Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The jury literally has a bell they can ring to force Trump to show up on command. Greatest thing ever!

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Second rate reporter says what?

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Jan. 27-28

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Jan. 27-28

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This post is in: ,

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Jan. 27-28 1

(John Deering via GoComics.com)


The comforting lies people tell themselves…

======

From a thread by a China correspondent for a German media outlet:

All is for the best, in this best of all possible worlds…

Canadian international-affairs columnist:

======

======

Are we not, every one of us, the star of our own Hollywood blockbuster?

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    There were 609 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 1/27.
    There were 291 positive home COVID tests reported on 1/27.
    Still not good, but better than it was 3 weeks ago.

  2. 2.

    Barbara

    Another reason to avoid Substack. I don’t know what to do about the proclivity to fall for malicious disinformation about vaccines. Or why anyone would think being played for a dupe makes them part of an elect cognoscenti.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    @Barbara:

    It’s mimicry.  We challenged their conventional wisdom about white supremacy, so they challenge our conventional wisdom about science.

  5. 5.

    Ha

    I read the Twitter thread from the last tweet above – Julian Sanchez – and, it makes so much sense to me. I mean, it is known that people are easily propagandized thru visual medium because they believe what they see, so why not believe you’re living in a movie, especially since Hollywood has churned about movies and shows about plucky rebels and outcast scientists who turn out to be right for a long time now. I wonder if they think that Roma Downey from “Touched by an Angel” will come heal them, if they believe in God enough.

  6. 6.

    New Deal democrat

    No significant changes from yesterday. US cases now down 30% from peak. Deaths held at 2250. All 4 Census regions declining, with the Northeast down 65%. Only 7 States, mostly rural, with cases increasing over 10% from one week ago.

    Here is the problem going forward: under the most optimistic scenario, where there is virtually nobody left to infect, cases should be dropping *below* where they were before Omicron. And yesterday in all the earliest hit countries and US States, including South Africa, with the sole exception of Ireland, cases appear to be leveling off at a level *above* that pre-Omicron. In the US, that pre-Omicron level was over 100,000 a day, with deaths over 1200 a day.

  7. 7.

    satby

    @Barbara: Both Heather Cox Richardson and Dan Rather post on Substack. The problem is that Substack isn’t moderating for misinformation like other social media platforms have done a half-assed job of doing.

  8. 8.

    satby

    On the topic of the healthcare worker mandate, we never heard back from the potential intern who wants to work in healthcare without getting the vaccine. Not really surprised, but it was disappointing.

  9. 9.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ha: It depends on the movie. The other Hollywood scenario is that some stalwart scientist comes up with the vaccine at the climax, then we flash forward to a quick denouement where the pandemic’s over and roll credits. That the vaccine exists, then there’s a huge grassroots anti-vaccine movement that kills a million people because they’re wrong and a bunch of dopes is not the story they usually want to tell.

  10. 10.

    Rusty

    Sadly the anti-vaxxers are winning. In NH the state legislature, controlled by the Republicans, is seriously considering rolling back all vaccine requirements, not just those for Covid-19. I think there is something in the human condition that wants to make someone want to think they know more than anyone else.

    The core of believing conspiracy theories is that you somehow have access to secret information that others don’t have or are too stupid to understand. It boosts the ego and makes people feel validate. Finally, there is just basic contrarianism. “No ones going to tell me what to do!” I have extended family members that will do the opposite whatever they are asked to do, just to show they can. I always hated the bumper sticker almost always on cars owned by lefties “Question Authority”. I always thought it was mindless contrarianism. Now we see it all in full bloom with the growing and stronger anti-vax movement. They are going to be a nightmare for a long time to come.

  11. 11.

    Spanky

    Happy to hear the fallout for Spotify, because I was fairly doubtful there would be much outcry for dropping an ancient rocker dude for a modern “edgy” guy.

  12. 12.

    Kay

    We’ll have more information on whether “anti-vaxx on covid” merges with “anti-vaxx on all childhood vaccines” when the covid vaccine for under 5 comes out, which will send them into a frenzy.

    It’s so funny how all the anti-vaxxers say they “aren’t afraid” when so much of anti-vaxx is pure fear mongering. The vaccine kills boys and young men, the vaccine causes infertility, the government will put the unvaccinated into camps. They’re much more afraid than I am.

  18. 18.

    Kay

    @Rusty:

    rolling back all vaccine requirements, not just those for Covid-19.

    It was inevitable it would bleed through to all vaccines. You see it in even some of the centrist “we’re DONE with covid- boring!” articles- vaccines for children in school are always presented as “a choice”, so why wouldn’t all the childhood vaccines be a choice?

