Coronavirus test kits from the U.S. govt have begun arriving at residents' homes. The Biden administration said it would send 500M rapid tests to Americans this month via the U.S. Postal Service after #OmicronVariant strained access to in-person testing https://t.co/eAIvr6g0h8
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 23, 2022
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WHO chief says world at 'critical juncture' in COVID pandemic https://t.co/WACbxdKOUC pic.twitter.com/Q7C4MDayYU
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 24, 2022
Chinese authorities have lifted a monthlong pandemic lockdown on the northern city of Xi’an and its 13 million residents. Access to the city had been suspended Dec. 22 following an outbreak attributed to the delta variant of the coronavirus. https://t.co/Vov8kNP0YK
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 24, 2022
Beijing 2022 organisers ease COVID-19 curbs for Games-related personnel https://t.co/gVzbH0NLAS pic.twitter.com/Y9UYM14vKI
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 24, 2022
… The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced the changes on Monday, which included easing the threshold for being designated positive for COVID-19 from PCR tests and reducing to seven days from 14 days the period for which a person is deemed a close contact.
The changes, which take effect immediately and apply retrospectively, “have been developed in order to further adapt to the reality of the current environment and support the Games participants”, the IOC said in a statement…
Organisers also began reporting data on positive COVID-19 tests among Games-related personnel, with 177 confirmed cases found among 3,115 international arrivals from Jan. 4 to Jan. 23, just one of which was among an athlete or support staffer, according to Beijing 2022 data released Sunday and Monday.
China’s strict COVID-19 protocols have led some team officials to express fear of athletes, including those who have recovered from coronavirus, being blocked from participating.
The changes mean that now only participants whose PCR results show a Cycle Threshold (CT) of less than 35 will be considered positive. Previously, the more sensitive CT of 40 was the threshold for designating those positive, the Games’ medical chief, Brian McCloskey, said on Sunday…
Some Hong Kong civil servants to work from home as COVID spreads https://t.co/V5laPY4JIA pic.twitter.com/gtPH3iYzhx
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 24, 2022
India's Omicron wave may intensify in coming weeks -experts https://t.co/mf9SFbpXE9 pic.twitter.com/2QMDIn4sF6
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 24, 2022
… India reported 306,064 new infections over the last 24 hours, the health ministry said, about an 8% decline from the average daily cases reported in the last four days. Deaths were 439, the lowest in five days.
But weekly positivity rates have risen to 17.03% in the week to Jan. 24, from about 0.63% Dec. 27, led by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant.
“Omicron is now in community transmission in India and has become dominant in multiple metros,” a report by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) said on Jan. 10 in a report released on Sunday.
Most cases of the Omicron variant have been mild, the advisory group said, although hospitalisations and cases in intensive care were increasing…
India’s tally of overall infections reached 39.54 million, the second-highest globally behind the United States. The country has seen 489,848 people die of the virus.
#Omicron: Fast-rising cases have Japan scrambling to provide boosters. As recently as November, it seemed Japan had beaten back Covid. Daily case counts dropped to almost zero. Masked/vaccinated people went about life w/o pandemic concerns. Now it's back https://t.co/wSyjhunGS3 pic.twitter.com/BF6csPUi8T
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 23, 2022
Pakistan has introduced a series of tough new coronavirus restrictions — including barring anyone not fully vaccinated from entering mosques — after recording the country’s highest known daily number of new cases since the pandemic began. https://t.co/v3ykFB0Efu
— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 23, 2022
German Covid protests turn nasty in row over rules and vaccinations https://t.co/9QEGtg3aQG
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 24, 2022
Canadian hospitals strain as Omicron hits health workers https://t.co/8K8oiG4uzD pic.twitter.com/awdv9SKdQL
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 24, 2022
Truckers fighting government vaccine mandate march to Canadian capital https://t.co/lqggWaoJNd pic.twitter.com/wCGoTlCNoY
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 24, 2022
‘March’:
A convoy of truckers started their march from Vancouver on Sunday to the Canadian capital city of Ottawa protesting the government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for truckers, which the industry says would create driver shortages and fuel inflation.
Truckers under the banner Freedom Convoy 2022 had raised C$2.7 million ($2.2 million) by Sunday through a gofundme campaign to fight the mandate. The funds raised would be used to help with the costs of fuel, food and lodgings, the gofundme page said. The convoy is expected to reach Ottawa on Jan. 29…
Canada imposed the vaccine mandate for the trucking industry from Jan. 15, under which unvaccinated Canadian truckers re-entering Canada from the United States must get tested for COVID-19 and quarantine themselves…
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has resisted industry pressure to delay the mandate since it was first announced in November.
