Dr. Anthony Fauci explains the new, shorter @CDCgov quarantine guidelines, calling them, "a prudent and good decision… based on science[.]" #TheReidOut #reiders pic.twitter.com/KmBIxNuRPn
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) December 28, 2021
“If you need something, say something.” President Joe Biden pledged the full support of the federal government to states facing surges in COVID-19 cases from the highly transmissible omicron variant as well as a run on at-home tests. https://t.co/qJ6RleUzIh
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 27, 2021
Lost in coverage of CDC's new Isolation Guidelines (OK to leave isolation after 5d if asymptomatic) is their rec that asymptomatic people continue to wear a good mask for days 6-10. Will they do it? is another matter. If they do, makes the rec far safer.https://t.co/0aGlVIvaWP
— Bob Wachter (@Bob_Wachter) December 27, 2021
Before today's CDC announcement
I wrote out why 10 day isolation is too long
It harms public health to isolate people unnecessarily
Evidence suggests 5 day isolation & negative test is ideal
5 days isolation + 5 d masking reasonable too
CDC's decision is the right one https://t.co/2DzSYbG5Y9
— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@ashishkjha) December 27, 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said the U.S. should consider a vaccination mandate for domestic air travel, signaling a potential embrace of an idea the Biden administration has previously avoided, as COVID-19 cases spike. https://t.co/BeQt4Auf4Y
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 27, 2021
Age-adjusted rates of Covid associated hospitalizations by vaccine status. Adults over age 18. Data from Jan-Nov 2021 h/t @WHCOS pic.twitter.com/lPQ2PVV4Da
— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) December 27, 2021
Does it have to be binary? I will do what I can, even though this thing appears to be contagious as wildfire, and I recognize that whatever I do may not be enough. https://t.co/gBGOs2WM6U
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) December 27, 2021
======
From South African undertakers to ultra-Orthodox Israeli rabbis, an unconventional cadre of people have joined global efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates. https://t.co/xvcD6Fgl4G
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 28, 2021
China's local symptomatic coronavirus cases rose for a fourth consecutive day, with Xian city reporting more infections in a flare-up that has put 13 million residents under lockdown https://t.co/nC8dcZEMTC pic.twitter.com/t0FnPftEG0
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
Delta Air Lines says new pandemic-related cleaning requirements at a Shanghai airport were behind the turning back of a recent flight from Seattle in midair. https://t.co/g5ua7iXydd
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 27, 2021
… An emailed statement said the new mandates at Shanghai Pudong International Airport “require significantly extended ground time and are not operationally viable for Delta.”
It wasn’t clear what the rules are and what prompted the change, but it comes as China tightens its already strict COVID-19 travel restrictions in the face of a growing outbreak in the city of Xi’an and ahead of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in six weeks.
Xi’an, which is about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) southwest of Beijing, reported more than 300 new cases over the weekend, a sharp rise from previous days. The city of 13 million people has been locked down, with only one person per household allowed out every two days to shop for necessities.
