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When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Infrastructure week. at last.

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Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

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If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

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if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday / Saturday, Dec. 3-4

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday / Saturday, Dec. 3-4

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Okay, it didn’t have to be the convention! They could’ve caught it anywhere in NYC — or while travelling there & back:

The Minnesota man who contracted the omicron variant of the coronavirus met up with about 35 friends at a New York City anime convention and about half have tested positive for the coronavirus, a state health official said Friday.

Members of the group traveled to New York from a variety of states for the weekend convention that began Nov. 19 and tested positive after their return, said Kris Ehresmann, director of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention, and Control Division at the Minnesota Department of Health. It is not known whether they are infected with omicron or another variant.

“We don’t know if we’ll see a lot of omicron, or we’ll see a lot of delta,” Ehresmann said in an interview. “But we’re likely to see a lot of covid” out of the convention, which drew 53,000 people and tightly packed crowds from Nov. 19 to 21.

The development is not sufficient, by itself, to determine where people were infected, who gave the virus to whom or to develop a timeline of its spread, Ehresmann said. The man infected with omicron also spent time elsewhere in New York City. New York, Minnesota and other states, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are investigating the case and have begun tracing the Minnesota man’s contacts…

“The conference seems like the most likely spot because of the extreme mixing of so, so many people,” Ehresmann said. “It was just a very large gathering that provided the opportunity for a lot of mixing for many people across the country.”

The unidentified man flew to New York on Nov. 18 and his symptoms began Nov. 22, which would indicate a short incubation period for the omicron variant if he picked it up in New York, Ehresmann said. The man had been vaccinated and received a booster shot in November, officials said.

The man’s symptoms were mild and resolved Nov. 24, health authorities have said. He lives with other people, one of whom tested positive on a rapid test and is being investigated further, they have said…

Still be a while before this event catches up to the Boston superspreader event that first convinced me this was not just another short-lived viral scare:

… The potential for the spread of a coronavirus variant from a large, crowded event when the pathogen’s behavior was unknown is reminiscent of an episode in February 2020, when a Boston biotech conference resulted in wide and rapid transmission.

Biotech executives from around the world flew into Boston for the annual leadership meeting of the drug company Biogen. It became a superspreader event.

The Massachusetts Department of Health identified 97 coronavirus cases among meeting attendees and people who lived with them. Genetic testing showed that the same viral sub-strain infected 122 residents at two Boston homeless shelters in April.

According to a study of coronavirus genomes, the variant detected at the Biogen conference spread as far as Alaska, Senegal and Luxembourg and as of July 2020 was found in one-third of cases in Massachusetts and 3 percent of genomes studied in the United States.

(IRRC, those were tech ‘salespersons’, so there would’ve been quite as much close physical contact as among the anime nerds, ifyouknowwhatImean.)

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Reader Interactions

48Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County NY:

    Monroe County website says 584 new cases yesterday, the NYSDOH says 574. Ugh.

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 4,896 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 2,654,474 cases. It also reports 17 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 30,538 deaths – 1.15% of the cumulative reported total, 1.18% of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.97.

    358 confirmed cases are in ICU, 155 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 4,676 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,561,280 patients recovered – 96.5% of the cumulative reported total.

    Four new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 5,969 clusters. 227 clusters are currently active; 5,742 clusters are now inactive.

    4,878 new cases today are local infections. 18 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 125,927 doses of vaccine on 3rd December: 4,417 first doses, 6,721 second doses, and 114,789 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 53,960,016 doses administered: 25,872,462 first doses, 25,433,150 second doses, and 2,844,621 booster doses. 79.2% of the population have received their first dose, while 77.9% are now fully vaccinated.

  3. 3.

    mrmoshpotato

    The nurse told local media that when she had rolled up his sleeve, she found the skin “rubbery and cold” and the pigment “too light”.

    No word that she proceeded to cut off the silicone and bitchslap the bastard with his fake arm, but one can hope.