  21. 21.

    Matt McIrvin

    It seems like there are a lot of people–elderly right-wingers particularly–who got vaccinated early on, but are now refusing to get boosted because they’ve been mainlining Tucker Carlson ever since. And because they got those early shots, when the virus gets them they might get pretty sick, but thanks to their B- and T-cell immunity they’re almost certainly not gonna die. They’ll recover and keep on railing about how the vaccine that saved them is poison and voting for antivaxxers.

    And, I confess, there’s a part of me that resents that a little.

  27. 27.

    Dougb

    I wonder if someone with some deep pockets could launch a class action lawsuit against one of the prominent anti-Vaxxers spreading disinformation – say against Robert Kennedy Jr. or perhaps against a bunch of them.  I think the only way to hit back effectively against some of this is to hold some of those key individuals accountable and I think a severe financial hit, along with dragging them through discovery, might be the only way.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I used to read Alex Bereneson’s twitter and it’s like he wasn’t getting enough attention/subscribers with “the vaccines don’t work” so he amped it up to the “vaccines kill”. While sneering at liberals for being so “afraid”.

    So everyone understands if they succeed in ending all child vaccine mandates in schools the initial numbers of children impacted will be really small – it will take a while for the vaccinated number to drop off- and then they can say it doesn’t matter because it’s a tiny number of children affected, which neatly fits within their current covid frame?

  30. 30.

    lee

    Just wanted to post an update about my bout with coronavirus.

    It has been 2 weeks since I tested positive (PCR) and almost 3 weeks since I started feeling the symptoms.

    The worst of it was about 3 days worth of congestion and a low fever (99.9 was the highest). I still wake up with some slight congestion if I don’t take a muscinex before bed. Other than that I seem to be completely over it.

    This was a mild case and not a HermanCainAward because of being vaxxed and boosted. I’ve got cousins that still refuse to get vaccinated.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    I also love the anti-vaxx “middle position” which is that other people need to get the vaccine so anti-vaxxers can determine if it kills people, then they’ll get or not get it.

    I listen and think “so I’m your canary and you’re standing here just telling me that”

    Just the most selfish, self centered people on the planet.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I saw Berenson on CSPAN prior to covid- he wrote a book about how marijuana use contributes to mental illness – and even then he seemed horribly bitter and prone to thinking he’s a brave truthteller that people try to silence, so it was a preexisting condition. He’s absolutely convinced of his own brilliance too. He reminds me a little of Scott Adams, the Trumpster cartoonist.

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    They’ve run plenty of news reports of anti-vaxxers who end up in the hospital with COVID. Every single one of them says they’re sorry they didn’t get vaccinated.

    If this testimony from their own tribe doesn’t change their minds, I don’t know why we keep wasting our time with them. Fuck empathy. They’re all Trumpian narcissicists and only crave our attention.

  36. 36.

    satby

    @lee: I never was able to schedule the PCR test in time that I thought would confirm I had a breakthrough case, but I had the same symptoms as you, including the long lingering congestion. It finally subsided enough just this week so that I don’t need to take anything any more, four weeks after I first got sick. Glad I was vaxxed and boosted and had only a “mild” case that lasted almost a full month.

  37. 37.

    Matt McIrvin

    @debbie:

    They’ve run plenty of news reports of anti-vaxxers who end up in the hospital with COVID. Every single one of them says they’re sorry they didn’t get vaccinated.

    I’ve also seen the stories of the ones who go to their grave insisting that they don’t have COVID and the doctors and nurses who are treating them are lying monsters. Those tend to be secondhand reports from the staff.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    My paying attention to them is essentially defensive, honestly. Over and over and over again, these Right wing groups start as fringe and then grow and are normalized within the Republican Party. I feel I need to watch them. I don’t know if it does any good, but I’m just that way temperamentally. I do best case/worst case just as a matter of course. I feel more in control if I can see the hit coming.

  41. 41.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin: I agree. My mother got vaccinated without any protest or question at all, just scheduled the appointment and got the shots. We found material from Alex Berenson in her house, though, so I think she would have resisted any more booster shots. Yesterday we went to a visitation for one of our regular karaoke singers who died suddenly of a heart attack – he was 74. I talked to one of his friends who told me he had lost 16 friends in the past two years. I just can’t wrap my head around that. We started talking because he was complaining about the anti-vaxxers around here who won’t get the shots, and how they’re prolonging this situation.