======
There's no shortage of misperceptions about Omicron. A review of the abundant new data helps clear a lot of those up https://t.co/SyCmCzkBQX pic.twitter.com/P3MTBCYzlt
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) January 23, 2022
An #Omicron 'sub-variant' is raising new coronavirus questions. Scientists are keeping close watch on the recently discovered Omicron sub-variant, BA.2. U.K. health officials identified ~400 BA.2 cases. Detected so far in 40 countries; can spread quickly https://t.co/2LRrTMly6n pic.twitter.com/z2uSHzX9N7
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 23, 2022
Laurie Garrett expects the worst, but then LG *always* expects the worst:
A traveler from India came down with #COVID19 in Guangzhou, China just after Christmas — China CDC genomic analysis revealed it was BA.2 and, "compared with the Wuhan reference sequence, the strain displayed 67 nucleotide variation sites." https://t.co/XNHnGzuwRC
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) January 23, 2022
Counter-thread:
Guys, BA.2 isn’t new. It’s been around since last year. It’s a sub-lineage to BA.1. They’re both still Omicron. It isn’t expected to be any more severe or expected to cause another wave. It might just eventually replace BA.1. End of the day, still Omicron. Let’s not lose focus.
— Chise ???? (@sailorrooscout) January 21, 2022
New research shows that COVID-19 vaccines do not cause infertility – but getting #COVID19 mighthttps://t.co/XUkAqQeF60
— MicrobesInfect (@MicrobesInfect) January 23, 2022
Animals infecting humans is scary. It’s worse when we infect them back. Mink farms threaten to become a source of new coronavirus variants — and an object lesson in how ‘spillback’ can make deadly diseases even deadlier https://t.co/V9H9uFbYqg
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 24, 2022
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Covid still spreading widely in Los Angeles County, though signs of decline continue. Health officials say there are encouraging signs the #Omicron wave may be past its peak https://t.co/gN4tgBcOcL
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 24, 2022
There's a shrinking number of nurses in the Deep South, and they're now deep into another Covid wave. An exodus of medical workers during the pandemic has been brutal for small, nonprofit safety-net hospitals where millions of Americans seek care https://t.co/AgWZu2wUBL
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 24, 2022
“It’s death all around you all the time” — In Hospital Strained by #Omicron, Weary Nurses Treat Too Many Patients. Texas hospital can’t keep up as a depleted staff works overtime and more beds are shifted to #Covid19, by @_melaevans
https://t.co/EwkGeSVuUK @WSJhealth #nursing— André Picard (@picardonhealth) January 23, 2022
New study: “Virus spread was 62 percent higher in school districts without mask rules.” https://t.co/4d1DvtlvJh
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) January 23, 2022
… Absolutely *nothing*. But with MASSIVE resolve!
Q: The Covid test positivity rate in your state is 41 percent. What are you doing to bring that down?
KRISTI NOEM: We are doing exactly what we have been doing the last two years. pic.twitter.com/WjqvnsCkJQ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 23, 2022
Dumbest people in the world: Anti-vaxxers march in Washington DC —a city that mandates Covid vaccines —to protest vaccine mandates. The gathering was a jarring spectacle: A crowd of demonstrators, many unmasked, decrying vaccine mandates as #Omicron surges https://t.co/KYeKZCwvc8
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) January 23, 2022
Del Bigtree once again invoking the Holocaust at the antivaxx rally in D.C., using it to threaten journalists and Dr. Fauci.
"Unlike the Nuremberg Trials that only tried those doctors that destroyed the lives of those human beings, we're going to come after the press." pic.twitter.com/sH3qZNuSoE
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) January 23, 2022
(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)
Baud
Coming this summer: Son of Omicron: This time it’s personal!
MagdaInBlack
My friends daughter and twin 4 y/o grandsons were in Illinois visiting after Christmas. They went home to Birmingham AL Wednesday. Friday daughter and 1 twin tested positive. Minor symptoms in both so far. Grandma and Grandpa tested negative yesterday. Grandma works in daycare.
Cermet
First, and as always, thank you very much for these posts.
Its a relief the so-called new Omicron “variant” isn’t new nor really an issue at all.