    These fucking plague rats…

  4. 4.

    satby

    that these are people who have constructed a value system that is almost completely withdrawn from the social compact as we generally understand. I.e. better information doesn’t alter their ethical framework.

    Quoted for truth. Which we understand intellectually, but it’s hard to deal with, and too many people still don’t grasp it.

  6. 6.

    mrmoshpotato

    It seems obvious now in retrospect but it really is just purely binary to these people; taking the barest minimum precautions (e.g. an “indoor mask mandate” where guests can remove their masks to eat and drink”) is tantamount to unfettered totalitarianism in their minds

    Well, when it comes to idiotic, selfish assholes…

  7. 7.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 12/3 China reported 75 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 61 new domestic confirmed cases (3 previously asymptomatic). There currently are 302 active domestic confirmed cases in the region. 

    • Manzhouli in Hulun Buir reported 61 new domestic confirmed cases (3 previously asymptomatic). 29 of the 58 new domestic positive cases are found via mass screening, 20 are traced close contacts already under home or centralized quarantine & 9 from screening of persons under inpatient care at hospitals. There currently are 300 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 6 sub-districts are currently at High Risk. 1 township & 3 sub-districts are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Tongliao did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 village is currently at Medium Risk.

    Heilongjiang Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases. 24 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 20 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Harbin reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 15 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 residential compound & 2 residential buildings have been elevated to Medium Risk. 2 residential buildings & 11 residential compounds have been elevated to Medium Risk.
    • At Heihe 24 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.
    • At Qiqihar there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    Beijing Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases.

    Xianyang in Shaanxi Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city.

    Shanghai Municipality reported 1 new asymptomatic case, a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine since 12/2. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining. 4 residential compounds are currently at Medium Risk.

    At Xuzhou in Jiangsu Province there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case remaining.

    At Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province there currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    Guangzhou in Guangdong Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a worker at a quarantine hotel, found via regular screening.

    At Dalian in Liaoning Province 6 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 119 active domestic confirmed & 10 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. All areas in the city are now at Low Risk.

    Hebei Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 20 active confirmed cases in the province.

    • Shijiazhuang reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases, all close contacts of domestic confirmed cases at Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia. The index case is believed to have arrived at Shijiazhuang from Qiqihar in Heilongjiang on 11/24, having previously worked as a nanny for a family in Manzhouli (which now has 2 confirmed cases). 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.
    • At Xinji there currently are 13 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.

    At Rizhao in Shandong Province there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 5 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Sichuan Province there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases remaining (1 each at Chengdu & Zigong).

    Chongqing Municipality there currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Henan Province there currently are 63 active domestic confirmed cases remaining (47 at Zhengzhou & 16 at Zhoukou).

    Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Longchuan County (all from screening of persons under centralized quarantine). The authorities has shared, based on phylogenetic analysis, the new cluster is seeded by a new introduction from overseas (likely Myanmar) & not connected to previous outbreaks at Dehong or elsewhere in China. 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 48 active domestic confirmed & 40 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture. 1 zone at Longchuan County is currently at High Risk. 1 zone & 1 village at Ruili remain at Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 12/3, China reported 15 new imported confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 13 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 6 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Israel & 1 from the Sudan (via Addis Ababa), 2 US nationals coming from the US & a German national coming from Germany; 1 suspect case, no information released
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 3 confirmed cases, no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Vietnam & Ethiopia; 7 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Mozambique (via Nairobi) & 1 each from Bangladesh, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia & Serbia (via Tehran)
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), coming from the US; 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Singapore; all off flights that landed at Guangzhou
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national coming from South Africa
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 3 confirmed case, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar & 1 from Laos; 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Myanmar, via land border crossing
    • Shenyang in Liaoning Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Dalian in Liaoning Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Nanjing in Jiangsu Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released

    Overall in China, 49 confirmed cases recovered (14 imported), 15 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (13 imported) & 4 were reclassified as confirmed cases (1 imported), & 973 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,013 active confirmed cases in the country (417 imported), 12 in serious condition (2 imported), 449 active asymptomatic cases (383 imported), 2 suspect cases (both imported). 33,420 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 12/3, 2,532.799M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 8.436M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 12/4, Hong Kong reported 4 new positive cases, all imported.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    Barring a sudden radical drop, appears the U.S. will pass 50,000,000 total reported cases before the weekend is out.

