Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Republicans do not trust women.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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

Second rate reporter says what?

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

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

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday / Saturday, Dec. 17-18

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Friday / Saturday, Dec. 17-18

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  2. 2.

    Gin & Tonic

    From Jen Psaki’s mocking response to the typically baroque and ineffective reimbursement plan, the Biden administration is really screwing the pooch on the rapid-testing front.

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 4,083 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 2,715,847 cases. It also reports 18 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 31,044 deaths – 1.14% of the cumulative reported total, 1.17% of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.91.

    314 confirmed cases are in ICU, 145 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 5,435 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,630,680 patients recovered – 96.9% of the cumulative reported total.

    Three new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 6,077 clusters. 252 clusters are currently active; 5,825 clusters are now inactive.

    4,049 new cases today are local infections. 34 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 160,794 doses of vaccine on 17th December: 3,088 first doses, 4,663 second doses, and 153,223 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 55,728,484 doses administered: 25,949,618 first doses, 25,542,969 second doses, and 4,430,656 booster doses. 79.5% of the population have received their first dose, while 78.2% are now fully vaccinated.

  4. 4.

    Amir Khalid

    Some sportsball news. Of the six English Premier League matches scheduled for today, only two will take place. The other four have been postponed because of Covid-19 outbreaks in the teams involved.
    The Premier League will hold a meeting on Monday with managers and team captains from all 20 clubs to sort out its course of action.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    Lithuania becomes the 66th country to report a total of more than 500k cases. Based on their population, that’s about 1 out of every 5 people there. Would guesstimate if one subtracted population of the least vulnerable age groups that would translate closer to 1 in 3.

    In other reporting,

    With the omicron variant of the coronavirus poised to thwart most covid-19 treatments, U.S. public health officials are stockpiling the one monoclonal antibody that remains effective so that it can be deployed when the variant becomes more prevalent.

    The decision to pause every-other-week shipments to states of the treatment, sotrovimab, shortly after Thanksgiving is part of a broader strategy to marshal the most effective tools to combat omicron, according to David Kessler, chief scientific officer of the White House covid-19 response team.
    [snip]
    When omicron becomes dominant, it is expected to wipe out or weaken much of the covid-19 medicine cabinet, putting the focus on sotrovimab, which is an intravenous infusion from Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline. Laboratory studies have shown that the treatment will hold up against the new variant. Antiviral pills that have yet to be authorized are also expected to help fill in the gaps. Source

    And, on the raving lunacy side of the chasm, Fox News Host Advises Viewers Against Boosters as COVID Rages.

  6. 6.

    lowtechcyclist

    being anti-vaccine makes you an asshole

    I believe it’s well-established that the causation arrow points in the opposite direction. People are anti-vax because they’re already assholes.

  7. 7.

    NorthLeft12

    Thanks again Anne. From Ontario;
    Cases are skyrocketing and (for once) the provincial government is moving quickly to reduce contacts and increase testing and vaccinations.
    The distribution of rapid tests to the general population has been a mess (they partly did it through the Ontario liquor stores!) but school kids are all getting five each to use throughout the holidays.
    Our daughter that works in England is flying to Toronto today, and is bringing fifty rapid tests that she was given. She got her third dose yesterday and feels very fortunate in escaping the London area.
    Of course the new social gathering recommendations have thrown our Christmas plans into the air. We had reduced down to twelve people from five households, not sure about going to ten.
    I am suffering from COVID fatigue, but that does not mean I am going to give up and abandon all precautions. My wife and I are boosted, and we have dumped our cloth masks for KN 95 masks.
    Going to stay safe and keep everyone I know and meet safe too.

    Fuck Covid and anyone who purposely and actively aids it’s transmission.

  13. 13.

    Amir Khalid

    @Amir Khalid:

    I just refreshed the BBC’s football page: five of today’s six Premier League matches are now postponed because of Covid. Only the late afternoon match, Leeds United-Arsenal, is still on.

  14. 14.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 12/17 China reported 89 new domestic confirmed (none previously asymptomatic) & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 1 new domestic confirmed case. 18 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 476 active domestic confirmed cases in the region. 

