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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, Dec. 7-8

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Tuesday / Wednesday, Dec. 7-8

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… India’s Serum Institute is sitting on a stockpile of half a billion doses of Covishield, the local version of AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria jab, the firm’s CEO Adar Poonawalla told CNBC-TV18.

The jab accounts for 90% of the 1.3 billion doses given so far in India.

India has fully vaccinated half of its eligible adults since January.

“I am in a dilemma which I never imagined to be in. I am producing 250 million doses [of Covishield] a month but the good news is India has covered a large part of the population and we will have completed all our orders to the ministry of health in a week’s time,” Mr Poonawalla said .

“We have no other orders at hand. So I am going to be reducing the production by at least 50% to begin with on a monthly basis until orders again pick up either in India and the world.”

Some 85% of Indians have been administered one dose. However, tens of millions of people are still to receive their second dose.

Serum Institute halted vaccine exports in April to cater to domestic demand as infections shot up in India. The firm is the largest single supplier to Covax, the international scheme to ensure equal access to Covid-19 vaccines. India resumed Covid vaccine exports from October…

Mr Poonawalla said Covax was placing orders “but that’s very slow and the uptick will pick up in the second quarter”.

He said he was in touch with the leaders of countries which needed more vaccines, but many of them would not be “sadly” able to lift from India unless they improved their logistics and cold storage facilities.

“All these other nations cannot vaccinate at 7 or 8 million beneficiaries a day like India has done. They don’t have that kind of infrastructure. Hopefully by this time next year they would have hopefully reached 60-70% of the target for double vaccination,” Mr Poonawalla said…

Speaking of pandemic-heightened domestic violence…

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Reading the linked reddit thread — trigger warning for literally fatal stupidity! — made me realize why anti-vaxxers bring their loved ones to hospital despite claiming ‘the medics just want to kill you’. These people don’t want help, they want someone to blame when their spouse / parent / child dies. Not my fault Daddy died, even though he came in with a pulse ox of 37, it’s just the doctors wouldn’t give the ‘right’ treatments, like I told them to!

Reader Interactions

63Comments

  1. 1.

    Tony Jay

    Moved from the late night thread below.

    A quick update from my minor rant last night (it’s comment 5) about Flobalob’s latest bellyflop into Lake Fuck-Up over here in the UK.

    A) Tory backbenchers are apparently livid and/or getting scorched by their constituents over the revelation that Downing St was hosting Christmas booze-ups last year while the country was in Lockdown, and then lied shamelessly about it. Many are openly refusing to back their Leader.

    B) Tory frontbenchers have refused and/or been pulled from their planned round of TV and radio appearances this morning. Not a one of them is sticking their heads up over the parapet to defend Flobalob or lie any further about Partygate. That’s a terminal event in the political life of any Prime Minister.

    C) This afternoon is Prime Minister’s Questions in Parliament. Flobalob is due to march in there naked as a newborn slug, without a shred of pre-delivered chaff from his ‘loyal cabinet’ to hide behind. The SNP spokesman Ian Blackford has already called for Johnson to resign. Labour leader Starmer has been as dithering and politically inept as usual, poo pooing calls for a Police investigation and saying an apology should suffice. Other MPs will likely not be as cringingly pathetic IF Johnson bothers to turn up.

    D) Loud rumblings from the Financial Times that the Government are going to throw an almighty Dead Cat onto the table in the form of a Plan B announcement: Working from Home and restrictions on social/hospitality events in the light of Omicron’s spread. Tory anti-Vax backbenchers already opining that Partygate makes imposition of a Plan B effectively impossible, but what else do they have?

    E) Food tasters at Buckingham Palace working overtime and a general alert has gone out to all potential terrorists to keep their heads down today, no coincidental distractions.

    Popcorn. Beer. Footstool. You may begin.

  2. 2.

    Tony Jay

    Another point. The ‘Plan B’ restrictions I mention above are necessary and, as usual, waaaay too late. The fact that Johnson is only thinking about bringing them in now* as a distraction from his problems is just another reason why everyone in the UK who worked so bloody hard to keep him in office because the alternative was History’s Greatest Monster (and them paying a bit more in tax/having to give up lucrative second and third jobs) should be thrown on a bonfire and used to toast marshmallows.

    Fuckers.

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 5,020 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 2,673,019 cases. It also reports 66 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 30,718 deaths – 1.15% of the cumulative reported total, 1.18% of resolved cases.

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

    359 confirmed cases are in ICU, 159 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 4,525 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,581,395 patients recovered – 96.6% of the cumulative reported total.

    13     new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 6,005 clusters. 245 clusters are currently active; 5,760 clusters are now inactive.

    5,003 new cases today are local infections. 17 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 124,499 doses of vaccine on 7th December: 4,358 first doses, 6,538 second doses, and 113,423 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 54,326,199 doses administered: 25,891,878 first doses, 25,461,172 second doses, and 3,164,254 booster doses. 79.3% of the population have received their first dose, while 78.0% are now fully vaccinated.