  9. 9.

    Van Buren

    Had outpatient surgery yesterday, except there are complications, and I am here for at least another day.

    Not sure how long I can hold my breath.

  11. 11.

    Sloane Ranger

    @satby: Absolutely.  I realised this during an online conversation with a guy (Canadian or living there) I had in the early days of COVID-19. He accepted that COVID was real but insisted that that didn’t justify government putting lockdowns, mask mandates in place – because personal freedoms. When I replied that COVID was contagious and his freedom to ignore COVID rules stopped when they came up against other peoples freedom not to be infected, he wouldn’t accept it. As far as he was concerned, his personal freedom was absolute, if others didn’t like the way he was exercising it, they were free to stay out of his way.

    I think this way of thinking is more common in large countries with a frontier/settler tradition where people could build a cabin in the wilderness and not have to see or interact with other human beings for months on end.

  12. 12.

    NorthLeft12

    What Hemry LB said.
    These privileged prima donnas have made it abundantly clear that they will brook no change in their lifestyle/behaviour for any reason. These same selfish assholes (according to my unscientific research) will fight tooth and nail against any climate change measures if they perceive them to be inconveniences in any form. It’s all about them. Frankly, they don’t give a shit about their families either, they rationalize that what they want is best for their families and friends too.

    And lastly; what lockdown? North America has basically not had anything remotely resembling a lockdown. JFC.

  15. 15.

    New Deal democrat

    @satby: Agreed. Sometimes I say, “modern libertarianism means it’s your fault for not getting your nose out of the way of my fist,” but I like the framing of “completely withdrawn from the social compact” better.

  16. 16.

    NorthLeft12

    On a personal note, our eldest daughter is flying back to Ontario (from England) for Christmas. We are sorting out how best to comply with the testing and quarantining requirements. We have until December 18 to get ready. Hopefully the government sorts out the testing process by then so we don’t have to wait for more than two days for her results.

    My youngest daughter just got two of my grandsons (seven and five) their first jab. Grandson number three is one and a half, so not eligible yet.
    Happy note, everyone on both sides of our family are vaccinated as much as allowed. My wife and I have had our boosters and other family members are becoming eligible soon.

    It never ends, does it?

  17. 17.

    New Deal democrat

    Big spike in weekly averages of US cases and deaths yesterday, as the last of the Thanksgiving holidays goes out of the 7 day average. The data won’t be reliable again until this past Monday’s return from the holidays is replaced from the average as well.

    That being said, there were a few States that continued to report throughout the holidays, e.g., CA, NJ, HI, and their averages are flat to slowly increasing. *Relatively speaking,* the South and West are doing better than the Midwest and Northeast.

    Also, we had the same phenomenon last year, but last year the Midwest did not blow through its pre-Thanksgiving peak, as it did this year.

    Some good news internationally, as in both the EU and U.K. their current wave seems to be peaking, although part of that is some severe measures taken in some EU countries.

  18. 18.

    YY_Sima Qian

    In the recently concluded tri-annual ministerial Forum of China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), held at Dakar in Senegal, China has just pledged 1B doses of vaccines to African nations. 600M doses will be donations & 400M doses in joint productions on the continent. Not sure the time horizon for the 1B doses, whether over the next year or before the next FOCAC in 3 yrs time. If the former, then it will have a real impact on the continent. If the latter, it will be less impactful, though still very helpful. Also not clear whether the 400M doses from co-production is over & above existing licensed production arrangements w/ companies in Egypt, Algeria & Morocco.