The Delta flight that turned back to Seattle last week left passengers with expired COVID-19 test results and U.S. visas, according to Chinese media reports…
India boosts arsenal against COVID-19 with Merck pill, two more vaccines https://t.co/rWSwApWpTX pic.twitter.com/gTdZNqWbfg
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
Malaysia lifts travel ban on 8 African countries, citing wider Omicron spread https://t.co/Hzz07bT8ae pic.twitter.com/OQXrEaLWSg
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
Indonesia says detects first locally transmitted Omicron case https://t.co/Ldm1jCPZzI pic.twitter.com/2erjwv1PUu
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
Australia recorded a record surge of 11,264 new COVID-19 cases as an outbreak of the highly infectious Omicron variant disrupted reopening of the economy, while state leaders argued over domestic border controls https://t.co/aGLRCSvRin pic.twitter.com/kqAPxWJ5fc
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
A test group of health workers in Israel received a second COVID-19 booster dose. An expert panel last week recommended Israel become the first country to offer a fourth jab to medical workers and those over 60 or with compromised immune systems https://t.co/9ECSFqOr4V pic.twitter.com/0ErOjoJcyC
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
New Turkish COVID-19 cases surge 30% – health ministry data https://t.co/tpE9jMxe3m pic.twitter.com/dXe25xEoSq
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
Spain's COVID-19 infections soar after Christmas https://t.co/Y6E0yU0RyK pic.twitter.com/X3uOssyzOc
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
The French government has announced new COVID-19 measures in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. But authorities stopped short of imposing drastic restrictions before New Year’s Eve. https://t.co/mNWEQVwqCw
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) December 27, 2021
There will be no further Covid restrictions in England before the new year, UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid says, but he urges people to "remain cautious" https://t.co/9cHhi9IJx6
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) December 27, 2021
Covid-19: One in two PCR tests in Ireland have positive result https://t.co/4E111Nsd3Q
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 27, 2021
Argentina braces for new COVID wave as cases rise to highest in almost 6 months https://t.co/x2AIoSGNwg pic.twitter.com/LHPIevAD9W
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
Brazil reports 86 COVID-19 deaths on Monday https://t.co/p7ob7lnFbV pic.twitter.com/OEtrYBRxCN
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
======
From a longer thread:
Some of you have asked me if getting vaccinated reduces the risk of developing long COVID, and the answer is yes, people who are fully vaccinated (and become infected) appear to have about half the risk of experiencing long-term COVID symptoms.https://t.co/3jZsgzzmTB
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) December 28, 2021
So if you would like to avoid devastating symptoms that could potentially last the rest of your life, go get vaccinated! And get boosted! I had COVID before vaccines were available and I would give almost anything to get rid of the symptoms that have persisted since early 2020.
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) December 28, 2021
Research by South African scientists suggests that Omicron infection enhances neutralizing immunity against the Delta variant of the coronavirus https://t.co/VaWVqhNDfa pic.twitter.com/YFMFl6l8Mn
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 28, 2021
… The study only covered a small group of people and has not been peer-reviewed, but it found that people who were infected with Omicron, especially those who were vaccinated, developed enhanced immunity to the Delta variant.
The analysis enrolled 33 vaccinated and unvaccinated people who were infected with the Omicron variant in South Africa.
While the authors found that neutralisation of Omicron increased 14-fold over 14 days after the enrolment, they also found that there was a 4.4-fold increase in neutralisation of the Delta variant…
According to the scientists, implications of this displacement would depend on whether or not Omicron is less pathogenic compared to Delta. “If so, then the incidence of COVID-19 severe disease would be reduced and the infection may shift to become less disruptive to individuals and society.”
Alex Sigal, a professor at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa, said on Twitter on Monday that if Omicron was less pathogenic as it looked to be from the South African experience, “this will help push Delta out”…
— Bad Vaccine Takes (@BadVaccineTakes) December 26, 2021
======
Here are the top 5 states with the highest Covid death rates in 2021. They're also states that fought mask-and-vaccine mandates. https://t.co/88QGGjy9fG
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) December 27, 2021
Certainly the most widespread. Jury is out on severity. https://t.co/eUsspcUTpM
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) December 28, 2021
Looks like a fifth red state (Arkansas) has decided to effectively pay workers *not* to get vaccinated: https://t.co/GCq8mgIK18
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) December 27, 2021
I wrote about the other states (Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Tennessee) last month: https://t.co/Ps0ZhthtF3
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) December 27, 2021
We need to be realistic, we need to tell everyone who wants schools open that everyone wants schools open but we can’t do it if so many people are sick, & tell anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers, the selfish, the demented, & the politically cynical & dishonest to STFU https://t.co/54whpQLTqF
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) December 28, 2021
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
There were 233 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-
19 on 12/27. There was 1 new positive home test reported on 12/27.
Saturday 12/25: 749 new cases reported
Sunday 12/26: 419 new cases reported.
Total deaths up by 18 now to 1568.
Hospitalizations in just Monroe County:
123 hospitalized, 98 are unvaxed.
36 are in the ICU, 32 are unvaxed.
27 in the ICU are intubated and unvaxed, 3 are intubated and fully vaxed
Still at only 68.6% fully vaccinated.
OzarkHillbilly
Or in another light, not quite as much as a single day’s tally in Florida.