    • Hulun Buir reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (at Manzhouli), a traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. 17 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 475 active domestic confirmed cases (465 at Manzhouli & 10 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 a domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city.

    At Heilongjiang Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 31 active domestic confirmed & 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • At Harbin there currently are 31 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 residential compound  has been re-designated to Low Risk. 1 residential building & 5 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
    • At Qiqihar 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 village remains at Medium Risk.

    Shaanxi Province reported 7 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There are currently 19 active domestic confirmed & 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Xi’an reported 7 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 4 of the new domestic positive cases are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine & 5 are found via mass screening. There currently are 17 active confirmed & 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. The authorities have identified the source of the outbreak, w/ phylogenetic analysis showing that the genetic sequences of the domestic positive cases are almost identical to an imported positive case returning from Pakistan. The initial 2 cases of the outbreak are workers at the quarantine hotel where the case from Pakistan was staying at. There must have been multiple lapses in protocol, as quarantine hotel workers are supposed to be in full PPE when interfacing w/ overseas arrivals, & that they are living isolated from the community during their rotation at a quarantine hotel + 14 days of centralized quarantine post-rotation before re-entering community. However, it is known that custodial staff are sometimes lax w/ protocols. 1 residential compound & 2 residential building units have been elevated to Medium Risk. 6 residential building units, 1 residential building, 3 residential compounds & 1 shop are currently Medium Risk.
    • Yan’an did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city.
    • At Xianyang there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city.

    Shanghai Municipality reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine since 12/7. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining. 1 residential compound is currently at Medium Risk. 

    At Jiangsu Province there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (at Nanjing) & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases (2 at Wuxi & 1 at Xuzhou) remaining in the province.

    Zhejiang Province reported 77 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 360 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Ningbo reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 12/10. There currently are 68 active domestic confirmed cases in the city, all found within a single sub-district. 2 residential compounds & an office building are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Hangzhou reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 12/7. There currently are 28 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 residential building is currently at Medium Risk.
    • Shaoxing reported 69 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 341 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 4 communities & 1 supermarket are currently at High Risk. 2 sub-districts, 12 villages, 2 residential buildings & 5 corporate campuses are currently at Medium Risk.

    Suzhou in Anhui Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city. 1 village is currently at Medium Risk.

    At Chongzuo in Guangxi “Autonomous” Region there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case remaining.

    Guangdong Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 13 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Dongguan reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases, a traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 12/15 & 1 from mass screening. There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 3 residential compounds & 5 residential buildings are currently at Medium Risk.
    • Guangzhou did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.

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

    Xiamen in Fujian Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a worker that interfaces w/ overseas arrivals at the airport, found via regular screening.

    At Dalian in Liaoning Province there currently are 23 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province there currently are 5 active confirmed cases remaining.

    At Rizhao in Shandong Province there currently are 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Chongqing Municipality there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    At Henan Province there currently are 28 active domestic confirmed cases remaining (all at Zhengzhou).

    Dehong Prefecture in Yunnan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 48 active domestic confirmed & 23 active domestic asymptomatic cases at the prefecture.

    Imported Cases

    On 12/17, China reported 36 new imported confirmed cases (3 previously asymptomatic), 18 imported asymptomatic cases, 3 imported suspect cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 12 confirmed cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from the UK (2 via Madrid & 1 via Helsinki) & 2 from the US, & 1 each from Spain, Ethiopia, Malawi (via Addis Ababa), Mozambique (via Addis Ababa), Nigeria (via Frankfurt), South Africa (via Addis Ababa) & Zambia (via Addis Ababa); 3 suspect cases, no information released
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 10 confirmed & 3 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 3 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Laos, Malaysia & Iran
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from the US; 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Venezuela (via the US)
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Saudi Arabia, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Tianjin Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Poland; 5 asymptomatic cases, no information released, yet
    • Changsha in Hunan Province – 2 confirmed cases (both previously asymptomatic), no information released
    • Changchun in Jilin Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from South Korea
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the Uk (via Stockholm); 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the Netherlands
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from South Korea
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 1 confirm case, a Chinese national returning from Myanmar; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Laos & 1 from Myanmar; all via land border crossing
    • Shenyang in Liaoning Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Tanzania

    Overall in China, 33 confirmed cases recovered (13 imported), 16 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (15 imported) & 3 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all imported), & 5,282 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,648 active confirmed cases in the country (547 imported), 6 in serious condition (4 imported), 471 active asymptomatic cases (425 imported), 4 suspect cases (all imported). 48,517 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 12/17, 2,661.838M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 11.277M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 12/18, Hong Kong reported 5 new positive cases, all imported (from Canada, Nepal & the UK).