  4. 4.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Tony Jay: PM Johnson still has his shiny-brained new cohort of true-believer Tory MPs behind him, the ones that got elected last time thanks to Dear Leader’s stalwart determination to “Get Brexit done”. He’s in no danger of being overthrown by the upper ranks of the Party apparatchiks because they can count votes too.

  5. 5.

    Barbara

    @Tony Jay: ​The mind, it reels. We can accept thousands of excess deaths but draw the line at unequal access to excess holiday celebrations. This reminds me of how James Watt survived trashing the environment as Secretary of the Interior but not trashing the Beach Boys for a July 4 celebration.​

  6. 6.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County NY:

    There were 803 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported yesterday. NOTE: This includes 325 home tests that were reported to MCDPH between 12/01/2021 – 12/06/2021.

    The 7-day new case rolling average is 590 new cases per day.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    This should end well.  ?

    Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office is reviewing a proposal for what’s called an initiated statute that would ban all vaccine mandates — including coronavirus vaccines. The proposal is similar to House Bill 248, which stalled in the legislature for months before the House passed a relatively watered-down version last month that’s now being considered by the Ohio Senate.

    The new initiated statute effort is in the very early stages of a costly, multi-step process that involves collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures from registered voters across the state. Initiated statutes first go to the legislature, and then can be submitted for a statewide vote if the legislature fails to act within four months.

    The proposed “Vaccine and/or Gene Therapy Anti-Discrimination” act, along with signatures from at least 1,000 voters, was submitted to the Attorney General’s Office last week. Yost’s office has until Thursday to either certify or reject the summary language in the bill, judging whether or not it accurate describes the proposed law change, according to a ballot initiative portal on the state AG’s website.

  8. 8.

    Tony Jay

    @Robert Sneddon:

    It’s the post-Paterson vote in Oswestry today. If the Tories lose a seat that preternaturally safe to the Lib-Dems, or even come close, all bets are off.

    If the leaker behind the Allegra Stratton video has footage of the Party itself, and evidence that people were there who later lied about it, all bets are off.

    Tory MPs exist because of the advantages that position provides in their real careers. If Johnson’s incompetence and sliminess proves to be a drag on their future profitability they’ll kick him off the boat faster than you can say “Sorry, no life-jacket for you, tubby.”

    And it’s not like the rest of the Cabinet and figures outside it haven’t been circling since blood first hit the water earlier this year. They know he’s done, it’s just a matter of when and who is left holding the bloody knife.

  9. 9.

    Tony Jay

     

    @Barbara:

    They can glide over the numbers of excess dead because “They tried their best” and “They got vaccination sorted” and with the News Media fluffing them that’s enough.

    But this Party scandal isn’t about unequal access, it’s about the imposition and enforcement of rules on everyone else that led to people dying alone and in fear while the same Tory fuckers who had made those rules were partying away and laughing at anyone who thought they wouldn’t get away with it.

    It’s never the crime, it’s the cover-up.

  10. 10.

    satby

    @debbie: So, obviously insurance companies will need to step up and triple the premiums on vax refuseniks. Including Medicaid and Medicare. Society shouldn’t have to carry the burden of this idiocy.

  11. 11.

    Elizabelle

    WRT that reddit thread: we need to prosecute criminals like that brand new Q widow who decked the doctor in the parking lot, and broke his nose. Letting them off because they will hound the doctor’s family (a reasonable fear) will just result in more of this behavior.

    Perhaps we need to treat medical and hospital personnel like rape victims, and keep their identities secret.

    Arrest this woman for assault. She and her family need to stay off social media as a condition of release into the community, although I don’t know how much you could monitor that. Keep her from calling in the flying monkeys.

    I see the physician’s point: his family will be attacked and harassed on social media and perhaps in meatspace too.

    But some of his response seems like learned helplessness, too. Understandable, but perhaps the decision to charge this awful Q woman should not be in the hands of the victim. The hospital should pursue it. They are responsible for protecting their employees.

    Isn’t this how the Nazis learned they could persecute without consequence? These Q people deserve tough penalties from the justice system. Make an example of this fool. You have numerous witnesses, including those who would not allow her access to the hospital room because she refused to mask up.

    The doctor’s fear of repercussions for his family and his self: That is living under a threat of terrorism, is it not?

  12. 12.

    New Deal democrat

    Because of the Thanksgiving distortions having continued last week, as a workaround I am comparing the entire last two weeks to the previous week. Plus I’ve also averaged the last 4 days alone. Nationwide the 14 day average for US cases is 101,000 vs. 95,000 in the 7 days previously. For the last 4 days it has been 99,000. Regionally, the 14 day averages are flat in the South and the West compared with the 7 previous days (CA cases have risen 10%; while the MidAtlantic and Ohio Valley States are the current hotspots). The Midwest is only up 2% in that period. But the Northeast is up 20%, with only NH and ME flat!