Very sad the death rate has climb over 2000 and still increasing. All because of “freedumb”. Tragic.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
NYSDOH: There were 613 new cases of COVID-19 on 1/23. I’m assuming these are all lab tests and not home tests.
Well, at least we’re down from when it was 2000+ positive lab tests a day.
My sister the RWNJ, who got vaccinated last spring as soon as vaccines were available, seems to be having buyers remorse. Both she and her husband have had mild cases of COVID recently and are recovered. According to her the hospitals where she lives are full of patients dying from the vaccination, as are many athletes around the world. She gave me a list of 13 athletes who are supposedly dead from being vaccinated, although when you google them only one or two actually are and they had a family history of medical problems before vaccination. I noted that 13 people having issues out of millions who aren’t is actually pretty damned good, but I doubt it made much impact. As our mother used to say “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still”.
Baud
@NeenerNeener:
Only two were dead or only two died of the vaccination?
To be honest, if there is an actual death rate from vaccines, I don’t know what it is.
rikyrah
This is bullshyt ??
Chicago Public Schools says a switch in reporting data at the school level was not meant to mislead, but some say it shows an undercount of cases. https://www.wbez.org/stories/cps-failed-to-notify-families-about-a-big-change-in-its-covid-19-reporting/2f2d532e-783a-479f-a525-de7015139988?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=Web-Share
raven
@Baud:
Baud
@raven:
I know they make up stuff. Is there an actual death rate from the covid vaccine? I recall that one of the other vaccines given to babies does have a very low risk of death.
debbie
@Baud:
I found an article on Saturday about Missouri. Of those who have been vaccinated, 2% get ill, and .02% die. I posted a link to it, if needed.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Things may have changed, but the only deaths I’ve heard of that were directly attributable to COVID vaccines have been the clotting cases from viral-vector vaccines like the AstraZeneca or J&J. Those were in the single digits–one in millions. They are, of course, far rarer than deaths by clotting from COVID.
They were what caused antvaxxers to call every COVID vaccine “the Clot Shot” even though this didn’t even happen at all with the mRNA vaccines they seemed to be the most worried about.
NeenerNeener
@Baud: not that I’ve seen yet. That’s the whole point to the 15 minute wait to see if you go into anaphylactic shock.
Baud
@debbie:
Die from the vaccine? Or die of covid despite the vaccine?
The claim is that the vaccine is killing people.
debbie
@debbie:
Here.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Ok, thanks. I would think any appreciable death rate would be easily locatable. I just wasn’t sure if there actually was a number greater than zero.
debbie
@Baud:
Around here, people are claiming that vaccinations are useless in preventing death from COVID. Similar flavors of stupid. ??♀️
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t care what they do on covid anymore- my personal experience over the last 2 years is they’re impossible to convince. I worry that the protests are big and are turning into one big amorphous Right wing blob that draws in Qanon and anti-abortion and religious fundmentalists, etc and they’ll next go after childhood disease vaccines.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: …When people were talking a lot about the risk of vaccination-induced myocarditis in teenagers, I heard a rumor that one case was fatal, but I never heard anything else about it and that may not have been true. Given that myocarditis alone from catching COVID is a far bigger risk than that, it’s a pretty good track record.
mrmoshpotato
Two years on; three readily-available, FREE vaccines; hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 deaths…
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Antivaxxers are impossible to convince. My experience is that there are still people who are persuadable about more peripheral things like boosters for kids, where they’ve heard the risk from not doing it is lower and they’ve absorbed a bunch of FUD from the environment by osmosis.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
This was huge for a while and was spread, specifically, by the former NYTimes reporter who is now a celebrity anti-vaxxer. He personally is probably responsible for some number of covid deaths in young men. Just gross. They’re all making a ton of money off it.
Nicole
I don’t know that they’ll even be able to ever have an accurate count of deaths from the vaccine, because VAERS is a self-reporting site. The CDC investigates deaths listed on VAERS, but as of July, out of 6 cases, 3 were determined not to be vaccine related (all J&J). It’s a challenge to determine if someone who dies a couple of weeks out from getting vaccinated died because of the vaccine itself. I do feel comfortable saying 100% of these “danger, people are dying!” articles are seriously fudging the numbers, if not outright making them up.
My cousin’s wife was one of the only people I know who legitimately had a bad reaction to an mRNA; she went into anaphylactic shock 40 minutes afterwards. Fortunately, she’s a nurse and got her shot at the hospital so care was right there. Because she’s not an idiot, her social media posts after were pleas for those of us who don’t have trouble with vaccines to get vaccinated to protect people who really can’t.
