Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

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

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Bark louder, little dog.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday / Thursday, Feb. 2-3

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday / Thursday, Feb. 2-3

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66Comments

  2. 2.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    There were 320 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 2/2/22.
    There were 222 positive home COVID tests reported on 2/2/22.

    I still haven’t seen the free COVID tests I ordered on 1/18.

  3. 3.

    lowtechcyclist

    This NYT article seems to be doing its level best to *not* explain why the U.S. has “has failed to vaccinate as many people” and has a higher death rate.

    Closest it gets is talking about “distrust,” but not the right-wing politics and media sowing it all.

    “All the news that’s fit to print not offend conservatives”

  4. 4.

    lowtechcyclist

    @NeenerNeener: ​
     

    I still haven’t seen the free COVID tests I ordered on 1/18.

    Me either. And it seems like some people received theirs a week or more ago.

  5. 5.

    Tony Jay

    Ah, Glen Greenwald, the absolute nicest spin anyone can put on your poisonous squirming is that those missing porn shorts you filmed while out of your face on blue-pill and meth cocktails must be epically embarrassing. Like, “I can’t make out whose leg that is but I definitely recognise that school tie he’s using as a blindfold on the third-act piglet” embarrassing.

    Meanwhile, here on Plague Island, 534 human beings died of Covid yesterday despite our Tory Government vanquishing the pandemic through a combination of pretending it’s not there and just generally being awesome and suchlike. I guess choking off the supply of tests really only made one line of the “OMFG what the f#%k have they gone and f#&#$#g done now!?!” spreadsheet fit into the column. Enough to give their Infotainer chums a mediocre woody, but not really the Dawn of Freedom they were hoping for.

  6. 6.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: A universal truth.

    Alabama, you’ve got the rest of the Union to help you along.
    What’s going wrong?
    -Neil Young, half a century ago

    And of course it isn’t just Alabama.

  10. 10.

    Nelle

    @lowtechcyclist: We got ours on Monday.  I first got an email saying the tests would be delivered this coming Friday, followed by an update that they would arrive on Monday.   Since it’s well below freezing, I appreciated the notice so that we could grab them right away.

  11. 11.

    Texasamc

    I’ve been reading here – quietly – for over a decade now and almost never, ever comment.  But I wanted to thank you and the community for this daily update.  It’s one of the first things I read daily and I’ve come to rely on it as a source of verifiable information about what’s happening.  Thanks for your work!

  13. 13.

    debbie

    The Ohio AG turned down a citizens’ petition to put an anti-vaccination provision on the ballot for the third time. They’re as persistent as cockroaches.

  16. 16.

    Scout211

    Crosby, Still and Nash pull their music from Spotify. Source.

    In a written statement sent to NPR on Wednesday afternoon, the musicians said: “David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Stephen Stills have requested that their labels remove their collective recordings from Spotify. In solidarity with their bandmate, Neil Young, and in support of stopping harmful misinformation about COVID, they have decided to remove their records from the streaming platform including the recordings of CSNY, CSN, and CN, as well as Crosby’s and Stills’ solo projects. Nash has already begun the process to take down his solo recordings.”

  17. 17.

    New Deal democrat

    No State data today, as 91-Divoc has not updated. According to Our World in Data, US cases fell fellow 400,000 yesterday, meaning a decline of over 50% from peak. Deaths decreased slightly below 2500. Deaths will still probably not peak for about another 10 days.

    Internationally, every country that peaked early is now showing a long tail. Only Ireland has returned to its pre-Omicron level, but has flatlined there without any further decrease. South Africa has also flatlined for over a week, at a level much higher than before Omicron. The U.K. and Canada are still declining but more slowly than before.

  18. 18.

    Matt McIrvin

    The pandemic will “end” when the Republicans get back in power nationally and declare it over. Then it’ll be gone, like magic, as Donald Trump imagined, because we won’t be counting the sick or the dead. We’ll just pretend they’re not dying.

  20. 20.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 2/2 China reported 21 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    At Xi’an in Shaanxi Province 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently 13 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    At Guangdong Province reporter 9 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. As the province does not breakdown recoveries between domestic & imported cases, I can no longer track the count of active cases in the province.