    Omicron aside, this is pretty good news (relatively speaking of course), as it suggests there will not be an EU-style winter wave of Delta in the US, with several notable exceptions.

    Internationally, cases have stabilized at 60 per 100,000/day in the EU, while they continue to rise slowly at about 70 per 100,000 in the UK. Cases have also started to rise slightly, to 9 and 6 per 100,000, in Canada and Israel, respectively.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    @satby:

    They are where I work. Employees who refuse to vaccinate or disclose their vaccinations have to pay an extra $200 to $250 per month.

  15. 15.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 12/7 China reported 44 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 34 new domestic confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic). There currently are 449 active domestic confirmed cases in the region. 

    • Hulun Buir reported 34 new domestic confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic, 32 at Manzhouli & 2 at New Barag Right Banner). 4 of the 33 new domestic positive cases are found via mass screening & 29 are traced close contacts already under home or centralized quarantine. There currently are 447 active domestic confirmed cases (441 at Manzhouli & 6 at New Barag Right Banner) in the city. 7 sub-districts are currently at High Risk. 2 townships & 2 sub-districts are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Tongliao there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 village is currently at Medium Risk.

    Heilongjiang Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 36 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Harbin reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 35 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 6 residential compounds have been elevated to Medium Risk. 3 residential buildings & 25 residential compounds are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Heihe 1 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining.
    • At Qiqihar there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Xianyang in Shaanxi Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city.

    Shanghai Municipality reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (mild), a traced close contact of a domestic positive case reported by Hangzhou in Zhejiang, having returned to Shanghai on 12/4. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining. 1 residential has been elevated to Medium Risk. 5 residential compounds are currently at Medium Risk. 

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

    Zhejiang Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed (all mild) & 9 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Ningbo reported 5 new domestic confirmed & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all in Zhenhai District, all found via mass screening. 6 of the 8 new domestic positive cases are retirees, 5 of whom frequented the same acupuncture parlor, & the other 2 are young children in kindergarten or elementary school. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed & 5 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. A residential compound & a office building are currently at Medium Risk. Zhenhai District is under temporary lock down pending further mass screening. Authorities believe the cluster at Ningbo is unrelated to the one in Hangzhou/Shaoxing, phylogenetic analysis indicates that it is related to other recent outbreaks in China.
    • Hangzhou reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 1 of the new domestic positive cases had returned from Shaoxing on 12/2, the other 3 are traced close contacts. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 residential building has been elevated to Medium Risk.
    • Shaoxing reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, found via regular screening of person in high risk occupations (staff at a medical facility). His family held a funeral from 12/1 – 3, which appears to have been a super spreading event. 2 residential compounds have been elevated to Medium Risk.

    At Guangzhou in Guangdong Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city. 1 quarantine hotel is currently at Medium Risk.

    At Dalian in Liaoning Province 18 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 52 active domestic confirmed & 5 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Hebei Province 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 13 active confirmed cases in the province (7 at Shijiazhuang & 6 at Xinji).

    At Rizhao in Shandong Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

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

    At Henan Province 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 58 active domestic confirmed cases remaining (44 at Zhengzhou & 14 at Zhoukou).

    Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered.5 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 49 active domestic confirmed & 39 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture. 1 zone at Longchuan County is currently at High Risk. 1 village at Ruili is currently at Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 12/7, China reported 30 new imported confirmed cases (3 previously asymptomatic), 18 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:

    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 8 confirmed  (1 previously asymptomatic) & 3 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Shanghai Municipality – 8 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Japan, Sri Lanka, Jordan (via Vienna), Switzerland (via Copenhagen), the Ukraine (via Vienna), the UK (via Helsinki) & Niger (via Addis Ababa), & a Czech national coming from Czechia (via Helsinki); 1 suspect case, no information released 
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 3 confirmed & 3 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Laos, via land border crossing
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 3 confirmed cases (all previously asymptomatic), 1 Chinese national each returning from Egypt & Cambodia, & a Lebanese national coming from Egypt
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 3 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Germany, Laos & Vietnam; 4 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Ethiopia, France, Iran & Malaysia; the confirmed case returning from Germany had arrived at Shanghai on 11/20, passed through the 14 days of centralized quarantine & tested negative multiple times, upon release from quarantine on 12/5 the case flew back Guangzhou entered 7 days of home quarantine, testing positive on 12/7
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 3 confirmed cases, all Chinese nationals returning from the US
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Kazakhstan (via Baku); 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Kazakhstan & Georgia (both via Baku); all off a flight diverted from Beijing
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the US
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 each coming from Singapore & Spain
    • Jiangsu Province (location not specified) – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Luohe in Henan Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Serbia; both cases had landed at Shanghai on 11/20, passed through the 14 days of centralized quarantine & tested negative multiple times, upon release from quarantine on 12/4 both cases returned to Luohe via regular train & re-entered 7 days of centralized quarantine, testing positive on 12/6

    Overall in China, 48 confirmed cases recovered (22 imported), 24 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (19 imported) & 5 were reclassified as confirmed cases (4 imported), & 825 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,133 active confirmed cases in the country (450 imported), 22 in serious condition (1 imported), 465 active asymptomatic cases (399 imported), 3 suspect cases (all imported). 39,383 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 12/7, 2,567.552M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 7.435M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 12/8, Hong Kong did not report any new positive cases.

