Let’s face it. Some of us, even if we’re vaccinated, will contract COVID. It’s a highly contagious respiratory virus. It’s lousy, but it’s not a personal failing. Don’t let embarrassment hold you back from letting your close contacts know—that keeps everyone safe. ? pic.twitter.com/YzQCHrwUiC
— Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (@JohnsHopkinsSPH) January 6, 2022
COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. are on the verge of a new record high as the highly contagious Omicron variant fuels a surge in infections https://t.co/NMECFEmfuI pic.twitter.com/9GrBXhZ4D4
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2022
RECORD CASES: One study says up to 80% of Floridians will have caught COVID-19 by the time this Omicron wave is over. The Omicron variant is also fueling a surge in hospitalizations of children under 5 – the highest levels since the start of the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/VLLCE8xSSZ
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) January 7, 2022
CDC doesn't yet see signal Omicron variant more severe in young kids https://t.co/hx40t016KT pic.twitter.com/IuFM3seQit
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2022
Pharmacist (and parent) Mousebumples forwarded a glass-half-full story I missed earlier:
After the disappointing news from the Pfizer #COVID19 vaccine trials for age <5 there is some good news from the Moderna trial. Approval for ages 6m-5yo "could happen as soon as late February or early March." https://t.co/pCWdNgASYy
— Micah Pollak (@MicahPollak) December 30, 2021
Conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices leaned against President Biden’s pandemic-related vaccine-or-testing mandate for large businesses but appeared more receptive to vaccine requirement for healthcare facilities https://t.co/TIaDEWUOlH pic.twitter.com/rNYLCbSkGJ
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2022
My take? The ‘conservative’ SC(R)OTUS justices don’t mind the peons getting sick, but damned if they’ll risk having some unvaxxed health care worker breath germs all over them…
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How India's sequencing mess and laggard response led to the global spread of a deadly coronavirus variant https://t.co/2FRzijxDZg
— Businessweek (@BW) January 7, 2022
A long article, but it’s the weekend, and it is well worth reading the whole thing:
… The actions India did — and didn’t take — as delta emerged, ultimately saddled its people and the world with a ruthlessly virulent incarnation of the coronavirus, one that challenged vaccines and containment regimes like none before it. Delta upended even the most successful pandemic strategies, snaking into countries like Australia and China with stringent “Covid Zero” curbs in place and effectively closed borders. It’s been the most dominant form of Covid for much of this year, when more than 3.5 million people died of the virus — almost double the toll during the first year of the pandemic.
Multiple scientists interviewed by Bloomberg News said that the way India handled the early days of delta fueled its rise. The variant’s identification was delayed because the country’s laboratories were flying blind for much of 2020 and early 2021, partly because Modi’s government had restricted imports of vital genetic sequencing compounds under a nationalistic agenda to drive self sufficiency, they said. There were repeated efforts to warn the administration about the new strain in early February, the scientists said, yet India went public with details of the more transmissible variant only at the end of March.
“The charitable view is they didn’t want to sound the alarm without having more conclusive evidence,” said Ramanan Laxminarayan, director of the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy, a research institute with offices in New Delhi and Washington that has helped conduct some of India’s largest Covid studies. “The more skeptical view is that everything about Covid has been politically managed and therefore it’s a question of whether they didn’t want to alarm people about something happening in India for fear of stigma — almost every country is trying to play this game.”
While the fallout from delta has been devastating, many of its lessons are yet to be addressed. South Africa’s vigilance makes it an outlier, with gaping virus surveillance holes across the world, particularly in countries that have already limited means to purchase and distribute vaccines, let alone the luxury of expensive sequencing programs.
More than 80% of the 6.5 million SARS-CoV-2 genomes that have been decoded and then uploaded to GISAID, the international database that tracks changes in the virus, have come from Europe and North America. Given the way southern Africa was treated when news of omicron emerged — with travel curbs levied from the U.S. to Japan — there may also be limited political appetite to remedy that disparity…
India isn’t the only nation where scientists have struggled to convince governments about the merits of decoding the structure of the virus. Even in the U.K., which has a world-leading Covid sequencing drive that has recorded 13% of all cases, there was early criticism that it was essentially an expensive academic exercise of limited real-world value.