    • At Zhuhai 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 26 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases (all presumed Omicron) in the city.
    • Shenzhen reported 4 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic, 2 mild & 2 moderate) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all traced close contacts of the domestic positive case reported on 1/31 (all presumed Omicron). 1 office building has been elevated to Medium Risk.
    • Yunfu reported 4 new domestic confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic), all part of the transmission chain spreading from Shenzhen.
    • Huizhou reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, part of the transmission chain spreading from Shenzhen.

    At Guangxi “Autonomous” Region there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (at Ningming County in Chongzuo) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Chongzuo) cases in the province.

    Tianjin Municipality reported 9 new domestic confirmed cases, 3 at Hebei District & 2 each at Binhai New District, Hedong District & Hongqiao District (7 from screen of residents in area under movement restriction & 2 found at fever clinic, all connected to the outbreak at Hebei District). 11 domestic confirmed cases recovered . There currently are 61 active domestic confirmed cases (all presumed Omicron). 1 residential building was elevated to High Risk. 2 residential buildings are currently at High Risk. 2 residential buildings were elevated to Medium Risk. 5 residential buildings remain at Medium Risk.

    Beijing Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed case (both mild), both from persons under centralized or home quarantine, all related to the Delta outbreak at cold storage warehouses in Fengtai District. There currently are 96 active domestic confirmed cases & 13 active domestic asymptomatic cases. 2 communities, 1 village & 1 residential building are currently at High Risk. 2 communities, 3 residential compounds & 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.

    At Shandong Province 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  in Beijing.

    Shanxi Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed cases in the province (2 at Datong & 1 at Yuncheng).

    Hebei Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 16 active domestic confirmed cases (5 at Xiong’an, 5 at Hengshui, 4 at Langfang & 2 at Baoding) in the province. 1 village at Hengshui was elevated to Medium Risk. 1 village at Xiong’an is currently at Medium Risk.

    At Yili Prefecture in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 12 active domestic confirmed (9 at Horgos & 3 at 4th Div. of XPCC) & 25 active domestic asymptomatic (20 at Horgos & 5 at 4th Div. of XPCC) cases at the border crossing. 4 residential compounds & 1 residential building are currently at Medium Risk.

    Heilongjiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 29 active domestic confirmed & 44 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • At Mudanjiang there currently are 29 active domestic confirmed (28 at Suifenhe & 1 at Dongning) & 39 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city (33 at Suifenhe, 4 at Dongning & 2 at). 5 residential compounds, 8 residential buildings, 3 residential building units, 1 produce market & 4 office buildings are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Baiquan County in Qiqihar there currently are 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the county, all part of the transmission chain spreading from Suifenhe.
    • At Zhaodong in Suihua there currently is 1 active asymptomatic case in the city, part of the transmission chain from Suifenhe.

    At Shanghai Municipality there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 12 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 village remains at Medium Risk.

    Zhejiang Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (presumed Omicron), at Hangzhou, from persons under centralized quarantine. 6 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 111 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. 1 shop at Hangzhou is currently at High Risk. 8 residential compounds & 4 businesses at Hangzhou are currently at Medium Risk.

    Huanggang in Hubei Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city, party of the transmission chain from Hangzhou in Zhejiang.

    Anshun in Guizhou Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, party of the transmission chain from Hangzhou in Zhejiang.

    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.

    At Henan Province 31 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 539 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.

    • At Anyang there currently are 297 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. All areas in the city are now at Low Risk. This is the 1st sizable Omicron outbreak suppressed & eliminated in China.
    • At Sanmenxia there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, a traced close contact of domestic positive cases reported by other provinces.
    • At Ruzhou in Pingdinghsan there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, part of the transmission chain spreading from Hangzhou in Zhejiang.

    At Yunnan Province there currently are 9 active domestic confirmed (4 at Kunming & 5 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 2/2, China reported 18 new imported confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 95 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 9 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Canada & 1 each from Japan, Singapore, Hungary (via Vienna), the Netherlands & Turkey (via Helsinki), an Indonesian nationals coming from Indonesia & a South Korean national coming from South Korea
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 4 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national returning from Bangladesh, Mongolia (via Tehran), Singapore & Russia; 8 asymptomatic cases, 4 Chinese nationals returning from Bangladesh, 2 from Turkey & 1 from Mongolia (via Tehran), & a foreign national coming from Russia
    • Beijing Municipality – 2 confirmed cases, a Japanese national coming from Japan & a Russian national coming from Russia; 56 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed case, no information released, yet
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), no information released
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Myanmar; 3 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Laos; all via land border crossings
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 6 asymptomatic cases, 5 coming from Iraq & 1 from Romania
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released

    Overall in China, 100 confirmed cases recovered (51 imported), 47 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (42 imported) & 4 were reclassified as confirmed cases (1 imported), & 6,824 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,741 active confirmed cases in the country (776 imported), 8 in serious condition (1 imported), 855 active asymptomatic cases (740 imported), 0 suspect cases. 40,589 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 2/2, 3,000.893M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 290K doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 2/3, Hong Kong reported 142 new positive cases, 21 imported & 121 domestic (31 of whom do not have sources of infection identified).