  16. 16.

    pb3550

    re thanosrain’s reddit – I just read “Every Minute Is a Day” by Meyer & Koeppel describing life in a New York City emergency room in 2020, before vaccines.  I knew it was bad,  but reading this account was a stunning glimpse into the horror of pre-vaccine time.  Can’t think of one word to describe the Qs that not only ignore reality but attack those who are working to save their lives.  Many words come to mind, none are printable.

  17. 17.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Shanghai municipal authorities published the result of epidemiological investigation for 3 domestic confirmed cases reported on 11/25. The index case of the cluster is a person who traveled from Xiamen in Fujian to Beijing on 11/12, then flew to Shanghai on 11/15. The plane he took to Shanghai had previously served an international flight from Warsaw in Poland to Taiyuan in Shanxi & then to Beijing on 11/14. There were 4 imported positive cases reported cases on the flight, 3 at Taiyuan in Shanxi & 1 in Beijing. The seat of the index case on the flight to Shanghai is adjacent to the seat of 1 of the imported positive cases. The index case then infected 2 companions while the 3 traveled together to Suzhou in Jiangsu from 11/19 – 21. The airline admitted oversight during the decontamination of the plane after the international flight. The implied mode of fomite transmission would seem extraordinary, given the time lag (at least overnight), yet phylogenetic analysis confirmed that the genetic sequences of the imported positive case & the domestic confirmed cases are highly identical, indicating direct transmission. Considering that I fly frequently for business trips in China, I may never take my mask off during a flight to eat or drink again.

  18. 18.

    Robert Sneddon

    News from Scotland, just reported on the BBC:

    Nearly half of all confirmed cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Scotland are in the 20-39 age group, official figures show.

    A total of 389 confirmed or possible cases have now been reported, with 71 cases having been confirmed on 5 December.

    Of those, 48% were aged 20 to 39 – compared with 25% of all cases in that age group.

    Public Health Scotland (PHS) said it was not aware of any hospitalisations.

    The 20-39 age group is the least vaccinated of all adults in Scotland (about 75% fully vaccinated but virtually none having received third/booster shots). The total lack of hospitalisations being reported is reassuring given that the first cases were detected around 22nd November, more than two weeks ago. If this holds up it is beginning to look like the Omicron variant is indeed less incapacitating than its predecessors such as Delta. We still need more data on this, of course.

  19. 19.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Since mid-Oct. there has been a succession of Delta outbreaks in China, mostly seeded by presumed breaches at ports of entry. There was a big outbreaks that spread from Ejina Banner in Inner Mongolia to more than half of the provinces in China (though only ~ 2 dozen cities in total), including a smaller secondary outbreak spreading from Chongqing. While that outbreak was contained & eliminated (most cases having recovered or released from isolation), sizable outbreaks emerged at Zhengzhou in Henan, Dalian in Liaoning & Heihe in Heilongjiang. Dalian processes more than 70% of frozen seafood imports into China, & Heihe is a major border crossing w/ Russia. These outbreak have also since been contained (no community cases reported for > 2 weeks), & a new one emerged at Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia (also a major border crossing w/ Russia). Poor Harbin in Heilongjiang, just 2 weeks after containing spill overs from the Heihe outbreak & having all areas in the city returned to Low Risk status, it is now dealing w/ spill overs from Manzhouli. Being the central travel hub for upper Manchuria carries risks. Then there are the odd cases at Shanghai w/o clear source of infection, & the new clusters at Ningbo & Shaoxing/Hangzhou in Zhejiang, & the continuing trickle at Ruili in Yunnan.

    One the one hand, throughout the year China has repeatedly demonstrated the capability to contain & eliminate new Delta outbreaks; on the other hand, border containment measures are proving to be more porous against Delta. Now, we are heading into the 1st winter w/ Delta, & the possibly even more transmissive Omicron looming on the horizon. I will certainly restrict my business travel this winter, & will avoid the northern parts of the country as much as possible. 

    I expect China to continue the “Dynamic COVID-19 Zero” policy, until proven untenable or unnecessary. The vaccination of children > 3 yrs. old will help (50% of eligible children received at least 1 shot in the 14 days after the kick off of the campaign in mid-Nov.), as is the booster shot campaign. Sinovac has reported that antibody levels following the 3rd booster shot exceed the peak level achieved after the 2nd dose. The domestic Abogen-Walvax mRNA vaccines has received approved to be trialed as a booster shot, while Stage III trial results from Mexico is expected by end of year. China also has the BioNTech mRNA vaccine in the back pocket, which can be approved at any given time. However, the BioNTech-Fosun Pharma manufacturing joint venture (1B doses / yr. capacity) appears to be running into startup troubles.