  15. 15.

    New Deal democrat

    Cases are taking off everywhere in the Northeast megalopolis, but not yet in ME, VT, and VA (and would someone please explain the MD non-reporting situation?); plus OH, IL, HI, and – maybe because they only update once a week – FL. Regionally cases have stopped declining in the Midwest and West, and started in increase in the South. The Northeast looks set to exceed their COVID daily record of new cases in the next few days.

    Interesting news article yesterday that almost 100% of COVID in the wastewater of Orlando, FL is Omicron.

    Sadly, almost all of Canada is also showing a rapid increase in cases, despite being over 75% fully vaccinated and with a lot lower proportion of total assholes than in the US. Just shows how infectious Omicron is. Contrarily, and interestingly, the EU as a whole is actually showing a decline.

  16. 16.

    different-church-lady

    OK: now that I’m done having a depressed rantrum* I’m self-reminded that just yesterday I was putting a microphone on the chief medical officer of Moderna for what they call a satellite media tour. And what he said over and over again is “We know how to do this now, let’s just keep at it and we’ll get through.”

    (* a typo I decided to keep to coin a new word. )

  17. 17.

    Spanky

    @Amir Khalid:

    The Premier League will hold a meeting on Monday with managers and team captains from all 20 clubs to sort out its course of action.

    Can you say “super spreader event”?

  18. 18.

    Spanky

    @New Deal democrat:

    and would someone please explain the MD non-reporting situation?

    Being a Marylander and lacking any real info, I’ll just remind everyone that the guv and his administration are Republican.

    ETA: I’ll repeat Thursday’s news from our little corner of Southern MD. All 10 ICU beds here are full of covid patients; 8 unvaxxed and the other 2 un-boosted. First time we’ve reached this milestone during the pandemic.

  24. 24.

    Spanky

    @Cermet: Thanks. It was easy enough to look up but I was too lazy.

    Down for 15 days and they’re “working on it”? Nothing screams “lowest bidder” like this shit.

  25. 25.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Spanky: Being a Marylander and lacking any real info, I’ll just remind everyone that the guv and his administration are Republican.

    And Hogan has amply demonstrated that even a relatively sane Republican is still fundamentally a Republican.  I think a lot of Marylanders said to themselves, “he’s no Bob Ehrlich,” and thought he’d be okay.

    I expect our friends south of the Potomac will soon find out the same thing about Youngkin.  It’s not gonna be pretty.

  28. 28.

    New Deal democrat

    SCOTUS is clearly going to rule on the OSHA case. One question will be whether it takes the case directly or the full 6th Circuit gets to review the 3 judge panel first.

    Ironically, Omicron may help the chances of the regulation surviving review. Because SCOTUS will have blood on its hands at the bar of history if it strikes down the regulation and lots of people die. That is something Chief Justice Roberts responds to very strongly. Thomas and Alito are beyond the pale. The question will be whether Roberts can drag one of the remaining three with him – perhaps by sustaining the program only temporarily for the duration of an emergency.

  32. 32.

    Sloane Ranger

    Can I say that I don’t understand the Biden administration’s reluctance to make free self testing kits available on request. Even our useless excuse of a government have managed to do that. There was a blip the day after the new restrictions were announced but I kept checking in and was able to score some more that evening. The only thing I can think of, is they think the COVID deniers will take them all, preventing others from using them. But that is easily dealt with. In the UK each kit has 7 tests in it and you can only have 1 kit per day.

    Anyway, Friday in the UK we had 93,045 new cases. Once again a new record. The rolling 7-day average is up by 38.6%. New cases by nation,

    England – 83,693 (up 6394)

    Northern Ireland – 1887 (down 350)

    Scotland – 4336 (down 1615)

    Wales – 3129 (up 240).