    On 2/3, Taiwan reported 56 new positive cases, 34 imported (10 from the US 2 each from Australia , Mainland China, the Philippines, Japan & the UK, & 1 each from Thailand, Germany, Spain, Sweden & Turkey, 9 still under investigation) & 22 domestic (including 15 from the Kaohsiung Port outbreak & 6 at Taoyuan).

  21. 21.

    NorthLeft12

    In the North, the pro-COVID crowd is coming out and demanding an end to any and all mandates, restrictions, masking, and any other public health guidelines to prevent the transmission of COVID. This includes the heads of any politician or public health officer who recommended/passed them.

    Fortunately, the great majority of Canadians recognize these people as crazy, entitled, selfish, and dangerous. Very little public support despite what they are saying, and completely disproportionate to the amount of attention they are receiving.

    In a humorous note, the “Freedom” convoy went to Ottawa to take out our PM, and ended up accelerating the ouster of the Opposition (Conservative) leader…..who met with them and was somewhat supportive of their goals. I wish his support caused his ouster, but that is definitely not the case. O’Toole was removed as their leader mainly because he lost the last election.

    Conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed…..blah blah blah.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I doubt we’ll still be in pandemic conditions by then.

    TBH, I don’t. The virus has a big say in it and some strong allies in the GOP and it’s own personal propaganda outlet at FOX.

  23. 23.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: That can’t happen before 2025.  I doubt we’ll still be in pandemic conditions by then.

    A year ago, I thought we wouldn’t be in pandemic conditions in 2022.  But here we are.

    I just don’t see anymore what’s supposed to bring it to an end.

    ETA: Plus what Ozark Hillbilly said about the virus’ allies.

  24. 24.

    Scout211

    Remember a few days ago when those pictures of Magic Johnson and Governor Newsom (and other officials) posing with no masks on at the NFC championship game went viral? The Governor tried to defend himself by saying he had his mask on the whole time except when Magic asked him to pose for the pic. Mayor Garcetti defended himself by saying the same thing and added he held his breath the whole time he was posing for the pic.

    This was really an own goal for the Governor and Mayor and has energized the anti-mask and anti-vaxx Californians. Source.

    OAKDALE, Calif. —

    A little more than 200 students in the Oakdale Joint Unified School District went to school without a mask on Wednesday, according to Superintendent Dave Kline.

    Parents referred to images of Gov. Gavin Newsom maskless at the 49ers-Rams football game over the weekend as having inspired the protest.

    Our own governor doesn’t follow these rules, so why should our children have to be wearing a mask?” asked parent Jennifer Henry. “He’s at this football game with all these people.”

    The group of parents rallied together at Fair Oaks Elementary School in Oakdale to get out their message about masks, protesting the statewide mandate requiring them for students indoors at school.

    “Let your kids choose. Let all of us choose,” Jennifer Poth said.

    Her 8-year-old son went to school without a mask on Tuesday. Then, Poth got a call from the school about it.

    “They called me to ask me to pick him up, and I refused. I said, ‘No. It is your job to educate my son, and he has every right to be there,'” Poth said.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: The virus will always be with us. Pandemic conditions will not be.

    This is true, absolutely no argument. I’m just not putting a timetable on it.

  28. 28.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud: The virus will always be with us.  Pandemic conditions will not be.