    While China has exported > 1.7B doses of vaccines around the world to date, the vast majority has been sales via established commercial contracts (including those tied to Stage III trials of Chinese vaccines), & not donations. That is why parts of S/SE Asia, Latin America, the Middle East & North Africa have accounted for the bulk of China’s vaccine exports, while sub-Saharan Africa has seen only a trickle.

    Presumably China will continue to sell vaccines to Africa & anyone else willing to buy, above the 1B doses commitment made at FOCAC 2021.

  19. 19.

    Rusty

    @NeenerNeener: My understanding is that Rochester General has stopped elective surgeries because they are filled up with Covid patients.  In New Hampshire we are completely out of ICU beds, the hallways are being used as wards.  (Boston is running out of ICU beds, so I don’t know where we ship the sick). However, our governor won’t  consider mask mandates or anything else, even in schools.  And here comes omicron.

  20. 20.

    Feathers

    What I am finding annoying is the “but they lied when they said vaccines prevent transmission!” crowd. These fools ignore the fact that “they” couldn’t imagine people wouldn’t get vaccinated in the middle of a deadly pandemic, so that we’d never reach herd immunity.

    We need a word for “created lie,” where a truth is stated and then people do something completely dangerous and unexpected in order to “prove” the speaker wrong.

  22. 22.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Feathers: It’s innumeracy, motivated reasoning and all-or-nothing thinking abetting outright malicious lies. Your vaccination didn’t prevent ME from spreading COVID, so it’s useless!

  23. 23.

    NeenerNeener

    @Rusty: I was having blood pressure fluctuation problems about a month ago and hit the big red panic button on my MobileHelp station. The EMTs that showed up said to stay out of the local hospitals if I could, because they were full of COVID patients. I see things have only gotten worse in the last 30 days.

  24. 24.

    Eunicecycle

    @Feathers: That always ticks me off, too! They never complete the thought. And no vaccine is 100% effective and the vaccines are never pitched as being foolproof. It’s the “all or nothing” fallacy that Rs love to use. Ex: We can’t prevent every gun death, so we shouldn’t do anything about guns in this country.

  25. 25.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Rusty: And here comes omicron.

    Because I’ve already heard too much Christmas music, my brain went here:

    Here comes Omicron, here comes Omicron, right down Omicron lane…

    @New Deal democrat:

    Sometimes I say, “modern libertarianism means it’s your fault for not getting your nose out of the way of my fist,” but I like the framing of “completely withdrawn from the social compact” better.

    Nah, they’ve only half withdrawn.  They still expect all the benefits of living in a nation where most people adhere to a social compact, they just don’t believe it should impose any costs on them.

    For those of us with long memories, it’s the Monkees’ “I Wanna Be Free” writ large.

  26. 26.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @NorthLeft12: Remember Hemry LB is a bartender, he can’t just tell the customer to fuck off.  This is more of people abusing service workers like twats that the Karin Videos are about.

  27. 27.

    Fake Irishman

    That Angie Rasmussen tweet annoys me. That US shipment she derides as table scraps isn’t a one-off, it’s part of a steady stream of vaccines that have been donated to the outside world from the USA over six months, which will continue in regular installments. You can’t just dump 200 million doses at a time or you’ll run up against capacity constraints, as recent complaints from some activists have shown. You can criticize things about the US effort, but it has been steadily increasing donations, it has been working in good faith with COVAX and governments to distribute widely and not just to a few favored allies in ways that respect sovereignty. At some point I would at least like this to be acknowledged alongside the problems.

    The state department has a web site that tracks all its donations since May or so, and it shows that donations have become more regular over time with more manageable numbers. More than 280 million doses have been delivered so far, with more arriving each week.

  28. 28.