    Deaths – There were 111 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. The rolling 7-day average is down by 4.5%. 98 deaths were in England, 3 in Northern Ireland, 7 in Scotland and 3 in Wales.

    Tests – 1,598,910 tests took place on Thursday, 16th. The rolling 7-day average is up by 19%. The PCR testing capacity reported by labs is 820,601.

    Hospitalisations – As of Thursday, there were 7611 people in hospital and 875 on ventilators. The weekly average for hospital admissions was up by 8.1% on 13th December.

    Vaccinations – As of Thursday 16th, 51,393,664 people had had 1 shot of a vaccine, 46,923,788 had had 2 and 26,338,651 had had a 3rd shot/booster. This means that, as of this date, 89.4% of all UK residents aged 12+ have had 1 shot of a vaccine, 81.6% have had 2 and 45.8% have had a 3rd shot booster.

  33. 33.

    Peale

    Yeah, those Danish numbers are actually pointing to a really bad January in which we’re looking at 20% of the population at home sick at one time. Maybe not in the hospital. But sick nonetheless. You might want to check your medicine cabinets this holiday season to make sure the Tylenol and Advil you stocked up on in March 2020 hasn’t expired.

  38. 38.

    Ken

    @rikyrah: There is no cocktail, appetizer, colleague convo or any other incentive to make these work holiday parties worth the risk of getting COVID.

    Hypothetically, what if the party’s being thrown by the Prime Minister, and if you don’t show up it could hurt your political career?

  42. 42.

    Guac

    In my little corner of South Carolina, I ventured out to a small party last night: just 8 people, all vaxxed, sat outside. Nobody but me had any concerns about Omicron… “It’s very mild!!” they said.

    I hope so, as our local hospital has just 12 ICU beds serving a population of approx 50K. Our county is only about 64% vaxxed with 2 doses, unknown percentage boosted. New cases are at 12 per 100K people, slowly rising…

  44. 44.

    New Deal democrat

    Important information for anyone intending to rely on rapid antigen testing for holiday get-together, from Dr. Jorge Caballero:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/DataDrivenMD/status/1472079435796926466
    “likelihood of transmitting #Omicron within a household is 3 times greater than with Delta variant

    “Assuming *all things are equal* expect these rapid antigen tests to miss 3 in 5 cases of #Omicron in the window shortly after someone is infected.

    [But]” #Omicron changed the math. When lots of untrained persons are using rapid antigen tests as a “one-and-done” to rule out infection the Omicron cases that false negatives create can quickly exceed the number of cases that true positives prevent.

    “Why would a country[the UK] that’s swimming in rapid antigen tests end up in a situation where 1 in 5 persons w/ #Omicron transmit the virus to someone in their household? Answer: they tested positive *after* they transmitted!”

    PS: please don’t shoot the messenger.

  46. 46.

    Gvg

    Just ordered binox covid tests for parents. Pickup curbside in a few hours. Parents were overwhelmed because too many choices mostly expensive and most stores were out. They were worried because the local paper said stores were out. I found Walmart about 30 miles away where I used to live has stock. For some reason Walmart is significantly cheaper than CVS and Walgreens on the most recommended test and had stock in for longer.

    Christmas family dinner is threatened. Fortunately the weather is perfect. Not even cool yet. If this continues, we can eat outdoors again. Just local relatives no travelers.

    My parents have seen several older friends outside a few times the last couple of months. Parents are in 80’s, friends older. Dad just commented on phone, he thinks they are getting lonely and tired of situation. They have endurance but people are wearing out, even the smart ones.

  47. 47.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Guac: mildER. Like, hospitalizations per capita are down and the infection fatality rate might be, back of envelope, something like 1/3 of Delta, but this can still clearly fuck you up. Well, being vaccinated helps.

  49. 49.

    BC in Illinois

    I have friends — whom I haven’t seen in person in over a year — who are unwaveringly unvaccinated.

    I have figured out what their attitude it. I remember it from elementary school. It’s devotion to the fundamental right to say “Not included!”

    “Last one in’s a rotten egg!”
    “Not Included!”

    (If you’re not familiar with the rules, at that point the game/challenge/thing ends, because someone has said that they’re not included in the game/challenge/thing.)