The U.S. also reported omicron cases much later than other countries, even though officials said the new variant was likely already in the country, a sign of gaps in its sequencing systems…
India's new COVID-19 cases hit seven-month high of 141,986 https://t.co/7OERYoRRlc pic.twitter.com/tMyNOqummB
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2022
Lessons forgotten: Coronavirus cases fueled by the highly transmissible omicron variant are rocketing through India as the nation's political leaders hit the campaign trail addressing packed rallies of tens of thousands of people, many without masks. https://t.co/W1DLE4Cheg
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 8, 2022
Huge number of Covid cases on second Italy-India flight https://t.co/hGdXBXbGeh
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 7, 2022
For a second time in two days, the majority of passengers arriving in India on a flight from Italy have tested positive for Covid according to Indian officials.
On Friday, 173 out of 285 passengers aboard the flight from Rome to Amritsar tested positive on arrival.
It follows more than a hundred people testing positive after arriving in Amritsar from Milan on Wednesday.
On Thursday, cases in Italy reached a new record of nearly 220,000.
India reported more than 100,000 cases on Friday – experts believe Omicron is causing the sharp jump in infections the country has seen in the last week…
The passengers with Covid who arrived from Rome have been sent for institutional quarantine in their home districts, local health officials said.
The infected passengers from the Milan flight two days earlier were taken to hospital.
However, at least 13 people on the Milan flight managed to escape quarantine. Police say they will file complaints against them.
India has so far recorded more than 35 million Covid cases and around 483,000 deaths from the virus.
Tokyo's daily COVID-19 cases rise to most since Sept 11 https://t.co/tc1mMm8rxh pic.twitter.com/zt3XQdlrHz
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2022
U.S. forces in S.Korea raise COVID-19 alert amid record infections https://t.co/l26Fg5j2ec pic.twitter.com/iTXH1dPNF1
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2022
Australia's former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has tested positive for COVID-19, as case numbers hit new highs across the country and health officials warned that the real number of cases is likely much higher than testing shows. https://t.co/XlEPsryMCK
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 8, 2022
As millions of people in Europe wait hours in lines for COVID-19 tests and scour their nasal passages with self-test kits at home, workers are straining to meet the demand. In France, production lines are humming, spitting out freshly packaged tests. https://t.co/YkrhOh61X7
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 7, 2022
Spain's 14-day COVID-19 rate rises to 2,722 per 100,000 https://t.co/30L5FQzQMQ pic.twitter.com/AF5bbToX6l
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2022
More than 3.7 million infected with Covid in UK, says ONS https://t.co/rGTO7i4hGB
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 7, 2022
?Covid numbers in Britain have fallen for a third day in a row as evidence emerges that each case is bringing up to 12 times fewer hospitalisations than last year’s winter peak pic.twitter.com/k1I6If1T6c
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 7, 2022
From the longer thread:
?On the same visit, Amanda Pritchard, the chief executive of the NHS, said that a fortnight of further hospital admissions for Covid-19 are “already baked in” as some NHS staff face “the steepest climb of the pandemic yet”
Read the full story ?https://t.co/AdjIrC18J9
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) January 7, 2022
This isn't good: #Omicron deaths rising in South Africa, despite new infection incidence downturn. The SoAfr epidemic peaked a month ago, but deaths continue to rise… pic.twitter.com/zgrmZjHBQq
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) January 8, 2022
South African hospital sees less serious disease, coming end of Omicron surge https://t.co/PbT9grOIBf pic.twitter.com/Zjn68Qprm5
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2022
Brazil reports rise in new COVID-19 infections as Omicron variant spreads https://t.co/Nxy3mxFJzc pic.twitter.com/6XcifyvaD8
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2022
Mexico grants emergency use approval for Merck's COVID-19 pill https://t.co/Ip6LxRkY0T pic.twitter.com/Bwkiqw1OmI