  42. 42.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: I think South Africa and the UK are slightly different situations. South Africa is the case where most people are unvaccinated and there were relatively few controls–Omicron ripped through almost everyone and now we’re seeing it getting the few stragglers.

    The UK is where most people are vaccinated, they also had some non-medical controls that got the initial spike down, but the government is super-eager to lift them and tell everyone to go out and party at the slightest sign of hope. So we get a rapid drop and then this secondary burst of cases that happens with a larger number of people who weren’t infected yet. It looks less like a smooth exponential tail.

  43. 43.

    satby

    @germy: well, how could they live with themselves if they admitted that they did cost their family member her life? Of course not just their fault, she wouldn’t get the vaccine either. I’m just gratified that organ transplant protocols require vaccines be current for all recipients. No sense wasting money on those that actively choose death instead.

  44. 44.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I think it’s hilarious how they sneer at others for being afraid, because they seem to be afraid of everything – cartoon M & M characters, changes in Mr. Potatohead toys, and now Minnie Mouse wearing a pantsuit! The country is going to end because Disney changed the clothing of a cartoon mouse. They are afraid of a lot of the wrong things, and not afraid of things that are actually dangerous, like Covid and firearms. They have the worst risk assessment tools of any group of human beings.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    They grow in one of two ways- each faction grows or the factions combine. QANON and the anti-vaxxers was a natural fit, just like conservatives who object to public schools existing were a natural fit with the CRT panic people.

  46. 46.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Just the most selfish, self centered people on the planet.

    The one miscalculation I made was that the most selfish, self centered people on the planet wouldn’t rush to take a vaccine that protects themselves, and not just others.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    Accumulation of data continues.

    It is one of many mysteries about long COVID: Who is more prone to developing it? Are some people more likely than others to experience physical, neurological or cognitive symptoms that can emerge, or linger for, months after their coronavirus infections have cleared?

    Now, a team of researchers who followed more than 200 patients for two to three months after their COVID diagnoses report that they have identified biological factors that might help predict if a person will develop long COVID.

    The study, published Tuesday by the journal Cell, found four factors that could be identified early in a person’s coronavirus infection that appeared to correlate with an increased risk of having lasting symptoms weeks later. Source

    No refuge.

    When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the remote Pacific archipelago of Kiribati closed its borders, ensuring the disease didn’t reach its shores for nearly two full years.

    Kiribati finally began reopening this month, allowing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to charter a plane to bring home 54 of the island nation’s citizens. Many of those aboard were missionaries who had left Kiribati before the border closure to spread the faith abroad for what is commonly known as the Mormon church.

    Officials tested each returning passenger three times in nearby Fiji, required that they be vaccinated, and put them in quarantine with additional testing when they arrived home.

    It wasn’t enough. Source

    FYI.

    For the thousands of athletes, journalists and others descending on Beijing for the Winter Olympics, China’s strict pandemic measures are creating a surreal and at times anxious experience.
    [snip]
    Photographer Jae Hong said he had been warned about the bubble but seeing it in effect in Beijing was still a shock. He described seeing passengers met by workers in white, full-body protective gear. Everyone is tested for COVID-19 at the airport before being transported to their barricaded hotels, the entrances protected by round-the-clock guards.
    [snip]
    So far, organizers said Thursday there have been 129 positive tests among the 4,046 people who have arrived for the Games. Of those, two are either athletes or team officials. The rest are other participants such as the media. Those who test positive are taken to a hospital if they have symptoms or a quarantine hotel if they do not.
    [snip]
    Outside the bubble, Beijing authorities locked down more neighborhoods in the city’s Fengtai district on Thursday as they try to snuff out a delta variant outbreak that has infected about 70 people.
    [snip]
    The Beijing outbreak has spread to neighboring provinces. After four cases were reported in the city of Langfang, just south of Beijing in Hebei province, authorities suspended travel between the cities to try to prevent further spread. Source

  48. 48.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I just hope it doesn’t spread to infectious disease we’ve mostly eradicated, but I don’t see how it won’t. If you object to vaccine mandates in schools you’re almost compelled to include all of them, because the justification isn’t the vaccine- it’s “parental rights” or “my choice”. It doesn’t matter if the vaccine works. It also doesn’t matter how many die- they’ve made it a moral stand.

  49. 49.

    smith

    @debbie: They’re all Trumpian narcissicists and only crave our attention.

    They work so hard to get our attention I sometimes think they must have a big ol’ crush on us.

  50. 50.