    So today, an adult who says, in words or actions, “I’m done with this pandemic and have moved on,” is saying that they’re not included in the game/challenge/thing and therefore are not required to abide by any rules, mandates, or other restrictions to their freedom. They’re not included.

    So, for example, one hundred Marines are washed out of the service for refusing the Covid vaccine. They decided that they were not included (and that they didn’t enlist in order to take orders from someone else).

    The problem is, for them and for my somewhat estranged friends, we NEED them to be included in the precautions, practices, distances, shots, etc.

    Or they can’t be included in our lives.

  50. 50.

    Matt McIrvin

    @New Deal democrat: I figure if I can’t prevent the gathering from happening, and at this point it’d do serious damage to family relations if I continued my performance as the obsessive COVID cop that irritated everyone so much in 2020-21… a test that knocks my chances of being the actual source of infection down by, say, a factor of 2 is better than nothing.

  51. 51.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — the number of new cases continues to rise steeply, over 5,900 cases reported today as of 14:00 GMT. The report warns that there is pressure on some of the testing facilities and case reporting may not be timely or fully up-to-date.

    Hospitalisations, ICU bed occupancy and deaths continue level-ish, no big uptick yet from the Omicron variant. On an extended walk today through the city centre I passed two locations which were carrying out vaccinations, both of them had long queues of people outside. The weather was good, not too cold and dry which may have encouraged people to wait. The other thing I noticed was quite large crowds of Xmas shoppers, people visiting the local attractions and doing Xmassy things in general. Some were wearing masks outside, not many though. I plan to take a self-test tomorrow just in case.

    Other news from the UK — the London Fire Brigade has 40 of its 142 engines unavailable due to drivers being sick or isolating from contacts with COVID-19 infections and the Mayor of London has declared a major incident given the rapidly increasing number of cases being reported.

  52. 52.

    StringOnAStick

    A friend of ours is a liberal who works for a huge asphalt paving company, and he had a meeting this week about plans for next year’s paving season.  All these rednecks chatting about all the friends, relatives dead of Covid, the usual “dude was only 53 and Covid killed him”, and in the next breath: “I’m not gettin’ that vaccine, we don’t know what’s in it!” .

    Our friend listens to books on tape while he’s in his work truck, the idiots all listen to hate radio.

  53. 53.

    Suzanne

    @Gvg:

    Dad just commented on phone, he thinks they are getting lonely and tired of situation. They have endurance but people are wearing out, even the smart ones. 

    Yes. For a lot of people, it no longer makes sense to attempt to avoid this shit. If we’re all going to get it anyway — and that’s what it looks like — why are we giving up everything that makes the time on this mortal coil bearable?

    I might be feeling this extra hard because we just decided to cancel my birthday trip to NY. I was looking forward to going to a concert and an art exhibit. And eating good meals and spending time with my husband. And now we’re not going, and I’m really sad about it.

    But we have a toddler and we have to protect her, because she STILL cannot be vaccinated and I am pissed.

  54. 54.

    Fair Economist

    @Sloane Ranger: The likely reason Biden doesn’t want to provide free kits is that a presumably corrupt bureaucrat at the FDA has blocked all non-Abbott kits, allowing Abbott to charge exorbitant rates, about $15 profit per kit. Free kits, meaning paid for by the Feds, would reward that with tens of billions in corrupt profits.

  55. 55.

    Fair Economist

    Flu report Week 49: Everything is pretty much the same as last week other than we are further along on the exponential curve. Positivity up from 2.6% to 3.5%. (for comparison; a bad flu epidemic in the past typically peaks above 20% positivity) Cases reported in the past week increased from 1,532 to 2,438, with an additional 1,171 added to previous weeks. H3N2 continues its unprecedented dominance, with literally not one single subtyped case from last week showing any other flu type, although this is partially because there’s few enough B flu cases they apparently put off subtyping them.