  21. 21.

    rikyrah

    India- keep producing and give to other nations that are not vaccinated. Hell, we should pay for India to keep producing. And what about the boosters for 1+ billion people

  23. 23.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Elizabelle:

    perhaps the decision to charge this awful Q woman should not be in the hands of the victim. The hospital should pursue it. They are responsible for protecting their employees.

    IANAL, but AIUI, under the U.S. legal system, crimes are crimes against the state.  The state or local prosecutor should be making the decision on charging.

    It shouldn’t be up to the victim to press charges in these cases.  We are seeing a rising tide of violence in this country, and that should be dealt with as a matter for the state to address.

  24. 24.

    Robert Sneddon

    @rikyrah: The Indians could give these doses away to poorer countries, whether the recipient nations can do anything useful with them is another matter given the lack of basic healthcare infrastructure in many nations.

    A vaccine by itself is useless without a delivery and storage system, sterile syringes, trained medical staff to provide the vaccinations, some way of getting people to vaccination centres, communication with people who aren’t easy to contact and a lot more. I don’t know if it’s possible to put together Vaccinations Sans Frontieres style brigades that can get to remote locations via helicopter or 4WD truck and start vaccinating people who mostly aren’t even aware that COVID-19 exists, never mind how dangerous it is. Something like that is probably what’s needed but making it happen and making it work sufficiently well is another matter.

    I sort-of predicted this might happen at the beginning of this pandemic, the necessary over-reaction resulting in a massive buildout of production capability which would eventually result on overstocks of vaccines here and there. I see this happening now as a good sign rather than a failure.

  26. 26.

    Tony Jay

    @Betty:

    I’m just hoping the Scots march south sooner rather than later. I for one welcome our new caber-tossing overlords and look forward to adopting the new national pastimes of heavy drinking and gloomy cynicism as if born to them.

  27. 27.

    Tony Jay

    @Sloane Ranger:

    I did, m’dear. I confess I’m not very complimentary about Sir Keir the Transparent, but I hope you don’t take that as a disparagement of your good self.  8-)

  28. 28.

    Soprano2

    I feel pretty protected at this point – had mild Covid last December, got my two shots in March and April, got booster last Sunday. I don’t care if I have to have a shot every year until I die if it keeps me safe from getting seriously ill or dying of Covid. They are big babies

    Those preliminary results are going to cause a huge freakout in the press today, I fear.

  29. 29.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Robert Sneddon: I don’t know. Did you notice how quiet the Tory benches were during PMQ’s? And Ministers are ducking the media interview rounds. There’s really no good answer they can give.

    I thought Keir did a good job today. Contrasting Partygate with the Queen was a stroke of genius. Takes the issue out of party politics and into the realm of good leadership/leading by example. Tories will find it difficult to argue against this framing.

  31. 31.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Barbara: People will put up with a lot in the UK, providing it’s perceived as “fair”. That is, it affects everyone equally. The deaths are put in the category of pandemic hits = people die. People in power, who impose rules on others, which they then to proceed to ignore for themselves = unfair. The greatest of all crimes in the UK!

  32. 32.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @rikyrah: The Quad group (the US, Australia, Japan & India) had announced in the 1st half of this year a program to supply the “Indo-Pacific” Region w/ 1.2B donated doses by end of 2022. The US, Japan & Australia are to pay for the initiative, while India does the manufacturing. I think the commitment is in addition to that to the COVAX program & unilateral donations by the Quad members The initiative is at least partly aimed parrying Chinas vaccine diplomacy efforts.

    As of end of Sept., 78M doses have gone out. I have not seen any updates since. For some reason the initiative seems to be specifically tied to expanding production capacity at an Indian vaccine maker named Biological E., Ltd., financed by the US’ Developmental Finance Corporation. Perhaps it would be quicker to take the stockpile of 500M doses off Serum Institute of India’s hands.

  33. 33.

    lowtechcyclist

    Reading the linked reddit thread — trigger warning for literally fatal stupidity! — made me realize why anti-vaxxers bring their loved ones to hospital despite claiming ‘the medics just want to kill you’. These people don’t want help, they want someone to blame when their spouse / parent / child dies. Not my fault Daddy died, even though he came in with a pulse ox of 37, it’s just the doctors wouldn’t give the ‘right’ treatments, like I told them to!

    The part that pissed me off more than anything else was, their husband and father was dying in a room upstairs, and they wouldn’t come and visit him because they’d have to wear masks.  That was more important to them than giving their loved one some comfort in his pain-filled final moments.