YY_Sima Qian
On 12/27 China reported 182 new domestic confirmed (none previously asymptomatic) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Shaanxi Province reported 180 new domestic confirmed cases (151 mild & 1 moderate). There are currently 831 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
At Yuncheng in Shanxi Province there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case remaining, a person arrived from Xi’an in Shaanxi.
Guangdong Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 29 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Guangxi “Autonomous” Region did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 19 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
At Hulun Buir in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region 49 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 111 active domestic confirmed cases remaining (108 at Manzhouli & 3 at New Barag Right Banner).
At Heilongjiang Province 1 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed (all at Harbin) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases (at Heihe) remaining.
At Shanghai Municipality 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining. 1 residential compound is currently at Medium Risk.
At Wuxi in Jiangsu Province there currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.
Zhejiang Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case. There currently are 477 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
At Tianjin Municipality there currently is 1 active confirmed case in the city, part of the transmission chain from Shaoxing in Zhenjiang.
At Suzhou in Anhui Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, part of the transmission chain from Zhejiang. 1 village is currently at Medium Risk.
At Chengdu in Sichuan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a logistics worker at the airport. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the city, a quarantine hotel worker & an airport logistics worker.
At Xiamen in Fujian Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining, a quarantine hotel worker.
At Dalian in Liaoning Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.
At Rizhao in Shandong Province there currently are 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.
At Chongqing Municipality there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.
At Henan Province there currently are 22 active domestic confirmed (20 at Zhengzhou & 2 at Zhoukou) & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases (both at Zhoukou).
Yunnan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic confirmed recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 28 active domestic confirmed & 14 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Tongren in Guizhou Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a person who returned from Sipsongpanna Prefecture in Yunnan on 12/25. The case had lived at the same residential compound while in Jinghong, in Sipsongpanna Prefecture, as a domestic asymptomatic case reported there yesterday. Given its position near the land borders w/ Myanmar & Laos, & the continued stream of imported positive cases coming from the 2 countries via land border crossings in Yunnan, Jinghong is very likely the epicenter of a new outbreak.
Imported Cases
On 12/27, China reported 27 new imported confirmed cases (none previously asymptomatic), 21 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in China, 92 confirmed cases recovered (34 imported), 20 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (19 imported) & none were reclassified as confirmed cases, & 2,436 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 2,275 active confirmed cases in the country (731 imported), 12 in serious condition (3 imported), 496 active asymptomatic cases (467 imported), 6 suspect cases (all imported). 52,672 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 12/27, 2,781.869M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 12.339M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 12/28, Hong Kong reported 6 new positive cases, all imported (including 2 flight crew).
Rusty
The public’s appetite to close schools is very low. It will become a serious political liability for Democrats if we have wide scale closures. I like the message to vax and wear masks to keep our schools open, it shifts the responsibility to those that won’t do those things and makes them accountable if schools need to close. Our daughter’s school in upstate NY ended up closing a day early before the holidays due to a shortage of bus drivers and staff. I think there is a lot more of this to come.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 2,897 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 2,746,833 cases. It also reports 35 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 31,369 deaths – 1.14% of the cumulative reported total, 1.16% of resolved cases.
Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 0.93.
244 confirmed cases are in ICU, 94 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 3,434 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,673,084 patients recovered – 97.3% of the cumulative reported total.
Four new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 6,114 clusters. 226 clusters are currently active; 5,888 clusters are now inactive.
2,705 new cases today are local infections. 192 new cases today are imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 128,433 doses of vaccine on 2 7th December: 3,239 first doses, 5,102 second doses, and 120,092 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 56,951,412 doses administered: 25,980,984 first doses, 25,589,542 second doses, and 5,577,262 booster doses. 79.6% of the population have received their first dose, 78.4% their second dose, and 17.1% their booster dose.
Nina
Our household has it. We suspect it was that last minute grocery run on Christmas Eve.
I am asymptomatic. My husband is tired and has an occasional cough. My son had about a day’s worth of fever but seems to be on the mend.
Husband and I are fully vaxxed and boosted. Son was scheduled to have his booster yesterday, but that’s obviously postponed.