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 8, 2022
Quebec to require vaccine proof for cannabis and liquor shoppers https://t.co/8PvyXHrRmY
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 7, 2022
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“We’re at a very odd time in terms of outpatient therapies. There’s a number of approved products, but the supply chain for them is tenuous and is being overwhelmed by the number of cases.” @DrewQJoseph surveils the #Covid treatment landscape. https://t.co/bOUh0CYP4z
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) January 7, 2022
Fellow @PeterHotez and colleague @mebottazzi used old but proven technologies that have been around for decades to develop the low-cost #Corbevax #vaccine. Now authorized for use in India, it is available to manufacturers worldwide. Get the story on @NPR: https://t.co/m6HLXs5XHt
— Baker Institute (@BakerInstitute) January 7, 2022
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The US Omicron wave is worse (for hospital admits, ICU) than what we've seen in UK, Denmark, Norway, Ireland and other European countries hit to datehttps://t.co/CXWH6rtaXX insightful, by @dwallacewells @NYMag
w/ @celinegounder
Much is related to less vaccinated/boosted— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) January 7, 2022
Omicron Isn’t Mild for the Health-Care System
The new variant is spreading quickly enough to inundate hospitals that were already buckling under the cumulative toll of every previous surge. @edyong209 https://t.co/cNKsnA8HIO— Global Health Observ (@GlobalPHObserv) January 7, 2022
Governors across the U.S. took sweeping action during earlier surges of the COVID-19 pandemic, but are taking a different path during the record caseloads caused by omicron. Governors are displaying little appetite for public orders or shutdowns. https://t.co/UA6mvsKMmW
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 7, 2022
Gov. DeSantis admits up to a million Covid-19 tests stockpiled by state expired https://t.co/ka5v3SwkMr
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) January 7, 2022
The difficulty finding coronavirus test kits in many parts of California and delays in getting results are causing increasing frustration and helping drive the surge of infections. https://t.co/4Wnp51qZWs
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 8, 2022
They’re so done with it! Masks, nah. Restrictions? None! Everything? Open it all up! Sure cases are higher than ever and systems are at the edge of collapse but ha ha fuck it.
“I’m tired of the bridge being out. I’m gonna just accelerate and assume my Toyota Camry can jump it.”
— Chuck Wendig (@ChuckWendig) January 8, 2022
And the helluvit is a certain percentage of them _will_ jump it with their Camrys and they'll say "See?!! What was the issue?!!" ignoring the growing heap of flaming wreckage at the bottom of the ravine
— Clark Valentine (@clarkvalentine) January 8, 2022
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
The Monroe County website:
There were 2373 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 1/7.
There were 981 new positive COVID home tests reported on 1/7.
The NYSDOH website: 2098 new cases
Hospitalizations as of 1/5:
144 people hospitalized, 108 are unvaxed (75%)
29 are in the ICU, 24 are unvaxed
22 are intubated, 18 are unvaxed
Baud
T-shirt, via reddit
https://i.redd.it/5u7hggk50ea81.jpg
NotMax
Locally,
Elsewhere,
Bnut
Healthcare worker, vaxxed and boosted. Tested positive on Wednesday. Bad head cold and lethargy. Symptoms abated after 48 hours, wife asymptomatic, 10 month old had a fever for a day. We are lucky.
Completely true on the everyone treating this as if it were over. Our clinic is being crushed atm with staffouts and extended testing times, we are AGAIN delaying surgery because we can’t get pre-screening done (I have opinions on this that are not of the mainstream of this site).
The vax works, stupidity does not.
I am still unaware of what several of my coworker’s smiles look like after some of them have been with us for months. It’s a crushing reality, losing nurses to telehealth and other work from home roles. The rest of us still plugging along making dog sh*t pay for a hospital that helped developed the vaccine.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Google says you can get one for twenty bucks. I may have to indulge.
New Deal democrat
All 4 of the US jurisdictions first hit hard by Omicron – NY, NJ, HI, and PR – show signs of plateauing. DC has turned down week over week.