She was out of work for a month due to her bad reaction, but happy ending, she recovered fine and four months later was able to tolerate the J&J shot (with her immunologist’s okay) without complications.
My 11-year-old had close contact on MLK day with a friend who tested positive two days after their playdate, but 2 PCR tests later for the kid, and one each for his parents, none of us tested positive. My kiddo was super disappointed, because, being vaccinated and having no symptoms, he was not allowed to stay home from school. ;)
YY_Sima Qian
On 1/23 China reported 18 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
At Shaanxi Province 95 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently 268 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Guangdong Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (previously asymptomatic). 8 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 58 active domestic confirmed & 6 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
At Guangxi “Autonomous” Region there currently are 7 active domestic confirmed (6 at Dongxing in Fangchenggang & 1 at Ningming County in Chongzuo) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Chongzuo) cases in the province.
Tianjin Municipality reported 1 new domestic confirmed cases (mild, at Jinnan District), all from persons already under centralized quarantine. 27 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 313 active domestic confirmed & 6 active domestic asymptomatic cases (all presumed Omicron). 12 residential compounds are currently at High Risk. 23 residential compounds & 3 villages are currently at Medium Risk.
At Dalian in Liaoning Province there currently are 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases (all Omicron) in the city, part of the transmission chain from Tianjin.
Beijing Municipality reported 6 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic, all mild) & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases. Of the 7 new domestic positive cases, 5 are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine since 1/19 or 1/22 & 2 from mass screening if residents in areas under movement restrictions. There currently are 36 active domestic confirmed cases & 10 active domestic asymptomatic cases (in 3 separate clusters, likely via 3 different introductions) in the city. 1 residential compound is currently at High Risk. 1 residential compound has been elevated to Medium Risk. 1 residential compound & 1 warehouse are currently at Medium Risk.
Shandong Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases (all Delta, sequences match that of the Delta outbreak in Beijing).
Shanxi Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, at Datong, a refrigerated truck drivers returning from Beijing (on 1/18 & 1/19, respectively), & traced close contacts of domestic positive cases there. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the province (1 each at Datong & Yuncheng).
Xiong’an in Hebei Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases, all persons recently returned from Beijing (on 1/20), all have been under centralized quarantine since 1/22.
Horgos in Yili Prefecture, Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic case, both found via regular screening of all residents at the border crossing w/ Kazakhstan.
At Shanghai Municipality 1 domestic case recovered. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 20 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 shop is currently at Medium Risk.
At Jiangsu Province there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (at Nanjing) & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases (both at Wuxi) in the province.
At Zhejiang Province 5 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 70 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. A factory & a village at Jinhua remain at Medium Risk.
Henan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case. 22 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 889 active domestic confirmed cases in the province. As the province does not break down the recovered cases by location, I can no longer track the counts of actives cases at different cities in the province.
Mengla County in Sipsongpanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases, all from mass screening of residents in areas under movement restrictions. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed (1 at Dehong Prefecture, 5 at Kunming & 4 at Sipsongpanna Prefecture) & 6 active domestic asymptomatic (all at Sipsongpanna Prefecture) cases in the province.
Imported Cases
On 1/23, China reported 39 new imported confirmed cases (4 previously asymptomatic), 22 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:
Overall in China, 223 confirmed cases recovered (72 imported), 36 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (all imported) & 6 were reclassified as confirmed cases (4 imported), & 4,903 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 2,754 active confirmed cases in the country (1,104 imported), 11 in serious condition (all domestic), 773 active asymptomatic cases (776 imported), 7 suspect cases (all imported). 46,145 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 1/23, 2,968.121M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 3.751M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 1/24, Hong Kong reported 109 new positive cases, 11 imported & 98 domestic (69 from the outbreak in residential towers in Tsuen Wan, 24 are traced close contacts of other cases, & 5 do not have sources of infection identified, yet).
On 1/24, Taiwan reported 51 new positive cases, 36 imported (20 from the US, 2 each from Indonesia & Palau, 1 each from Hong Kong, the Philippines, Vietnam, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Belgium & the Netherlands, & 4 still under investigation) & 15 domestic (including 8 cases from the port outbreak at Kaohsiung).