Baud
@NeenerNeener:
I appreciate you separating out victims from perpetrators.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So the latest on my personal brush with COVID is my nephews’ fiance father decided “Hey, I got all three vaccines, let’s get the band back together, do a gig” along with “It’s just a little cold, no reason to cancel a Christmas dinner over…” and now he is seriously ill. Fortunately both my nephew and his fiance are testing negative.
Elizabelle
Interesting article in the Los Angeles Times today. Worth the click.
Jessica Roy: Will this pandemic ever end? Here’s what happened with the last ones
Elizabelle
So: Jessica Roy looks at previous American experience with pandemics and outbreaks:
Spanish flu:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Elizabelle: ROFL, the MSM in a nut shell; two years into this and now she decides to read up on the 1918 pandemic.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
Depressing to compare COVID vaccination with polio. We were so much better back then.
Elizabelle
POLIO: ended by vaccination.
Baud
@debbie:
We weren’t better. It’s just that, back then, science and racial equality weren’t both under the same liberal banner. A good conservative could still afford to believe in science.
New Deal democrat
Good news out of South Africa, as new cases are now down 40% from peak, and deaths have declined 20%. It seems increasingly clear that deaths will be far fewer from Omicron compared to cases than in previous waves. In the UK, except for a few data dumps, deaths have not risen at all. In Denmark, another early outbreak country, cases are down 1/3rd from peak, and deaths have simultaneously declined (so may just be a data dump). In Canada, cases appear to be peaking at 7x their recent trough, with no uptick in deaths.
Cases continue to soar in the US, now close to 240,000 per day. We will probably make a New all time high within the next 2 days. At 1450, deaths have increased only slightly. In New York and New Jersey, the rate of increase slowed down considerably yesterday. It may be a one-off, or they may be near peak. DC set a new all time record for any US jurisdiction yesterday, at over 350 new cases per 100,000; I.e., close to 1 in 250 of the city’s entire population was diagnosed with a case in 1 day alone.
Notably, the winter tourist destinations of FL, HI, and PR have all continued to soar, with between 90 and 160 new cases per 100,000. PR may have peaked, and HI may be peaking.
The US is on track to hit 400,000 new cases per day in about 2 weeks, if that is when the wave peaks (30-40 days after onset). The jury is out on what hospitalizations and deaths will look like.
After Omicron, do we keep getting hit with more and more waves, or will Covid simply be endemic, with almost everyone either having been exposed or vaccinated? Hopefully it will be the latter.
Robert Sneddon
The UK was not collecting accurate numbers for cases etc. over the past few days since it’s been a four-day holiday in effect (Mon and Tue were “substitute” official holidays because the 25th and 26th were on the weekend). Scotland and Wales will update on Wednesday but we’re going to go through the same hiatus next week, especially in Scotland where the 1st and 2nd of January are official holidays. Realistically speaking there won’t be accurate figures available for the entire nation until Thursday next week.
Generally the caseload from COVID-19 in the UK remains high at 100,000-plus new cases a day over the weekend. Deaths within 28 days of people diagnosed with COVID-19 continue to fall from the recent bump mid-November, hospitalisations are rising. The vaccination and booster effort is slowed by the holidays but there were a few vaccination clinics open in England over the weekend.
Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary has said there won’t be any new restrictions on places like hospitality in England before January but this decision will be reviewed after the New Year.
New Deal democrat
@Elizabelle: Supposedly all the strains of influenza circulating today are still descendants of the Spanish flu.
Historical note: it is thought that Wilson may have been infected at Versailles, and be an important reason why he became exhausted and unable to effectively oppose the draconian peace treaty demanded by England and France.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
From your snippet.
Harding didn’t leave the office in any common understanding of the term. He died there. Sheesh.
It’ like saying “Lincoln, elected to a second term in 1864, left the office in 1865.”
Elizabelle
Other pandemic/epidemic outcomes, per the Jessica Roy article:
Smallpox: eradicated by vaccination
HIV/AIDS: now endemic; also, better treatments developed
Swine flu: endemic
Ebola: “subsided after control by public health measures;” previously largely spread by families who washed the deceased victims’ bodies.
SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), first variety arose in China in 2002; interesting discussion about how public health systems were more robust at the time, at least in the US. Immediate worldwide alert of its presence; they sequenced the genome and developed a reliable test, screened for the disease and communicated well. ALSO, and important: SARS was not asymptomatic.