Hospitalizations are now only 2% below their all time high, and are likely to break their record today. Hospitalizations lagged by 10 days have risen at about 2/3’s the rate of cases lagged by 10 days. ICU admissions have also increased. Deaths spiked to their highest daily level in over 3 months, due to data dumps from a number of Midwestern States.
Deaths in South Africa rose again, to 14x their pre-Omicron low (still well below the 80x rise in cases). Deaths also rose in the UK and in Canada, again nowhere even close to the rise in cases. Deaths are still falling in Denmark and Portugal.
Also: the graph in today’s post showing a lower rate of ventilator usage in UK hospitals is not lagged. So a huge increase in admissions, which don’t immediately require ventilators, shows up as a big decline in ventilator usage. Misleading!
Barbara
@Bnut: Same experience with my family. Except that we isolated for a few days and are vigilant about wearing high quality masks. The “all or nothing” mentality is discouraging, especially when it comes to wearing masks.
NotMax
@Baud
“It’s Australian.”
//
satby
I think I’m through the worst of whatever I had; though the head cold aspect is over the wheezing asthmatic aftereffects of every respiratory bug I get has started. Other people at the store where the doctors office is have tested positive, so far only the retail side, who were lax about mask usage. I can well imagine we’re a few weeks from a peak just witnessing how this is spreading locally. Testing here is a clusterfuck: if I didn’t have covid before I got in that line I certainly was exposed for the entire time there. As was everyone else.
NotMax
@satby
Hoping you feel better soonest. Don’t overdo, let the body’s energy focus on healing.
Baud
@satby:
Feel better.
Robert Sneddon
The chart from the UK’s Torygraph (pro-Boris Telegraph) that A-L references above is highly deceptive. “Look, the amount of people needing ICU beds is going down! We’re saved!”
The number of ICU and mechanical ventilation beds in use is actually increasing, not going down. The chart represents the PROPORTION of COVID-19-positive cases needing a high level level of medical support but the COVID-19 hospital population is soaring, about triple what it was a couple of months ago and still not at its expected peak.
satby
@NotMax: @Baud: Thanks guys! I’m just hanging at home with the critters and napping a lot.
YY_Sima Qian
On 1/7 China reported 95 new domestic confirmed (none previously asymptomatic) & 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Shaanxi Province reported 46 new domestic confirmed cases. 70 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently 1824 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
At Yuncheng in Shanxi Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case, a person arrived from Xi’an in Shaanxi.
Guangdong Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases, both at Shenzhen, 1 found via regular screening & the other is the case’s spouse. They are infected by Delta Variant, source of infection still unknown. At least no further positive cases have been identified. 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation (at Foshan). There currently are 20 active domestic confirmed cases (18 at Dongguan & 2 at Shenzhen) in the province.
At Guangxi “Autonomous” Region there currently are 19 active domestic confirmed (all at Dongxing in Fangchenggang) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Chongzuo) cases in the province. The High Risk village at Fangchenggang has been re-designated to Low Risk.
At Hulun Buir in Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region the last 5 domestic confirmed cases recovered.
Shanghai Municipality reported 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all traced close contact of previously reported imported & domestic asymptomatic cases, already under centralized quarantine since 1/1 or 1/3. There currently are 16 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
At Jiangsu Province there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (at Nanjing) & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases (all at Wuxi) in the province.
Zhejiang Province reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases. 3 domestic confirmed cases are reported by Beilun District in Ningbo & 1 at Jinhua, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. 37 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 299 active domestic confirmed cases (spread across Shaoxing, Ningbo, Hangzhou & Jinhua) in the province. A factory & a village at Jinhua are currently at Medium Risk. A factory & a village at Beilun District in Ningbo are currently at Medium Risk.
At Xiamen in Fujian Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining, a quarantine hotel worker.
At Chongqing Municipality the last domestic confirmed case recovered.
Henan Province reported 43 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 188 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases.