    Another Scott

    ICYMI, a good summary of some of the thinking about the role of immunocompromise in creating new variants from France24. I don’t think that the process is new in COVID-19. I have a recollection of early stories about some recovered men having the virus in their semen months later.

    As always, we have to fight the virus everywhere to be safe anywhere.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  29. 29.

    Percysowner

    Well, I now feel better about my purchase of 50 more KN95 masks. I’ll be masking for the foreseeable future.

    Frankly, I haven’t heard anything about flu rates this year. It may be early, but masking may well be helping in that area as well. At least in the places that mask.

  30. 30.

    ThresherK

    I’m not the most Covid deep-diving guy on the internet, but:

    Item 1: South Africa has right-wing anti-vax idiots the way the USA does. How? The right-wing fight to create a global American-fascist-style “nobody can trust anything” media environment has been imported by certain South Africans. That type resemble everything we loathe about Republicans killing Americans to make Joe Biden look bad, and a mainstream media blob which can’t stop echoing the puke.

    However,

    Item 2, as in the tweet below: It is time to hold Joe Fucking Biden accountable (direct quote in pic) for so many things Covid which was run into a gutter on purpose by the Trump admin wasn’t reversed immediately by having a huge crowd gather at a speech. There is little vaccine resistance in South Africa, or other West-adjacent places. Biden, and Biden alone, has been enabling all the profit-driven mistakes before, and after, 1/20/2021. Leftier-than-thous need not worry about holding Donald Trump, the Republican party, and the mainstream media blob accountable.

    https://nothing-suspicious-in-there.tumblr.com/post/669481990677053440/senritsu-cyberglittter-the-joke-is-funny-but

    So, is this a case of “both arguments have merit”, or is Item 2 just another Silly Ninny Left thing which is only speeding the demise of a functioning American polity?

  32. 32.

    ThresherK

    Help out my inability to search, validate, and trust multiple sources amidst this maelstrom.

    First: South Africans have their own strain of anti-vax resistance, largely inspired and imported from the USA’s right wing puke funnel. Any shifting in doses provided from the West are soon to, if not already have, run up against the Red Wall*.

    Second: Profit motive has kept South Africa, and large swaths of the developing world, from having enough doses.

    Third: See link. Because of Second, “Hold Joe Fucking Biden accountable.” He should have already–as Murc’s Law doesn’t exist–written an executive order or made a speech at a 250k rally uber lefties rally, which would have undone all the purposeful wreck-shit-on-the-way-out Trump admin policy re Covid, made CNN, CNBC, NPR, and the three networks as effective as spreading vaccine truth as they are CRT lies, and shifted vaccine doses by eminent domain from companies to.

    https://flic.kr/p/2mNHRGZ

    So, are First and Second possibly true at the same time? It could be.

    But my chief concern: Is Third just another Ninny Left thing which will hasten my country to its demise? It really doesn’t sound like it will help anything.

    *PS Anyone else like Red Wall as the term for right-wingers Coviding themselves and endangering innocents among the rest of us?

  33. 33.

    Suzanne

    The upshot is I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding when we say people are “living in two different realities” or victims of misinformation because therein is an assumption that if they had better information they would make a better choice. I don’t think that’s true

    Yes this. I feel like I’ve been saying this for a long time, or maybe I’ve been thinking about this but haven’t said so in a succinct manner. Many people are just going to do what they want, and many people don’t know what words mean. Yascha Mounk wrote a book about the concept of responsibility, and noted how little mention there is of responsibility in the contemporary public discourse.

    At the beginning of this pandemic, I remember saying that I didn’t believe that many Americans would comply with public health measures, even if they were logical, evidence-based, relatively minor, etc. Just…. they just aren’t going to do what they don’t want to do. And they want to construct that as a virtue. People suck. They vote Republican.

  34. 34.

    oatler

    Just got my booster jab at the nursing  home yesterday. It was so painless I thought the nurse had forgotten to put a needle on the hypo.