YY_Sima Qian
From 1/4 to 1/22, 2,586 individuals have arrived in China for the Beijing Winter Olympics, including 171 athletes or members of national delegations, & 2,415 “stakeholders” (presumably people working logistics, broadcasting, IOC staff, etc.), of whom 39 have tested positive upon entry (all among the “stakeholders”). Within the Olympic “closed loop”, 33 individuals have tested positive so far from daily screening (all among the “stakeholders”).
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I have a client I really like and I gave up even on him. He was my last effort. He works at a huge food production plant and I know they have +10% out with covid so I was basically begging him (he smokes, probably isn’t all that healthy) but he’s dug in, so I surrendered. I have a lot of anger at fundie churches. Their role in this has been underplayed. There’s a huge overlap between the most stubborn anti-vaxxers and people who go to those churches here. They’re hearing this at church.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: The myocarditis scare happened right around the time my teenager became eligible for Pfizer vaccination, so I was paying close attention to it. I concluded the balance of odds would have been overwhelmingly pro-vaccination even if she were a boy. But there were a lot of borderline-respectable people raising doubts, including this one apparently credentialed guy I saw on Twitter who, it turns out, has taken the “moderate” anti-COVID-mitigation side on every single issue since then.
YY_Sima Qian
I do hope Amir is on the mend!
Baud
It occurs to me that the Omicron wave has given us a taste of how bad it would have been if, early on in the pandemic, we took mitigation measures in order to achieve herd immunity, as a bunch of right wingers advised.
snoey
@Nicole:
VAERS isn’t built to give an accurate count of anything. It’s function is to serve as an early warning system. Nonsense reports – including Incredible Hulk syndrome – are the price of getting any real problems reported.
Lapassionara
@Baud: I think what the anti-vaxxers are doing is looking at the FDA’s adverse event reporting system and claiming that it shows massive bad outcomes to the jab. Medical personnel are required to report any adverse event that occurs post-vax, and there is no way to figure out if there is really a causal link between the event and the vax. Plus there is no way to determine, without more information, what percentage of people getting vaxxed have experienced an adverse event. So using this reporting system the way they do is highly misleading.
Ken
That may be what they said, but what I heard was “If we tried to follow the original rules, we’d have so many people isolating that we’d be unable to hold the games.”
Baud
@Lapassionara:
There was a joke, I think I saw on Reddit, from a comedian.
“I got the vax.
“Ten years later. BOOM. Herpes!”
rikyrah
@YY_Sima Qian:
Thinking of Amir ??
lowtechcyclist
@raven:
NFL: 32 teams, ~60 players per team, so <2000 professional athletes in the NFL.
MLB: 30 teams, 25 players per team, so 750 MLB teams.
Add on A, AA, AAA minor-league teams, so multiply by 4 to get ~3000 professional baseball players.
NBA: guessing here, 30 teams, 12 players per team? ~360 professional basketball players.
WNBA: I’ll use the same number as for NBA. 360.
NHL: I don’t know shit about hockey. I’m guessing fewer players per team than baseball, but I’ll say 1000 to be safe.
MLS: Same as NHL. 1000.
So maybe 8000 professional athletes in the U.S. If 100 of them died in a short time, no matter what the cause, it would be big fucking news. Hell, if five or six died in a single sport, it would be big news. So Stockton’s full of shit, unsurprisingly. The anti-vaxxers almost always are.
lowtechcyclist
I’m surprised it was just 62 percent difference.
I’m sure glad our county schools have a mask mandate and enforce it.
Mary G
@YY_Sima Qian: @rikyrah:
I miss Amir and hope we hear from him soon.
Chief Oshkosh
@Cermet:
Not tragic if the right people die.
/s…? (If they’re going to be assholes, let’s just hope the assholes are the ones dying.)
@debbie: To be clear, those are not deaths from the vaccine. Those are deaths from breakthrough cases. That is, those are deaths caused by Covid.
Nicole
@snoey: Yeah, you’re right. I see the value of VAERS in that it provides raw information for researchers to follow up on, but it makes me crackers that the media reports on it as if it’s a peer-reviewed double-blind study.
RSA
@Baud:
This is the most straightforward account I’ve seen for the U.S., from the CDC:
That’s out of more than half a billion doses of all forms of COVID vaccinations in the U.S.
lee
Had dinner with some friends last night. She is a nurse. I’m not sure of her specialty at the moment. For decades she was in the cardiac ward.
She said that the number of patients on dialysis in the US is the lowest it has been in decades. The CDC’s numbers only go back to 2018. My google-fu is weak this morning and I can’t find any current numbers.