    No argument there, but it could be a while before they go away.  Since Covid has adapted to reinfect people fairly soon, and kills lots of people but not enough to either slow itself down or get us to do much about it…well, from the POV of the virus, it’s found a ‘sweet spot’ that could keep it going for years.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    Fox news pushed the Iraq War more than any other media outlet and Glenn Greenwald appears on Fox constantly and crows about how Fox’s ratings beat CNN and MSNBC on Twitter:

    The most blatantly pro-American coverage came, not surprisingly, from Ailes’s Fox News. Predisposed to see things from the Bush administration’s point of view, FNC anchors and reporters had trouble containing their enthusiasm at the prospect of expanding the war on terror to “take out” Saddam Hussein and “liberate” Iraq. FNC’s talk-show hosts were particularly bellicose, goading their guests to rant about Hussein’s malevolence and the benefits that would follow any American-instigated regime change. They denounced nations that refused to join the US-led coalition as cowardly appeasers and routinely suggested that Americans who opposed the war were traitors who had cast their lot with the enemy. And once the war began, FNC became the military’s biggest cheerleaders, covering its relentless march to Baghdad with the unabashed enthusiasm of drunken alumni at a football game watching their team roll over a particularly hapless opponent. It was, as numerous industry observers noted, an entirely new kind of TV journalism. Eschewing objectivity and the skepticism of officialdom that had inspired many journalists since the era of Vietnam and Watergate, coverage of the war on FNC came perilously close to propaganda.

    FNC’s success soon produced a widely discussed “Fox effect” among its cable rivals, especially MSNBC. Like FNC, MSNBC producers placed an American flag in the corner of the screen after the 9/11 attacks and moved gingerly toward a more “patriotic” presentation of news about the war on terror in the months before the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The outbreak of the war—and FNC’s staggering ratings success—encouraged MSNBC officials to become even more pro-American. They hired conservative supporters of the war, including Michael Savage, a notorious right-wing radio personality, to host evening talk shows and they presented mawkish stories on American troops in the field.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    Locally,

    Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported 10 new coronavirus-related deaths and 1,177 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,191 fatalities and 221,533 cases.

    Six of the latest deaths were on Oahu and four were on Maui. No further information was immediately available regarding the latest deaths.

    The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 879 fatalities on Oahu, 164 on Hawaii island, 112 on Maui, 22 on Kauai, two on Molokai and 12 Hawaii residents who died outside the state. Source

    Elsewhere,

    Rufsa Hasina Afroze, a teacher and academic supervisor at a leading private school in Bangladesh’s capital was relieved to see students return to its campus in September after it was closed for 543 days because of the pandemic.

    It was only a brief respite from online learning. With the recent surge in coronavirus cases mostly because of the omicron variant, authorities have ordered the schools to close once more. Source

    Organizers have announced 55 more positives tests for COVID-19 at the Beijing Olympics.

    The updated daily figure includes 26 cases among the athletes and team officials from about 68,000 tests. Thirteen of them were found on arrival in Beijing and the other 13 were from daily PCR tests.

    The other 29 cases were from workers and accredited personnel.

    A total of 287 COVID-19 cases have been recorded since Jan. 23. Those people were put into isolation.

    The IOC said Wednesday at least 11 people have been treated at a hospital but none were serious cases. Source

    Bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor was chosen Wednesday to be a flagbearer for the U.S. Olympic team but will not be able to attend the Winter Games opening ceremony because she’s in isolation after a positive COVID-19 test. Source

  33. 33.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: The Omicron wave will end in a couple of months. I’m no virologist, but given the huge landscape of mutations I don’t see how we don’t get another wave like it from a new variant every year for the foreseeable future.

    At some point, we might have something like a pan-coronavirus vaccine–but not if an antivax federal administration denies it to us.

  34. 34.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay: Fox News is an unabashedly pro-death network, and if that GG guy were a LOTR character, he’d be Wormtongue.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I don’t know how he can appear on Fox after their Iraq coverage. It bled over to the sheep who run the other cable channels too. They saw that Fox was making a killing on pro war propaganda and all jumped on board. There’s an entire book about “the Fox Effect”.

    Fox lagged the other networks in admitting that they didn’t find any WMD and admitting that US casualties were rising and the insurgency was taking off, too. Fox viewers believed the war was going much better than it was. They blatantly ran cover for the Bush Administration. 

    Glenn’s favorite cable channel was the undisputed leader in Iraq War lies.

  40. 40.

    Soprano2

    I got an email saying my tests will be here on Monday. In other news, I can’t go to work because I can’t get my car out, the snow is too deep. I should have moved my husband’s vehicle last night so I could park behind it (we park on the side of the side street). Then I could have backed into the street in front of our house, which is more traveled. On well, it’s a day off.

  41. 41.

    Another Scott

    @p.a.: We’re probably stuck with him.