    NorthLeft12

    Greetings from Canada. About the truck convoy currently barreling towards Ottawa, apparently almost 90% of Canadian truckers are fully vaccinated and they have little empathy for the small minority who are staging this circus.
    A circus that is rapidly being taken over by the right wing and rabid anti-vaxxers and pro-COVID crowd. Their cheering supporters are the same dumbasses that protest at hospitals and vaccination sites and public health offices and homes of public officials.
    They are the worst of the worst and of course, the Conservatives appear to be ready to go all in on their support of them even though the majority of their base support vaccine mandates and public health measures.
    78% of Canadians have two doses, and 48% have the booster too. We have a ways to go and it is concerning that the vaccination rates have slowed across the entire country.
    Spectacles like this don’t help.

    PS Kudos to native son Neil Young and his stand against vaccine/COVID misinformation peddling. I can’t believe anyone would give Joe Rogan $100M for any reason. Fuck you Spotify.

  51. 51.

    Wag

    @satby:   At the medical school where I teach we had one student who refused the vaccine because it conflicted with their religious (Buddhist if you can believe it) beliefs. He was expelled and refunded his tuition money.  “Go away and don’t look back”.

  52. 52.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    It’s like you don’t notice the first cockroach that enters your apartment, but then suddenly, there are hundreds of them all around you.

  53. 53.

    New Deal democrat

    @Soprano2:

    While I’m sure there are unique facts for each country, per Matt McIrvin, my K.I.S.S. approach is that human behavior is fundamentally the same, and it is powerful evidence that we are seeing similar patterns across virtually the whole spectrum of countries, regardless of their vaccination and infection levels.

    So if we don’t see South Africa or the U.K. dropping below pre-Omicron levels, why should we expect the US to be a lucky outlier? Hope I’m wrong about that.

  56. 56.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 1/27 China reported 39 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) & 12 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    At Xi’an in Shaanxi Province 22 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently 111 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    Guangdong Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 59 active domestic confirmed & 6 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • At Zhuhai there currently are 36 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases (all presumed Omicron) in the city. All areas in the city are now at Low Risk.
    • In the rest of the province 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases was released from isolation. There currently are 23 active domestic confirmed (17 at Shenzhen, 2 each at Dongguan & Zhongshan, & 1 at Meizhou) & 2 active domestic asymptomatic (1 each at Guangzhou & Shenzhen) cases.

    At Guangxi “Autonomous” Region 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed (2 at Dongxing in Fangchenggang & 1 at Ningming County in Chongzuo) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Chongzuo) cases in the province.

    Tianjin Municipality reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases (1 mild & 3 moderate), all at Hebei District, all family members of the domestic confirmed case reported on 1/26. Phylogenetic analysis places the new cluster to the larger outbreak centered at Jinnan District. The authorities believe the index case of the cluster was infected during centralized quarantine. 44 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 134 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases (all presumed Omicron). 1 residential building has been elevated to High Risk. 10 residential compounds & 1 residential building are currently at High Risk. 12 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.

    Beijing Municipality reported 8 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic, 4 mild & 4 moderate) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all but 1 at Fengtai District, all of the 7 new domestic positive cases are from persons under centralized or home quarantine, all related to the Delta outbreak at cold storage warehouses in Fengtai District. There currently are 62 active domestic confirmed cases & 14 active domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 residential compound is currently at High Risk. 1 community was elevated to Medium Risk. 1 community, 4 residential compounds, 1 village & 1 warehouse are currently at Medium Risk.

    At Liaoning Province there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (at Shenyang) & 4 active domestic asymptomatic (3 at Dalian & 1 at Shenyang) cases in the province.

    Shandong Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently at 2 active domestic confirmed (at Jinan) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Liaocheng) cases in the province, all part of the transmission chain from the cold storage warehouses outbreak at Fengtai District in Beijing.

    At Shanxi Province there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the province (1 each at Datong & Yuncheng).

    Hebei Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed cases (5 at Xiong’an, 4 at Langfang & 1 at Baoding) in the Province, all part of the transmission from the cold storage warehouses outbreak in Beijing. 1 village at Xiong’an is currently at Medium Risk.

    Yili Prefecture in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases (both at 4th Division of Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps). 1 domestic asymptomatic cases was released from isolation. There currently are 11 active domestic confirmed (9 at Horgos & 2 at 4th Div. of XPCC) & 29 active domestic asymptomatic (26 at Horgos & 3 at 4th Div. of XPCC) cases at the border crossing. 4 residential compounds & 1 residential building are currently at Medium Risk.