Any of y’all jackals have any insight into this claim?
Thanks!
Rusty
It’s the anti-vaxxers exploiting how vaccine studies are conducted. You give a large group a vaccine. Anyone who does in the next period (like 30 days) is counted as a vaccine death. If you die in a bus accident in that 30 days you count as a death. Then, and the part deliberately ignored by the anti-vax crowd, is you compare the number that died to a control group. How many died there in the same time period. The difference, accounting for statistical variation, it the actual possible death rate from the vaccine (and then only correlation,not causation because there may a factor you missed). So when you see those numbers that look so high, they are really just the natural death rate of the population, not of the vaccine. The real studies are only a very tiny number of deaths may be attributed to the vaccine, and as pointed about above those are mostly a tiny number of clotting cases in a particular population from the J&J vaccine. The mNRA vaccines have been incredible. Compare to the risk of actually getting COVID-19 they are a miracle of life saving medicine.
Baud
@RSA:
Thanks.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
“I think” is pretty much the give away they are BSing.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@raven: Oh, fucking Christ, this Stockton is yet another Joe Rogan type dumb jock who think he’s the expert because he somewhat famous.
Sloane Ranger
Sunday in the UK we had 74,799 reported new cases. The rolling 7-day average is down 15.4%. This will be an undercount due to weekend office closures and Scotland no longer reporting at weekends. New cases by nation,
England – 68,913 (down 4318)
Northern Ireland – 3059 (down 417)
Scotland – No longer reports at weekends.
Wales – 2827 (Does not report on Saturdays so this figure will include some Saturday cases).
Deaths – There were 75 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported yesterday. As usual, this will be an undercount due to weekend office closures. The rolling 7-day average is up 1.9%. 58 deaths were in England, 5 in Northern Ireland, 4 in Scotland and 8 in Wales (Wales figure will include some deaths for Saturday).
Testing – Not updated at weekends.
Hospitalisation – Not updated at weekends.
Vaccinations – As of Saturday, 22nd, 52,223,105 people had had 1 shot of a vaccine, 48,158,421 had had 2 and 36,890,079 had had a 3rd shot/booster. In percentage terms, this means that 90.8% of all UK residents aged 12+ have had 1 shot of a vaccine, 83.7% had had 2 and 64.1% had had a 3rd shot/booster.
Fair Economist
Flu Report for 1/9/22 – 1/15/22. Flu epidemic continuing to recede but more slowly. Positivity down from 2.2% to 1.8%. Lab cases down from 2,203 to 1,646, with 1,133 added to previous weeks. H3N2 continues its unprecedented dominance, 98.6% of all typed flus and 100% of subtyped Type A. Hospital admissions down from 1,804 to 1.483.
A possibility for explaining the slower drop is that students being back at school has pumped up flu transmission, partially offsetting the decreases from Omicron precautions.
Mortality due to pneumonia, influenza and COVID continues to climb, to 25.5% of all reported deaths, far exceeding the pre-COVID peak of 10.9% and even the Delta peak of 25%. Excess is essentially all COVID – influenza is causing less than 1% of all these deaths.
sab
A lot of Balloon Juicers are older, and many live alone. Does anyone have opinions about getting those alert pendants? I am a big fan, but choose carefully.
You cannot count on being able to reach your cellphone if you collapse. I know this from friends and relatives who learned the hard way.
Fair Economist
@lee: I don’t have a link, but, yes, I’ve seen a credible report that dialysis cases are at an all-time low. The reason is simple – dialysis patients cannot isolate, since they need dialysis typically 3x/week. and they are at very elevated risk of dying from COVID. So a lot of them have died.
Nursing homes have a similar shortfall of residents.
WaterGirl
It will be 3 weeks tomorrow since Amir let us know that he would be in hospital and out for a few days. I just sent a third email message to Amir, hoping to get a response.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — just over 6,900 new cases and zero deaths reported but this is common on a Monday when the Register offices have been closed over the weekend. Tuesday’s numbers will be more realistic. Still no test positivity rate being reported.
Hospital bed numbers are also down, including ICU bed occupancy. The COVID-19 death numbers are likely to lag this decrease though, including ICU where an open bed usually means someone has died. The last Public Health Scotland weekly report said that individuals in the age group 80+ made up the largest group of new admittances suggesting that the expected winter rise in older people needing hospital-bed care even if vaccinated is ongoing.