At Yunnan Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 13 active domestic confirmed (8 at Dehong Prefecture & 5 at Kunming) & 7 active domestic asymptomatic (5 at Dehong Prefecture & 2 at Sipsongpanna Prefecture) cases in the province.
At Tongren in Guizhou Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, a person who returned from Jinghong, Sipsongpanna Prefecture in Yunnan.
Imported Cases
On 1/7, China reported 64 new imported confirmed cases (7 previously asymptomatic), 48 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:
Overall in China, 151 confirmed cases recovered (38 imported), 16 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (15 imported) & 7 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all imported), & 5,578 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 3,367 active confirmed cases in the country (1004 imported), 27 in serious condition (3 imported), 661 active asymptomatic cases (628 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 39,276 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 1/7, 2,887.772M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 7.779M doses in the past 24 hrs. 472.774M doses have been injected in the 3 – 17 yrs. old population. 86.25% of the total population have been fully vaccinated, 89.54% of the total population have received at least 1 dose. No information shared on progress of the boosting campaign.
On 1/8, Hong Kong reported 37 new positive cases (16 asymptomatic), 30 imported (from Germany, the Philippines & the US) & 7 domestic (6 are traced close contacts & 1 from community transmission at Wanchai).
Mousebumples
Thanks, as always, AL, for your wonderful compilation efforts. ?
Baud
@satby:
Now I want COVID.
SiubhanDuinne
@lowtechcyclist:
WANT.
YY_Sima Qian
@satby: Hope you recover soon!
Kristine
@satby: Good plan. Fingers crossed for a quick recovery.
HinTN
@satby: Amplifying best wishes from Baud and Not Max. Rest well and hydrate!
HinTN
@Baud: Needs spew alert! ?
ETA: As do most of your comments.
Another Scott
Friday night ER report from Arlington, VA – BlueVirginia.US:
Be careful, everyone.
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@Barbara: Our paperhad a list of the school districts with the highest covid rates in the state. 29 out of 30 are in the NE corner. Our city was #16. But we are a big district with 9 high schools. The districts with higher numbers have only 1 or 2 high schools.
My takeaway is that mitigation works. Our school district required vaxxing and masks for everyone from the first day the returned to in person learning. The other schools with much smaller enrollment and much higher covid had masks as optional.
Steeplejack (phone)
Omicron meme.
JeanneT
My 2 year old grandson is part of the Moderna trial. I’m excited that Moderna will be ready to unblind the study very soon. He was not a happy participant – he particularly disliked the blood draws – but if they have enough data to submit to the FDA they will unblind the study for the participants. So soon we’ll know if he has had the vaccine and whether it was effective.
Kalakal
@satby: Glad to hear you’re on the mend. Hoping for a speedy recovery
Kalakal
@YY_Sima Qian: I’d just like to say how much I appreciate you putting up these posts. A A tremendous amont of work. Many thanks
Ascap_scab
Yesterday, Andy Slavitt had a Twitter thread in which he feared we could see 100 million covid cases by the end of January. Most wouldn’t be reported because of mild symptoms or home testing.
Scary stuff.
https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/1479619776645197827?t=nU9Zjfrg93i13HWcFTM1GQ&s=19
YY_Sima Qian
@Kalakal: Thanks for the kind words. It is as much for my benefit as for others’.
Emily68
Instead of spraying perfume to test your sense of smell do what I do—sniff the bottle of oregano. Vanilla works, too.
J R in WV
Psychiatric issues… hmmm.
Wonder if the Qanon cult is mostly people with otherwise asymptomatic Covid who can no longer think rationally? Or even the whole Trumpian Republican Party? Because there’s sure a whole lot of irrationality going on in there!
dnfree
We have a very inexpensive test for our sense of smell. When we take walks through our neighborhood (of 55+-age “active” seniors), almost always we pass a house where the dryer is running and the smell of a dryer sheet fills the outdoors.
I don’t know why anyone uses either those dryer sheets or fabric softeners. I hate when my clothes smell perfumy. And a lot of fabrics, including sheets and towels, now recommend against using them.