    Heilongjiang Province reported 9 new domestic confirmed & 9 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 18 active domestic confirmed & 28 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Mudanjiang reported 9 new domestic confirmed (all at Suifenhe) & 9 new domestic asymptomatic (6 at Suifenhe & 3 at Dongning) cases, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 18 active domestic confirmed (17 at Suifenhe & 1 at Dongning) & 27 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city (23 at Suifenhe & 4 at Dongning). 3 residential compounds, 1 residential building & an office building have been elevated to Medium Risk. 5 residential compounds, 2 residential building & 4 office buildings have been elevated to Medium Risk.
    • Zhaodong in Suihua did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active asymptomatic case in the city, part of the transmission chain from Suifenhe.

    Shanghai Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 16 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 village remains at Medium Risk.

    At Wuxi in Jiangsu Province there currently are 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.

    Zhejiang Province reported 16 new domestic confirmed cases (all mild, all presumed Omicron), all at Hangzhou. The new cluster is concentrated at a cooking equipment factory, among employees & families. A number of raw materials used at the plant have tested positive. The outbreak occurred just as workers are returning home for Chinese New Year. The Hangzhou authorities has declared that the genetic sequence of the cluster is not related to any of the recent domestic outbreaks in the province, or recent imported cases into the province. Interesting, the sequence is highly identical to a sequence uploaded to GISAID on 12/11 overseas, but they did not mention which country. There currently are 83 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. 1 business at Hangzhou has been elevated to Medium Risk.

    Huanggang in Hubei Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a traced close contact of domestic positive cases at Hangzhou in Zhejiang, who returned from Hangzhou on 1/25. The case tested negative on 1/26, but positive on 1/27.

    Anshun in Guizhou Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, a traced close contact of domestic positive cases at Hangzhou in Zhejiang, who returned from Hangzhou on 1/25. The case was placed under centralized quarantine on 1/26.

    At Shangrao in Jiangxi Province there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case, part of the transmission chain from the factory outbreak at Hangzhou in Zhejiang.

    Henan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 17 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 788 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • Zhengzhou did not report any new domestic positive cases. 2 Medium Risk residential compounds have been re-designated to Low Risk. 1 residential building remains at Medium Risk.
    • Xuchang did not report any new domestic positive cases. 2 residential compounds at Yuzhou remain at Medium Risk.
    • Anyang did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 township at Tangyin County remains at High Risk. All of Tangyin County (except High Risk areas) remains at Medium Risk, as is Wenfeng district.

    At Yunnan Province 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 remaining. 1 zone at Mengla County in Sipsongpanna Prefecture remains at Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 1/27, China reported 25 new imported confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 42 imported asymptomatic cases, 3 imported suspect cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 7 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals each returning from the UK (via Frankfurt) & 1 each from Georgia (via Amsterdam Schiphol), Russia, & the Ukraine (via Amsterdam Schiphol), a Russian national coming from Russia & a French national coming from France; 3 suspect cases, no information released
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 4 confirmed cases, 2 each coming from Iraq & the UAE; 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 each coming from Iraq & Saudi Arabia; all off flights that landed at Guangzhou
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 1 Chinese national each returning from Iran & France; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Sri Lanka & 1 from Turkey
    • Dongguan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from Vietnam, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Singapore
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 5 confirmed cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar; 8 asymptomatic cases, 7 Chinese nationals returning from Laos & 1 from Myanmar; all via land border crossings
    • Beijing Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, both Russian nationals coming from Russia; 15 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 2 confirmed cases, a Chinese & a Japanese nationals returning from Japan
    • Weihai in Shandong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from South Korea
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed & 1 asymptomatic cases, both coming from Iraq
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 1 confirmed & 1 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 3 asymptomatic cases, no information released

    Overall in China, 157 confirmed cases recovered (62 imported), 27 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (25 imported) & 3 were reclassified as confirmed cases (1 imported), & 3,015 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 2,361 active confirmed cases in the country (994 imported), 9 in serious condition (1 imported), 808 active asymptomatic cases (696 imported), 3 suspect cases (all imported). 40,464 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 1/27, 2,989.48M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 5.43M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 1/28, Hong Kong reported 115 new positive cases, 4 imported & 111 domestic (105 are connected to previously reported positive cases & 6 do not have sources of infection identified, yet).

    On 1/28, Taiwan reported 71 new positive cases, 44 imported (8 each from the US & the Philippines, 5 from Mainland China, 3 from Indonesia, 2 each from Japan, Vietnam & Sweden, & 1 each from Bangladesh, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, the US & Turkey, 8 still under investigation) & 27 domestic.