There’s a push going on to try and get the last Young Immortal holdouts vaccinated and boostered, it’s a lot of effort for little return as the country opens up and restrictions are lifted. Masks are still required in shops and public transport here in Scotland and people are generally complying. I don’t know how long this will last though.
WaterGirl
@sab: I just saw an Apple watch commercial where some fellow collapsed in the woods and his watch called 911 for him.
*Using collapsed loosely because I don’t actually watch/listen to commercials but I caught some of it in the background.
lee
@Fair Economist: Thanks!
sab
@WaterGirl: I collapsed in the kitchen after feeling unwell all day. I had a husband who found me.
My brother in law collapsed in his house, and the only reason he was found alive three days later was utility workers wanted him to move his car. His cellphone was five feet away and he could not get to it
ETA He was conscious the whole time, just too weak to move.
laura
Sending well wishes to Amir Khalid. I hope he returns soon, healthy and with a story to share.
Mai Naem mobile
@sab: those little alert bracelets can literally be lifesavers. Some people don’t want them because of the monthly monitoring charge. I haven’t bothered to look into it but a friend told me there is one which you connect to your phone to make the phone call when you activate it and not have the monitoring fee.
Mai Naem mobile
I’ve been checking the COVID thread everyday fot Amir. Hope he’s getting better and will be back soon.
trnc
@Lapassionara:
2 points about VAERS. First, it seems odd to me that the data are public, given that not only does there not appear to be any benefit to anyone besides health researchers, but it’s obviously confusing.
Second, anyone who has downloaded the data and is promoting misinformation about the data may be violating a data use agreement, although I’m not sure how binding the disclaimer confirmation is.
WaterGirl
@sab: Holy shit.
Mel
@sab: I think the alert buttons can be an important safety tool, but agree with you – being careful in selecting is important.
Setting up a check-in network can be helpful, too, especially for seniors or others who live alone but are able to engage via email or phone.
If a group of 5 or so (reliable!) people make a plan to email or briefly call each other once or twice a day and always respond to the email or call within a certain amount of time, it won’t necessarily catch immediate, life or death emergencies, but can help identify and get help for things like non-life threatening or early stage illness, temporary need for help with mobility issues, shopping needs, etc.
It can also help identify the need for support with mental health issues like depression.
My grandmother, when she entered her 70s, had that sort of phone chain set up with 7 people. Each person had a “call day” that they did once a week. People involved had contact info for others close family members, local emergency services, a nearby friend or neighbor, etc, in case of an emergency or of not getting a response from one of the people in tje group.
A big bonus was that it inspired several of the people who lived near one another to visit each other more frequently, and often led to purely social, non-“check-in” phone calls all during the week.
Mel
@sab: That’s such a frightening situation. So thankful that both you and your brother-in-law are okay. It’s
About 20 years ago, I had what docs think was a seizure (likely due to autoimmune brain inflammation) and lost consciousness while carrying groceries up our brick entry steps at 10 pm.
Had been feeling bad, like a usual autoimmune flare-up was coming on, and thought I’d get a few basics from the store before it fully kicked in. I had never had a seizure or lost consciousness during a flare-up before, and so had no reason to think anything like that would suddenly happen.
The last thing I remember was feeling a sudden fever spike, opening the door and saying hello to the cats and rescue Collie, seeing my hand start shaking and the keys dropping out of my hand, and then—— crickets. I can’t recall anything between then and when I regained consciousness about three hours later with a split open lip and concussion, amidst shattered eggs and milk, with our Collie standing guard over me and facing the door, keeping the cats from slipping out. (Best dog ever. He was my hero in so many ways)
We lived way out in the country (nearest town, population about 1,000) at the time, and hubby was gone for the weekend for a work conference. Nearest neighbors were an elderly couple whose farm was about a mile away, and who didn’t answer their phone after 8 pm.
That feeling of fear and utter helplessness stayed with me for a long time after that incident, and still rears its head when I’m having a bad flare up.
I am all for emergency assistance buttons and contact chains after that.
Gretchen
My son’s vaxxed but not boosted girlfriend has covid. Went to ER last night. O2 saturation in the 70s. Normal is 95. They didn’t check for pneumonia or blood clots, just sent her home. Florida. New York nurse in the family says she has patients who come there from Florida for medical care. Worried.
WaterGirl
@Gretchen: Holy shit, that’s awful. Do they have the ability to go elsewhere for care?