    Crudely forecasting, if positivity continued increasing at this rate we’d see a rate typical of flu epidemic peaks in 6-8 weeks. Omicron is expected to hit record infection rates sooner than that, so the response to Omicron will likely cap the H3N2 epidemic, at least for a while.
    CDC has added a helpful summary; cases are mostly in the east and center of the country with little in the west

    Also, flus are mostly in people under 25; I’m guessing that means spreading in school. The CDC expects that to start spreading to older groups. They report hospitalizations for flu are starting to increase substantially, with 1,057 admits with confirmed flu in the past week. This is very high compared to previous epidemics, but I suspect it’s due to much broader testing because of the new need to distinguish COVID hospitalizations from flu hospitalization.

  56. 56.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Fair Economist: How are they allowed to get away with that?

    We use several different suppliers. The downside though is that everytime you get a new one you have to read the instructions because they all work slightly differently.

  57. 57.

    Fair Economist

    @Sloane Ranger: I don’t know. Multiple reviewers were complaining they’d send in “recommend approvals” for testing kits and nothing would ever happen. One resigned in protest.

    A lot of this corruption is unspoken revolving door type. Abbott reps have dinners with somebody and talk about great jobs available in a few years, but never make a quid pro quo. If the guy does something for them, he gets a super-cushy job; otherwise something routine. Not material to make a corruption case from. I do agree you’d think somebody higher up would do overrules in high profile cases like this.

  59. 59.

    Another Scott

    @Fair Economist: As noted before, many public libraries are giving out free BinaxNOW boxes – one doesn’t even need to be local.  DC, MD, at least NoVA in Virginia is doing so, as are many others around the country.  It’s not enough, too few people know about them, but it shows that they’re doing it.  Presumably it will be ramped up over time.

    There have been lots of problems with the federal response (starting with the contaminated CDC tests at the beginning).  The bureaucracy is huge and changes take time.  They’re trying, given all the constraints and competing interests…

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  61. 61.

    Tazj

    @Fair Economist: In a way though, the feds are kind of paying for free tests aren’t they?Our county executive said he was taking money he has received and buying more rapid tests to be available for free to residents. At least in Erie County you can get free rapid test kits, though they’re not sent out to everyone. They’re available at clinics and they have a number to call if you need one. Now do they just direct you to a clinic and you’re on your own or would they help you get one? I don’t know.

    I think should be free and easily available to anyone who needs them but I remain agnostic as to whether more free rapid tests are that important to stopping the spread of COVID. You can get a PCR test for free without a doctor’s prescription and they’re readily available. The test results come back sooner than last year too, by the end of the day if you go early in the morning.
    There’s a lot of temptation for older kids and parents not to test because a positive test means missing out on things, so I wonder how that plays into it to, especially at this time of the year. I know my son told me that other students with mild symptoms would avoid testing so they wouldn’t miss out.

  62. 62.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rikyrah:

    I am beginning to believe that some of those players are lying about their vaccination status 

    On topic – Aaron Rodgers is an asshole!

  63. 63.

    Ascap_scab

    Southwest Airlines is now Karma Airways.

    ‘What goes around, comes around.

    ‘We got you and you got us!’

  64. 64.

    Tony Jay

    @rikyrah:

    The Premier League recently announced that 25% of players were firm vaccine refusers, while the other 75% (let me see if I can remember this correctly) includes players “who have had at least one injection or plan to do so.”

    When I heard that my jaw dropped. Fuck the 25% refusers. Name, shame, ban, its that simple, but what the hell is going on with the other 75%? Why lump together those who have had one or two jabs with those who, when asked, said they “planned to” unless the naked figures are so terrible that the Premier League fears being shamed into stopping the season dead because a huge majority of its players are anti-vax dickheads and guaranteed to become plague-carriers sooner rather than later?

    I’m pretty sure that vaccination amongst players of my team (Liverpool FC) must be pretty good because our manager, Jurgen Klopp, is an outspoken proponent of vaccination and I suspect would drop players if they put the wider team at risk by staying unjabbed, but that’s just supposition.

    Clearly, the Premier League has been ignoring a BIG problem.

  65. 65.

    Brachiator

    @Suzanne:

    Yes. For a lot of people, it no longer makes sense to attempt to avoid this shit. If we’re all going to get it anyway — and that’s what it looks like — why are we giving up everything that makes the time on this mortal coil bearable?

    Nothing has changed. We do this so we won’t die and to protect others.

    We did not choose this. But future generations may thank us for holding on and getting through it.

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