  57. 57.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s about 15% of the whole population. That’s tens of millions of people. More if you count people who are hesitant about getting boosters, though it seems like for most of the unboosted, that’s more a product of dealing with confusing and shifting messages than being a hardcore conspiracy antivaxxer.

    I actually think the messaging on boosters is a place where the administration could be doing better right now. There’s not as much urgency about it as there should be. For a while it was hard to get good numbers on this, but only about 30% of the country is boosted. Maybe the whole “you said X but now you’re saying Y!!” exasperation that comes from new scientific information is a barrier.

  58. 58.

    Cermet

    @New Deal democrat: First and foremost, thanks for crunching these numbers – its always a pleasure to read your post.

     

    I’m not convinced Maryland’s numbers are really accurate –  its still too high death rate doesn’t jive, and its infection rate is too low compared with the surrounding areas.

    As for Omicron not dropping below pre-Omicron levels, this illness still does still infect people that had delta and people with one or two vaccinations. So, this will be likely chronic for a while and we might have to wait for spring to see levels go back to those low numbers – I hope they go back down.

  60. 60.

    Guac

    @Matt McIrvin: Agreed that the booster messaging has been weak. A neighbor of mine is 60, and she was shocked that I had gotten a booster shot: “But you’re not 65!!” She’s been “waiting until it’s her turn” to get boosted. This was in early December.  I explained that she can go right now to get a shot.

    Also, I noticed yesterday that CovidActNow website has updated my county’s vax rates to include boosters (about 25% here… not sure how accurate that is).

  61. 61.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 7,258 new cases of COVID-19 and 16 new reported deaths of people who have tested positive. Hospital numbers continue to fall slowly with ICU occupancy remaining around the 30 mark. I presume some of the reported deaths will be from ICU cases while some people already hospitalised have gotten sick enough to be moved into ICU to balance the numbers. Note that ICU numbers in Scotland do not specify that the patients are all receiving mechanical ventilation support.

    Vaccination of the as-yet-unvaccinated adult holdouts isn’t happening with most first and second doses now being given to 12-17 year olds. There is as yet no vaccination program for children younger than 12. Booster shots for the 18+ age group is creeping up to the 75% mark (mostly driven by a big takeup by those aged 50+) with the health authorities having decided that boosters for 12-17 year olds are not necessary at the moment.

  62. 62.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Rusty: I always hated the bumper sticker almost always on cars owned by lefties “Question Authority”. I always thought it was mindless contrarianism. Now we see it all in full bloom with the growing and stronger anti-vax movement.

    I disagree. There’s a vast difference between ‘Question Authority’ which is something that needs doing on a regular basis, and ‘Disregard Authority (and create new authorities that you don’t question)’ which is what these folks are doing.

  63. 63.

    Ohio Mom

    @Kay: I think that’s an attorney thing. You can’t help your clients protect themselves unless you can morbidly imagine extreme worse case scenarios. And then contingency worse case scenarios.

    Your paying attention to the whackos is like an exercise program, I think, keeping the ability to see worst cases play out sharp.

  65. 65.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay: I also love the anti-vaxx “middle position” which is that other people need to get the vaccine so anti-vaxxers can determine if it kills people, then they’ll get or not get it.

    Well then, people have been getting vaxxed for a year now, and people were getting the booster as early as what, September?  They can put up or shut up.

  66. 66.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I think the Die Zeit reporter is being rather melodramatic w/ calling the quiet lock down of Xiong’an as “Moment of Truth for China’s ‘Zero COVID’ Strategy”. That makes zero sense, why would that matter one way or the other. It is curious why the the local authorities did not announce the lock down in a news conference by the local health commission, which is the normal practice. Then again, Xiong’an authorities has not been hold regular press conferences since the discovery of 5 cases imported from Beijing on 1/23 & 1/24. A search on Toutiao does not show any government notices, but a search on Baidu quickly turn up hundreds of Weibo (Chinese counterpart to Twitter) posts by Xiong’an residents describing the start of lock down, going out purchasing supplies for last the duration, or living under lock down. Apparently it will last 7 days. So clearly information about Xiong’an’s lock down is not censored. Residents were likely notified by their local community workers via WeChat groups.

    The Xiong’an New Area has 3 constituent counties, the one w/ the cases locked down 1st on 1/25, & the other 2 quickly followed on 1/27. Is it a massive overreaction? Absolutely! No new cases have been reported there since 1/24, even though mass screening has a been conducted. 7 days means the residents will be spending Chinese New Year under lock down, which is completely unnecessary given there has been no community transmission found. Is it unprecedented in China? No. During the large outbreak in Hebei Province in Jan. 2021, a county in Langfang, bordering Beijing, immediately locked down after discovering a single case (a person w/ travel history to the epicenter Shijiazhuang), “to protect the capital”.