    If that had been my wife up there, I’d have endured a body cavity search if that’s what it took for me to be at her bedside.  Because, you know, she’s the woman I love, and if she goes first, there’s no way on God’s green earth that I’d leave her alone as she leaves this world.

    I don’t understand people that would prioritize masks over that.  There should be a re-education camp for people that depraved.

  34. 34.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Tony Jay:

     

    I did, m’dear. I confess I’m not very complimentary about Sir Keir the Transparent, but I hope you don’t take that as a disparagement of your good self. 8-)

    No probs. I’ve known for some time that we belong to different wings of the Labour Party. I know we’ll both work our socks off to get rid of of this sorry excuse of a government and argue about everything else later!

  35. 35.

    lowtechcyclist

    @rikyrah: Hell, we should pay for India to keep producing.

    This. We’re the richest country on earth, we can afford to pay this bill, and this world is all interconnected.  We really aren’t safe from Covid here until everyone is safe.  The best way to at least delay the appearance of the next Delta or Omicron is to vaccinate the world.  Or at least as much of the world as we can convince to receive the vax, since there are refusers all over.

    We really need to get Novavax ramped up, since it doesn’t have any special refrigeration requirements, regular household refrigeration suffices.  If we want to vax Africa – and we need to, because it’s part of our world, just like everywhere else – that’s the way to go.  And the sooner the better.

  37. 37.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Greece: for new cases, after the expected Monday bounce following the usual Sunday dip failed to materialize, there was a Tuesday bounce to 7,009 new cases reported at 6pm Tuesday evening. For the same period, 99 people died, down from 116 reported Monday. Fewer people are intubated in ICUs at the moment, though; that number dropped from 714 to 697.

    I’m still annoyed at the Greek system for keeping me hanging for so long with regard to my US shots that I had to go in for a J&J shot on my own, and then scolding me for not waiting because the J&J shot  in their system screwed up their ability to record my earlier shots.

    On the bright side, my father just today got registered in the Greek national healthcare system, so once his file’s fully in place, he can register the shots on his CDC card and get boosted. It’s much more important to him at 91 years old than to me at 50.

  38. 38.

    Soprano2

    That Reddit threat, holy shit! I hate that the medical profession is losing people like that because of the Q crazies. I cannot believe that woman cared more about not wearing a mask than she did about seeing her dying husband. I’d wear a Tyvek suit if I had to in that situation. I was so glad last summer that I could go in the hospital to see my mom – wearing a mask to do it was no big deal. My hair stylist had a friend who died of cancer in 2020. Her husband and parents had to sit in the hospital parking lot and Facetime with her as she was dying. I cannot imagine having to do that, the pain would be unbearable.

  39. 39.

    Robert Sneddon

    @Sloane Ranger: I don’t know. Did you notice how quiet the Tory benches were during PMQ’s? And Ministers are ducking the media interview rounds. There’s really no good answer they can give.

    When push comes to shove the newly-minted shiny-brains will support the tousle-haired moppet that led them to electoral victory last time. The older hands will be testing the edges on the fish-knives and counting down from the top of Johnson’s vertebral column but they can count other things too and they know Boris’ New Boys and Boyettes are the difference between the Tories being the party of Government and them sitting glumly on the Oppo benches while those sweet sweet lobbyist “second jobs” fly out the window.

  40. 40.

    sdhays

    @lowtechcyclist: To be fair, considering what we know about some of these people, for all we know, seeing his loved ones in a mask may have been more painful to that man than dying alone.

    I wish I was kidding.

  41. 41.

    Sloane Ranger

    So, after all the diversions, here is the report from the UK, where yesterday we had 45,691 new cases. The rolling 7-day average is up by 12.1%. New cases by nation,

    England – 38,866 (down 2659)

    Northern Ireland – 1658 (up 23)

    Scotland – 3060 (down 834)

    Wales – 2107 (down 2298).

    Deaths – There were 180 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. The rolling 7-day average is up by 3%. 161 deaths were in England, 5 in Northern Ireland, 12 in Scotland and 2 in Wales.

    Testing – 1,122,003 tests took place on Monday, 6th. The rolling 7-day average is up by 12.1%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs on that day was 779,405.

    Hospitalisations – On Monday, 6th there were 7317 people in hospital and 901 people on ventilators. The 7-day average for hospital admissions was down by 0.1% as of 3rd December.

    Vaccinations – As of Monday, 6th, 51,138,245 people had had 1 shot of a vaccine, 46,582,425 people had had 2 and 20,909,809 had had a 3rd shot/booster. So, as of that date, 88.9% of all UK residents aged 12+ have had 1 shot of a vaccine, 81% had had 2 and 36.4% had had a 3rd shot/booster.

  44. 44.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Robert Sneddon:

     

    When push comes to shove the newly-minted shiny-brains will support the tousle-haired moppet that led them to electoral victory last time.

    Those in safe seats, probably. But the red-wall Tories may be something else. They rebelled over the Paterson debacle and can’t be happy with how this current one is playing out with their constituents.