LongHairedWeirdo
“A quick followup: How many additional deaths have your team told you will happen as a result of this? You did measure it, right? And, how did you decide that, oh, say, 1000 preventable deaths are a fair price to pay for – what benefit exactly?
glc
Review article
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/23/us/politics/biden-covid-strategy.html
Mai Naem mobile
@Gretchen: there was a NM nurse i think i saw on Twitter comment that they had a COVID patient from Oklahoma who they couldn’t find a bed for anywhere closer. Part of me feels like that shouldn’t be allowed. Maybe some limited exceptions like Reno/Lake Tahoe or some natural emergency but when your state is creating the situation and expecting another state to deal with the consequences…nope.
Dopey-o
IIUC, 2 out of 100 vaxxed Missourians will catch Covid?
And 2 out of 10,000 vaxxed Missourians will die of Covid?
Missouri’s mascot is the mule, and we have a majority of stupid, stubborn, fatally contrarian meth-sucking goobers with less sense than teeth, so i would like to see how the unwashed, unvaxxed minions are faring in comparison.
Cermet
@Gretchen: Rather strange – a ventilator is called for when O2 levels below 85%. Anything under 90% is considered a serious issue and oxygen is called for. Someone in the 70’s is a massive medical emergency. Below that, severe and irreversible brain damage occurs.
Chris T.
@Baud: Aaron Rogers is dead from the vaccine. So is Leonidas of Rhodes!
J R in WV
@Kay:
Did you tell him you could no longer meet with him face to face, and ask him to find another lawyer? That might make a dent in his obstinacy.
I wouldn’t work with anyone who refused vaccination under any circumstances. The virus causes a potentially fatal disease, and long Covid could be causing permanent disability, including an inability to have sex. . .
I’m extra paranoid because Wife had septic shock,, which probably damaged her immune system. So even though we both have had three shots of Moderna, I’m still paranoid. I am thinking about seeking a follow up booster, our third shot was last August…
lowtechcyclist
@Mai Naem mobile: Well, if we’re returning to Articles of Confederation days with each state being able to make very different decisions on who gets to vote, and whether that vote should count for anything, then we might as well go back there with respect to sharing resources.
Gretchen
@Cermet: right! She went to a different doctor today and it was 83 so she is being admitted. Phew!
Gretchen
@Dopey-o: That sounds low. I know two previously healthy vaccinated people who are in the hospital today. Also know of a kid who tested positive Monday, but was wanted as a flower girl at a large unmasked wedding on Saturday. The bride knew the kid was sick, and wanted her anyway.
J R in WV
@Gretchen:
Bride be crazy!! Marriage may not last long, infection doesn’t take long to have a strong effect!
LongHairedWeirdo
I think I finally nailed my interview question:
(I am not doing an interview. I am, instead, suggesting a question that should have been asked in the spring and summer of 2020.)
Mel
@J R in WV: Absolutely go for the 4th shot booster for her, and for yourself if you meet the requirements.
It’s clear that you guys know this, but just in case anybody here isn’t sure how the 4th shot situation works: for a person who is immunosuppressed / immunocompromised, the first three shots are being considered as the initial series – the fourth is the booster, and the wait time between initial series and booster recently dropped from six months to five months.
I tried to get my booster (shot 4) at a local Walgreens, and they said “Yes, you can absolutely get your booster now, but not here, b/c we haven’t been told how to bill that to insurance companies yet, so come on back in a month or so and we’ll probably have the info by then on how to bill it, but no guarantees…”
Hell, no!
I called a local independent pharmacies, and they knew how to properly code and bill the booster, and had available vaccines and appointments.
JR in WV – you bring so much humor and kindness (and beautiful garden photos, too!) here, and I’m sure that you and your wife do the same for your friends and loved ones. You guys grab those boosters if you can – this world needs all the good people to stick around!
rikyrah
@sab:
Been seriously thinking about one for my sister.
rikyrah
@Gretchen:
Prayers.
Can she get out of Florida to another state?
rikyrah
@LongHairedWeirdo:
Wish every reporter interviewing her would say..
You know, the population of the city of San Francisco is on par for your ENTIRE STATE.
WHY is it that they have:
Fewer cases of COVID
Fewer COVID Deaths
than your state?
rikyrah
@Gretchen:
Amen
Bill Arnold
@Kay:
Mass (stochastic) murder for personal gain is a lot worse than gross.
The legal system can’t well handle this sort of deliberate probabilistic mass murder. But it is what is is, and it is mass murder, for personal gain, or even just for personal convenience.