  35. 35.

    Scout211

    A update to the local story about the bar owner in the small town of Clements, California who was arrested for selling fake vaccination cards in May.  We drive through that town often and last month I noticed that the bar was closed. The guy’s liquor license was suspended “in lieu of an administrative hearing.” Source.

    It’s not jail time, but apparently there are some consequences for selling fake vaccination cards.

    The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control earlier this month suspended the liquor license at a San Joaquin County bar, where its owner was arrested on suspicion of selling fake COVID-19 vaccination cards. State agents on Nov. 1 posted a suspension notice, prohibiting all alcohol sales at The Old Corner Saloon, said John Carr, a spokesman for the Alcoholic Beverage Control agency. The bar is located at 18783 East Highway 88 in the small town of Clements, 12 miles northeast of Lodi. The liquor license suspension will remain in effect for 75 days and indefinitely thereafter until the license is transferred to someone else who is acceptable to the agency, Carr told The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday. The license also is subject to revocation if a transfer is not completed within six months.

  37. 37.

    Fair Economist

    Flu Report: Positivity and positive cases continue to increase rapidly. Positivity increased from 1.0% last weed to 1.5% this week. Cases reported in the past week increased from 415 to 632, with an additional 198 backfilled to previous weeks (moderate backfill is normal). Identified strains continue to be almost exclusively H3N2. In the good news department, Michigan has seen many fewer cases after the outbreak at the University of Michigan at the start of November. This continues to look like the start of a bad flu season.
    The usual symptom tracking to identify areas most affected by flu continues to be useless due to the vastly higher rates of COVID. NM reports high influenza-like illness (ILI) , but has very few demonstrated cases (9 last week) and explicitly says the symptom tracking is useless. The other two states with elevated ILI, MS and GA, don’t track or report laboratory testing.

  38. 38.

    Brachiator

    @Rusty:

    However, our governor won’t  consider mask mandates or anything else, even in schools.  And here comes omicron.

    Does anyone ask the governor what they intend to do about Covid or problems with the hospitals?

    Has anything been done to try to make schools safer?

  39. 39.

    Fair Economist

    @ThresherK:

    Is this Rasmussen related to the can’t-poll-for-shit Rasmussens?

    I don’t know her genealogy, but Angie Rasmussen is a credible scientist and has been generally sensible during the pandemic. Agree she’s wrong to criticize the US’ vaccine donations, which currently match the rest of the world combined, and of high-quality vaccines at that.

  40. 40.

    Robert Sneddon

    @ThresherK:  Anyone else like Red Wall as the term for right-wingers Coviding themselves and endangering innocents among the rest of us?

    In Britain the “Red Wall” is a large swathe of Labour-voting constituencies in the North of England. The Red Wall voted overwhelmingly for Brexit in 2016 and when the Tories slogan during the last election in 2019 was “Get Brexit done” they voted for the Tories rather than Labour who were intending to renegotiate Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.

    Just because they are/were reliable Labour constituencies in the past didn’t prevent a lot of traditional Labour voters in that region from being racist, xenophobic, homophobic and generally not very nice people.

  41. 41.

    Sloane Ranger

    Friday in the UK we had 50,584 new cases. The rolling 7-day average is up by 1%. New cases by nation,

    England – 43,888 (down 1992)

    Northern Ireland – 1908 (down 364)

    Scotland – 2432 (down 570)

    Wales – 2356 (down 435).

    Deaths – There were 143 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. The rolling 7-day average is down by 5.2%. 115 deaths were in England, 4 in Northern Ireland, 16 in Scotland and 8 in Wales.

    Testing – 1,128,774 tests took place on Thursday, 2nd December. The rolling 7-day average is up by 5.2%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on that date was 783,816.

    Hospitalisations – As of Thursday, 2nd, there were 7373 people in hospital and 895 people on ventilators. The rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions was down by 3.8% as of 29th November.