    While Xiong’an New Area is indeed Xi Jinping’s pet project, I really don’t see the Chinese authorities acting differently just because of that. After launching the project w/ much fanfare back in 2015, it has drifted off news pages & out of people’s consciousness. It was always going to be a decades long project. It has also been slower going than hoped. The idea is to relocate much of the national level government bureaucracies, as well as some of the many universities, out of Beijing into Xiong’an to relieve the burden on the overly crowded former (w/ congested roads, limited water supply & mountains that trap air pollution from surrounding regions). However most Beijingers refused to relocate, due to lack of top grade hospitals, schools & shopping/entertainment establishments (at least for now) that they had take  for granted in Beijing. So the government had to hire new workers at Xiong’an to staff the new bureaucracy, & have the old hands in Beijing coach/guide them. As of today, most of Xiong’an is still rural, consisting of the same villages & townships that it always had.

    Chinese governance model is that of distributed [hard] authoritarianism, where Beijing sends the local authorities goals & guidances, hold the local authorities accountable to achieving the objectives, & monitors progress, but largely leave the implementation to the local authorities. Xi’s centralization effort has strengthened the authority of the center, & himself specifically, but has not changed the fundamental nature of governance. To imagine every doing of every local party boss to be at the order of Beijing, or even Xi Jinping himself, is rather myopic, but all too common in new coverage & analysis of China. If there is any actions where Beijing is trying to save face, it is the seeming hesitancy (a delay of a day or 2) in locking down sub-districts & order district-wide mass screenings in face of the Delta outbreak spreading from cold storage warehouses in Fengtai District in Beijing. The whole point of the Olympic bubble is to prevent breaches causing a large outbreak in the capital. It is awkward if there are more cases outside of the bubble the in.

  67. 67.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @NotMax: Given that Beijing & the IOC has made the questionable decision of proceeding w/ the Winter Olympics at this time, having protocols in places to minimize spread w/in the bubble makes sense. We know that Omicron is pretty transmissive even in a vaccinated & boosted population, a large outbreak in the bubble could wipe out entire events & render the competition meaningless. That would be embarrassing & costly for all involved.

  69. 69.

    Tenar Arha

    @Kay: Yeah, unfortunately I think they will come back. It’s not just that the Supreme Court just opened a big loophole in the federal government’s requiring COVID vaccination as part of OSHA.  Now the most radical legislatures are proposing to eliminate all long-standing vaccine requirements.

    Like this Legislation has been introduced in the Georgia Senate with to ban any public entity from requiring *any* vaccination as a precondition for services or facility access, wiping out the preexisting standards.

  70. 70.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lowtechcyclist: The Royal Society “nullius in verba” only goes so far in a world where you can’t build a particle accelerator in your garage. But weighing battling arguments from authority is actually tough.

  72. 72.

    grandmaBear

    @Kay: 3 years ago when my granddaughter was diagnosed with lymphoma their policy (Cincinnati childrens) was that they wouldn’t start treatment until the child was up to date on all vaxxes. Since she was up to date she could start right away, while others were delayed. Timeliness is important with cancer. And these kinds of demands are obviously not new. We also got used to hand washing, masks and remote schooling early.

  73. 73.

    Cermet

    @YY_Sima Qian: Fully agree and can’t stand the media that complain about it (or the athletes as well – they are the ones being protected!) Its not like they live there under those conditions –  whiners one and all.

  74. 74.

    Sloane Ranger

    Thursday in the UK we had 96,871 new cases. This is a decrease of 2.2% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,

    England – 85,288 (down @5000)

    Northern Ireland – 4243 (down @50)

    Scotland – 4333 (down @300)

    Wales – 3007 (up @300).

    Deaths – There were 338 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. The rolling 7- day average is down 1.1%. 302 deaths were in England, 6 in Northern Ireland, 20 in Scotland and 10 in Wales.

    Testing – The rolling 7-day average for number of tests conducted was down by 3.5% as of 26 January.

    Hospitalisations – As of Wednesday, 26th January there were 16,510 people in hospital and 561 on ventilators. The 7-day average for hospital admissions was down by 15.3% as of 23rd January.

    Vaccinations – As of 26th January, 90.9% of all Uk residents aged 12+ have had 1 shot, 84% havd had 2 and  64.5% have had a 3rd shot/booster.

  75. 75.