    At the end of the day, they’re young and they want to keep their seats. If they can persuade their voters that they are brave mavericks who stood up and opposed blatant corruption and arrogant entitlement, they might keep their seats and then, after spending a few years in opposition, be returned to power with a chance of a ministerial job and/or lobbying opportunities. Think about the long game.

  45. 45.

    lowtechcyclist

    @sdhays:

    @lowtechcyclist: To be fair, considering what we know about some of these people, for all we know, seeing his loved ones in a mask may have been more painful to that man than dying alone.

    I wish I was kidding.

    I honestly can’t argue with that.

    But even then, they could have decided to wear the masks up to the room, and then take them off.  They could have spent a few minutes with him before security came to get them.

    I’m the sort who’s occasionally gone to what were probably too-great lengths over a principle, so I can understand that.  But when you put principles above people, you’ve lost your way.  And that goes about quintuple if the people in question are your loved ones.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @sdhays: Not true.  The patient was terrified, knew he was dying, and wanted a vaccine.

    When he was awake, the look of terror in his eyes, the crying, the pain. It was nothing new. But the begging, over and over, “Don’t let me die.” And “Give me the vaccine.” All I could tell him is “We won’t let you” – although I never said we might not have any choice in the matter. And I told him, repeatedly, it was too late for the vaccine.

    Situation is bad enough. Problem isn’t the patient at that point, it’s the bonkers Q wife.  Why make shit up?

  48. 48.

    Geoduck

    @Tony Jay:  So why did “Partygate” leak out now, after a year? I see even the BBC is reporting on it, which would indicate that someone in the Tory hierarchy has it out for Boris.

  49. 49.

    Peale

    @YY_Sima Qian: I’m with you. I should have been doing it all along, tbh. Prior to COVID, I was taking about a dozen flights a year and just figured that the colds and flu I was picking up were just the cost of being a global traveller. Heck, I even ended up in the hospital post trip once with an indeterminate infection that I picked up I presume from the passenger near me who was coughing all night. Yet I figured it was just part of the job. Since I’ve been grounded though, I’ve never been sick. Between not flying and not being in the office, I’ve never had such a long stretch without being sick.

  50. 50.

    Fair Economist

    I’ve been stewing on the “Omicron is much less dangerous” discussions and have developed a hypothesis which is relatively bad for the results of Omicron but relatively good for our overall long term prospects.

    We’ve known in the past that previous infection provides substantial but incomplete protection vs. serious outcomes. Late last year there was a study of British healthcare workers which found previous infection provided 84% protection vs. reinfection. Protection vs. severe infection should be even better.

    For the most part, then, people being infected in each wave will strongly tend to be those who are truly naive; those who have never caught it – and thus completely unprotected vs. severe infection. Even among those vaccinated or previously infected, those catching it are presumably on average those with weaker immune systems, and thus more susceptible to severe outcomes. With Omicron, however, it’s different enough that there’s much less protection from reinfection than before. So with Omicron we are seeing what happens with people with functional COVID immunity who are exposed to a new strain – and that result is that outcome are milder. Most of the S. Africa patients are being released quickly, which is a new development.

    Basically, all reports of serious outcomes so far have been heavily biased towards the vulnerable, and Omicron is showing us a less-biased outcome, which indicates previously infected or vaccinated do pretty well on reinfection.

    So this is good in that endemic COVID will have a lower death rate than previous estimates. I still expect annual pneumonia mortality to be substantially increased, but it will probably be not as bad as previously feared. The bad part, though, is that Omicron is going to spread like crazy and the remaining COVID-naive or immune depressed patients are very likely to get it, with relatively bad consequences. So, probably one more bad wave from Omicron and then the immediate bad effects will fall off substantially. With long COVID, of course, it’s harder to say. Most likely it will become less frequent; but how much so remains to be seen.

  51. 51.

    Tony Jay

    @Geoduck: 

    I think that’s exactly what it is. Someone who wants Johnson out of the way is lobbing these bombs in there. Someone with access to the recordings from the state of the art Briefing Room Johnson had built by a Russian company and had never used.

    My money is on Murdoch and Co. they want their figurehead in there rather than having to get by on a share in Johnson’s flabby carcass .

  52. 52.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Peale: I may decide to starting using my accumulated miles to upgrade to business class on future international flights (whenever they are feasible for me again). Getting stuck in the sardine section holds no appear any more.

    I have been paying for business class upgrades myself on Chinese domestic flights whenever possible, so I can be in a less dense section. Upgrades are cheap these days, but quickly snapped up. I have been partial to wide bodies on these domestic flights (Airbus A330s or Boeing B787s) due to the space & lower density. Now I have to weigh risk that they might have just served international route from a country where COVID-19 is rampant…

  54. 54.

    New Deal democrat

    @Fair Economist:

    >>”COVID will have a lower death rate than previous estimates…. [A]nnual pneumonia mortality to be substantially increased, but it will probably be not as bad as previously feared.”