    Vaccinations – As of thursday, 2nd, 51,046,133 people had had 1 shot of a vaccine, 46,462,638 had had 2 and 19,436,885 had had a 3rd shot/booster. This means that 88.8% of all UK residents aged 12+ have had 1 shot, 80.8% had had 2 and 33.8% had had 3 shots/booster by that date.

    The government had told the English NHS to increase the roll out of vaccinations. Given the pressure the NHS is always under during the winter, it has announced that the regular health checks given to those aged 75+ and to other vulnerable groups will be delayed in order to facilitate the vaccination programme. As is to be expected this hasn’t gone down well with groups representing the elderly or vulnerable.

  42. 42.

    VOR

    I think there are people who have binary mindsets and just can’t comprehend shades of grey. COVID advice changed over time as new information comes in? Unpossible, the scientists must have been lying either earlier or now, must be a conspiracy. Either that or the scientists don’t know anything (but that meme on Facebook is the real truth). Wearing masks or any restrictions at all = lockdown. Vaccines have to be 100% or else they must be worthless. I suspect such people are drawn to politicians who have the same position on Monday and Friday no matter what happens on Wednesday. Politicians with a stupid slogan (Build the Wall) rather than nuanced take.

    And unease with LGBTQ and mixed racial environments may flow from the same desire for clear binary lines.

  43. 43.

    J R in WV

    @sab:

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I rarely pie and I never announce it but I have had more rhan enough of your continued use of “twat” when you know it is offensive because jackals keep telling you so.

    You know what the repeated and continuous use of that word means, don’t you? It means Enhanced Voting Techniques IS ONE — that’s what it means !!!

    Tell me you’re a t__t without using the word? Nope, by using the word, Repeatedly~!!~ IT would be funny if it wasn’t so sad!

  44. 44.

    Kalakal

    @VOR: It’s a form of mental displacement activity. Rather than engage with an issue on its merits or lack thereof you parse the document looking for an error, any error even a typo, and use that to declare the whole thing invalid. It’s an excuse to actually avoid addressing your own attitudes toward a situation thus providing an easy self justification. It’s an excuse not to think.

    Considering they like to claim they are free and independent ( “Wake up sheeple, Do your research!”) they’re drone mentality is staggering. They live in a hermetic bunker only able to accept confirmatory platitudes however false.

  45. 45.

    Miss Bianca

    @lowtechcyclist: 

    For those of us with long memories, it’s the Monkees’ “I Wanna Be Free” writ large.

    OMG, that song. Yeah, I always thought it was weird to hear adorable little Davy Jones singing a song about being such a selfish prick.

  47. 47.

    Central Planning

    @NorthLeft12: My daughter is flying back then too. She is getting a rapid covid test at LHR (via ExpressTest) which satisfies the US requirements for returning. I did that back in October. It was easy.

  48. 48.

    JaneE

    Missouri is not surprising.  The misinformation blitz from the right wing and “mainstream” GOP has always been about killing people.  As soon as the numbers came out showing Black and Hispanic and Native Americans were more likely to die, they began a campaign to make sure that Covid spread as far and wide and quickly as they possibly could make it, short of spraying the virus over cities.

    Probably most of their foot-soldiers aka cannon fodder don’t know just how badly they have been deceived.  A lot of moms who routinely got their toddlers the standard childhood vaccinations and didn’t raise an eyebrow at the list needed to attend kindergarten are now shouting their opposition to vaccines and masks and anything else that will help keep their kids from getting sick.

    For the last 3 months or so somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of all new Covid cases have been in the 5-17 age range here.  I have to wonder if any of their mothers thought it wasn’t worth preventing.

    Considering all the opposition to masking at the last school board meeting, I am surprised to see so many kids and adults around town with masks on.  Outdoors even, some walking or biking by themselves.  It doesn’t seem to bother them at all.

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