diversity. The researchers thought the delta variant, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is more than twice as contagious as previous variants and might cause more severe illness in unvaccinated people, would have a far more vibrant genetic diversity.

    “Surprisingly, they found the opposite to be true. The haplotype network had only two major groups and the mutations seemed to come to a sudden stop in the middle of its evolutionary development process. When the researchers went on to examine the virus’s error-correcting enzyme nsp14, they discovered that the vast majority of nsp14 specimens in Japan seemed to have undergone many genetic changes in mutation sites called A394V.

    “‘We were literally shocked to see the findings,” Inoue told The Japan Times.”

    To summarize: specialists at a Japanese government institute and a university do painstaking scholarly work, apply the scientific method, and acknowledge that they were shocked to see the result (which may or may not prove out correct).

    But you dismiss their work as “bunk” without so much as even reading.

  47. 47.

    Drkld

    Yes a pharmaceutical like Molnupiravir can induce a meltdown (as Jensen and Lynch predicted) but that is not the only way this can happen. These RNA viruses have a fairly high mutation rate but poor corrective measures. Viruses compete for resources (humans and human cells) and this high mutation rate will hit on some winners (increased transmissibility, increased replication rates, etc) that will be advantageous to some variants. However an increased replication rate may come at the expense of other viral functions and decrease the overall fitness of a particular variant. This can occur independent of pharmaceutical intervention and was the premise on which Jensen and Lynch built their comment papers foundation.

  48. 48.

    Ksmiami

    @Drkld: We may sick of Covid, but it’s not sick of us…. I think with the low vax rates, a winter surge in red states especially.. ah well

  49. 49.

    Drkld

    @Ksmiami: I would bank on a winter wave for sure. I’m in MO and with our low vax rate and nearly non-existent mask use we will almost certainly replicate our per capita caseload from this summers delta wave.

  51. 51.

    gvg

    @Skepticat: I had a Moderna booster after Pfizer and had no noticable reaction except a sore arm the next day, and it wasn’t even very sore. I didn’t have that much reaction to the original series either. I was tired the day after the first and took a short nap after the 2nd.

    Reactions are all over the place, just like for the original series.

  52. 52.

    lowtechcyclist

    @oatler:

    Funny, I posted that same story a couple days ago and got stomped on for it. Maybe it’s like Raven told me, it wasn’t what I said but the way I said it.

    Ah yes, that was the one where you introduced the link with:

    Why doesn’t Balloon Juice report ANY of this??

    Raven’s right, it was the way you said it.

  53. 53.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Even so, the thing that really struck me about NYC is how completely different it feels in an environment where most public gathering places have vaccination checks at the door.

    If some restaurant near where I lived started requiring proof of vaccination to enter, my wife and I would go there at least once a week, as long as the food wasn’t absolutely terrible.

    We really miss dining out, but we just don’t feel safe in a place full of strangers with their masks off, eating and drinking and talking loudly.  So if there were a restaurant where we DID feel safe because they required you to be vaxxed already, we’d be there in a freakin’ heartbeat.

    Can’t think of why that wouldn’t be legal in any state that didn’t actually pass laws against it.  And Maryland certainly hasn’t.

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