    That certainly seems like the eventual endgame: COVID-19 becomes, more or less,  just another common Coronavirus cold, as it and the human immune system co-evolve. But how long does it take, 5 years or 500?

    >>”So, probably one more bad wave from Omicron and then the immediate bad effects will fall off substantially.”

    The problem is, that’s what a lot of people thought about Delta – but it turned out, for unknown reasons, only a subset of the unvaccinated furnished the dry tinder. I like Prof. Hotez’s idea that Delta and Omicron may flourish in tandem, targeting different groups.

    But since Biden’s “vaccinate only” strategy must at this point be deemed a failure, at least getting the rest of virgin infections over with quickly is better than a long, slow slog.

  55. 55.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Geoduck: Dominic Cummings? Revenge is a dish best served cold. I can imagine him sitting on this until Christmas comes around again, where it is likely to get more publicity, especially as it is another Christmas overshadowed by COVID.

    Tony may be right and it’s the long arm of the Murdochs but, while there are plenty of suck-ups in the Party, there’s no-one else with the populist appeal of Boris. Of course they may feel that, with their stranglehold on the media/press, they can polish a turd but I’m not convinced they can.

  56. 56.

    Nicole

    Found out this morning that a friend of mine who was very opposed to getting vaccinated, finally caved because he didn’t want to lose his (city) job.  I’m so, so relieved.  He and his family had Covid last spring, and he has Type 1 diabetes, so with the combination of natural immunity and now vaccination, I’m feeling much less worried about him.  His kid goes for her first shot tomorrow, so she’ll still be eligible to attend her school, which is requiring students to have both shots by January.  Mandates work, y’all.

    ETA: In less good news, my other unvaccinated friend who appeared to have pulled through Covid after over a month on a vent, is out of the rehab facility and back in the hospital due to pneumonia and a pulmonary embolism.   Covid is the (unwanted) gift that keeps on giving to those who wouldn’t follow the science.

  57. 57.

    Fair Economist

    @New Deal democrat: Milder, but not a common cold. The numbers from Britain, which have been roughly stable for months, are currently around 650 deaths per million per year, which in the US would be 220,000 deaths per year, the #3 source of mortality. Even a quarter of that is a lot worse than the flu, and no way will it get down to the common cold, which kills maybe a few thousand a year, all seriously immune compromised or extremely old ( making causality difficult to establish).

  58. 58.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @NotMax: Makes sense to me that 13-24 year-olds would say that the pandemic negatively affected their education and social life/dating, since those are primary activities for that age group.

  59. 59.

    Gravenstone

    @debbie: I look forward to the coming waves of measles, mumps, rubella and whooping cough that will sweep through the school populations of my birth state across the coming decades.

    When did stupidity become a such fucking virtue in this country?

  60. 60.

    Bill Arnold

    Of the Omicron preprints making the rounds today, this one is especially interesting. If it and the others pass a day or two of scrutiny, policies should start to change immediately. In particular, watch the Florida government, which has been relying politically on the Regeneron monoclonal antibody treatment to support not taking any public health measures. (These treatments can be updated quite quickly, though probably about as fast as mRNA vaccines; the approval process will be what matters.)
    Reduced Neutralization of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant by Vaccine Sera and monoclonal antibodies (PDF, 2021/12/08, medrxiv (preprint), Alexander Wilhelm, Marek Widera, Katharina Grikscheit, Tuna Toptan, Barbara Schenk, Christiane Pallas, Melinda Metzler, Niko Kohmer, Sebastian Hoehl, Fabian A. Helfritz, Timo Wolf Udo Goetsch Sandra Ciesek)

    Abstract:
    Due to numerous mutations in the spike protein, the SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern Omicron (B.1.1.529) raises serious concerns since it may significantly limit the antibody-mediated neutralization and increase the risk of reinfections. While a rapid increase in the number of cases is being reported worldwide, until now there has been uncertainty about the efficacy of vaccinations and monoclonal antibodies. Our in vitro findings using authentic SARS-CoV-2 variants indicate that in contrast to the currently circulating Delta variant, the neutralization efficacy of vaccine-elicited sera against Omicron was severely reduced highlighting T-cell mediated immunity as essential barrier to prevent severe COVID-19. Since SARS-CoV-2 Omicron was resistant to casirivimab and imdevimab, genotyping of SARS-CoV-2 may be needed before initiating mAb treatment. Variant-specific vaccines and mAb agents may be required to treat Omicron and other emerging variants of concern.

  62. 62.

    Soprano2

    According to my daily industry alert, wastewater testing has shown that the Omicron variant is in Sacramento County, CA. I think the way they’re using wastewater testing for Covid is cool, and shows how useful it can be. People don’t have to be willing to be tested for us to see where in a city or county a spike of Covid will occur. They can figure out a college dorm has cases, and test everyone to isolate the infected early on.

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