    The Moar You Know

    Anecdote warning:  the past three weeks in San Diego the freeways were clear during rush hour.  BUNCH of folks had to be out sick from work.  Normal drive time home from work on a Friday is 45 minutes.  First weekend of Omicron, it took 13 minutes.  That’s 1980s level traffic.  Same for the second week.  Third had a bit more traffic.

    Omicron surge here is over, yesterday took me 30+ minutes to get home, today is Friday and I have no reason to assume today won’t be anything but a regular 40-45 minute commute.

  76. 76.

    The Moar You Know

    Happy to hear the fallout for Spotify, because I was fairly doubtful there would be much outcry for dropping an ancient rocker dude for a modern “edgy” guy.

    @Spanky: what fallout?  They had to send their call center workers home without pay?

    The core problem:  Rogan makes them more money than Young.  Period. The outcry doesn’t mean jack shit.  In two weeks it will all be old news, and Rogan will still be on Spotify, spewing his shit, because more people listen to him than Neil Young.

  77. 77.

    frosty

    @lee: I have a friend who’s four weeks out from catching it – vaxxed and boosted. Still dealing with brain fog and fatigue. This virus sucks.

  78. 78.

    Kelly

    All but one grandchild came down with and recovered from COVID last week as well as 3 out of 4 parents. Discomfort was comparable to a nasty case of the flu. Everyone had their shots. Everyone is OK now.

    Oregon new cases have plateaued for a week at just under 3x September 2021 previous record.

  79. 79.

    Starboard Tack

    @The Moar You Know: Before Covid I was in a big band with mostly 20ish white male folks. Some of them were Rogan fans that I reminded that Rogan got famous for getting people to eat bugs. He’s still feeding his fans dreck.

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @Barbara:

    Or why anyone would think being played for a dupe makes them part of an elect cognoscenti.

    They aren’t playing.

    They are who you think they are.

  81. 81.

    Another Scott

    @The Moar You Know: Interesting.  One of the economic numbers that Bill McBride at CalculatedRiskBlog tracks is Apple traffic.  There are lots of quasi-real-time numbers out there that policymakers could use to inform lots of policy actions.  Here’s hoping that they are using them…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  82. 82.

    Ruckus

    @New Deal democrat:

    People all over the world are fighting this pandemic.

    Oh Wait.

    They are fighting to keep it going. They may not know or understand that but they are doing exactly that, fighting to keep it going. To prove what is my question. I have answers to that but not one of them make any logical sense. Especially to someone who lived when people suffered from so many things, polio, measles/encephalitis, chickenpox/shingles being three in order of their disasters on the human body. I had the second 2, I had/have 4 friends/acquaintances with polio. Those after the slash are side effects some get if you didn’t know. I’ve had both of them. You do not want any of them. Believe me.

  83. 83.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:

    Is that their hatred of anyone that doesn’t agree with them because if even some of those people are correct then their entire world view is shit?

  84. 84.

    Ruckus

    @Soprano2:

    They have picked their lives and of course all their decisions are correct and final. I’ve never understood people that don’t see that life is always the next day and the whatever that the next day brings. IOW they think they are in control, that they get to choose what happens next. And possibly if they didn’t live in this world that might work, if you take the earth out of the equation, earthquakes, thunder/lighting, tainted water, crop failures, large animals who aren’t in the dying mood, fire…. We have effectively made life a statistical problem, rather than a day to day fight for survival. And as a person who tutored statistics in college I can guarantee that many people do not understand statistics in the least. At least any more than they understand fight for survival. Because they don’t see themselves as at risk. They have been/are being told that conservative politics will protect them from all that stuff in the world. Which of course is completely fucking wrong, all conservative politics does is cost them real life prosperity – that is it is a lie about living, because it is not about living it is about not living at all, it is about belonging to a cult.

  86. 86.

    RaflW

    Semi on topic of the anti-vax conspiracies: When I saw that a bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh just hours before Biden was to arrive there to give an infrastructure speech (and once I noted that there were no fatalities), I started thinking “oh, crap, the Qberts out there are gonna start saying the bridge was blowed up by the FBI.” I daren’t look to see if my prediction is coming true (yet).

  88. 88.

    WaterGirl

    @JustSuze (finally stopped lurking): Hi there.  I just saw and approved your comment, which I am guessing is you’re first.

    Now your comments should show up for everyone right away.

    However, there may be an issue with the parenthesis in your nym, so if your comments still go into moderation when you press post, that will be the issue and you’ll likely want to change your nym so you don’t have that problem.

Comments are closed.