Ultimately, it disappeared as it was controlled by public health measures. No fatal cases in the US, where disease was not as prevalent. Worldwide, it had an 11% (!!) fatality rate, with up to 50% mortality in those over 65.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: yeah, “after he died in office” would have been more accurate.
That’s the thing about Harding. Previously considered among the worst of the worst presidents, but had the grace to depart this earth before his first term ended. We were not so lucky with the recent TFG.
debbie
@Baud:
What’s worse (to me) is the loss of any sense of community. For too many people, the greatest good is themselves, period.
YY_Sima Qian
The summary line for Shaanxi Province was wrong, it should be:
“Shaanxi Province reported 180 new domestic confirmed cases (177 mild & 3 moderate).”
NorthLeft12
Found out the other day that my eldest daughter is a criminal in the eyes of Canadian law. Apparently if a person brings rapid test kits in from another country and gives (as in free of charge) them to family, this person is considered to be a “distributor” and requires a license.
This in a country that currently cannot do half as many PCR tests as needed, and has basically run out of rapid tests, free or full charge. Insane.
The tests she brought (free from the UK) have been a lifeline to give us and our guests (below the minimum of ten allowed at two events) some confidence that we could have two meals safely.
Our provincial government sat on millions of tests for over a year, unless you were a small business, then gave them out in a blitz to elementary and high school students before Christmas break, and then to anyone who wanted them at select locations (liquor stores and subway stations). Now they have none.
I must note that I do complain about our government’s Covid performance…a lot, but I also recognize that they have done far better than pretty much every other Republican or Conservative run state or province and better than most Democratic or Liberal/NDP government.
Elizabelle
Last, about COVID:
Elizabelle
in moderation. Think my last excerpt, about COVID from the LA Times, had a few too many links.
Do read the story, though. Lot of interesting info, including just how people were inoculated against smallpox in George Washington’s time. Also:
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us
I hope Arkansas is making the people they’re paying to not get vaccinated take mandatory drug tests to qualify for those gubmint bennies.
Feathers
The CDC reducing of quarantine times is breaking a lot of people’s trust in the organization. Really sad and bad to see.
Working in a research lab, I was struck by how scientists made recommendations sincerely (naively) believing that people would follow along with all their detailed caveats. No sense that five days after symptoms end, wearing full protection for an additional five days, turns into it’s been five days, get your ass into work. Also, that previous viruses have shown that not taking enough time off and early over-exertion has brought on long term fatigue and disability.
When we rebuild the CDC (which will probably need a new name), there need to be sociologists and psychologists working alongside the scientists to work on recommendations.
mrmoshpotato
“Well, people got infected because they didn’t remain cautious or weren’t cautious enough.” – Flobalob the Mop-wearer in the near future
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@NotMax: Not to mention “racists, populist, plague rat, a-hole with an over inflated sense of self worth” describes Woodrow Wilson better.
Torrey
@Feathers: Also specialists in communication.
Suzanne
@Feathers:
Yeah, honestly, this is a huge fail. I remember thinking and commenting here on this top-10,000-blog, back when this all started to go down in March 2020, that there would never be a successful lockdown unless there was a specific and pointed transfer of wealth from the old to the young, since older people really were depending on younger people to stop doing things they wanted to do but also to show up to work to care for them. I think I was right. I don’t think the science crowd always does a good job understanding feasibility.
NorthLeft12
@Feathers: I don’t agree with what you are saying. Public Health organizations should provide directions to the minimum standards, and recommendations to the maximum standards.
Assuming that the public is mature enough, and intelligent enough to know the difference and be able to assess the risk to themselves and others, is not wrong.
BTW, learning about more effective and achievable precautions against transmission is a critical part of the process that Public Health units have been doing for the past two years.
RaflW
Obviously this humanitarian disaster has many contributors. But it also connects to how f’kd up Joe Manchin’s personal politics ends up being. As he floats in his houseboat in D.C. and drives his Maserati around.
VeniceRiley
USA: If you have trouble finding rapid tests, try your local community clinic. Word got out about that though and we are suddenly very popular.