    Repost of GovExec story:

    Democrats have been much less vocal in their criticisms of DeJoy in recent months and, through his appointments to the Postal Service’s Board of Governors, President Biden has indicated he will not seek to oust the postmaster general. DeJoy briefly drew the ire of Republicans, who had allied with him and fully endorsed his 10-year plan, by launching a limited pilot program for financial services. The program undermined the trust DeJoy built with lawmakers during discussions over the bill, the top Republicans who negotiated the bill said last year. The pilot has serviced just six customers since its launch, though further expansion is still possible.

    But everyone has to choose their battles.

    Grrr…,
    Scott.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I don’t know how he can appear on Fox after their Iraq coverage

     
    Yes you do. It’s because he has no principles other than himself.

  43. 43.

    Geminid

    The masking controversy  made it to my small rural/exurban Greene County,* Virginia this week. In response to Governor Youngkin’s order making school masking optional, the Geeene County School Board voted 3-2 to change their policy from requiring mask wearing to “encouraging” it. Not long after the meeting, Vice-Chair Jason Collier resigned, saying that he felt his experience helping steer the school system through the pandemic was being ignored. Also that

       “I consulted with my family after the meeting and they were concerned about the heated nature and some of the hatefulness that was coming from the opposite side on this matter.”

    .  *Greene County lies twenty miles north of Charlottesville, and has a population of about 14 000 people.

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: Speaking of better treatments, have you seen this?

    Two of the first human patients to be treated with a revolutionary therapy that engineers immune cells to target specific types of cancer still possess cancer-killing cells a decade later with no sign of their illness returning.

    The finding suggests CAR T-cell therapy constitutes a “cure” for certain blood cancers, although adapting it to treat solid tumours is proving more challenging.

    CAR – chimeric antigen receptor – T-cell therapy works by genetically engineering an individual’s T-cells to recognise and destroy cancer cells.

    T-cells are a type of white blood cell that can recognise and destroy foreign cells, including cancer cells, but because cancer is very good at evading immune detection, they often miss their mark. CAR T-cells are engineered to make them better at detecting cancer cells.
    …………………….
    “We call these cells a living therapy, but it was a big surprise to us that they are still able to kill cancer cells 10 years after infusion,” June said. “We can’t say whether every last cancer cell was gone within three weeks [of treatment], or it could be that they keep coming up like whack-a-mole and then get killed, but we know that these [CAR T-cells] are on patrol. They persist and they are functional.”

    Hmmmm… Engineering our immune systems…

    Guess we won’t have to share this life saving treatment with all the anti-vaxers. Who knows what this treatment does to a person 30 or 40 years later. Regardless, it’s a game changer.

  47. 47.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Everything depends on what is done to end community spread.  As it has from the beginning.

    It’s infuriating to me that most of the reporting on the pandemic seems to imply that we can want it to be over without doing the minimal amount of work to end community spread – and it will somehow be over.

    It’s a corona virus.  We have experience with 4 others that infect humans.  Immunity wears off.  Everyone will need boosters every 5-6 months at least until community spread is crushed.  Masks work to reduce spread and severity of infection.  We know this.  We’ve known this since around April 2020.

    When the pandemic ends depends on the community.  The GQP can and will make things worse given the opportunity.  Look at Youngkin (Gov) and Miyares (AG) in Virginia.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  48. 48.

    New Deal democrat

    @lowtechcyclist:
    “I just don’t see anymore what’s supposed to bring it to an end.”

    This may not make me very popular, but I think a great deal of this pessimism results from the fact that both Biden and Blue State governors appear to have thrown in the towel as to COVID. No school or employment vaccination mandates from the States (remember, States absolutely have plenary public health power), no interstate travel vaccination mandates or coordination with Blue States from Biden, no revised OSHA emergency employment mandate get get Roberts and Barrett onside, no use of the Defense Production Act, no use of Presidential emergency powers at all (Trump blazed the trail here, declaring a state of emergency to erect a border fence).

    When the good guys abandon the field, yeah it’s pretty depressing.

  49. 49.

    Cermet

    @lowtechcyclist: Think of this virus continued spreading as training for the many other variants and new virus’s that will occur in the coming years thanks to AGW and population growth. We’ll be better prepared for the more lethal ones with better drugs and vaccines.

  50. 50.

    Matt McIrvin

    @New Deal democrat: My Blue State governor is a “moderate” Republican. He’s not gonna do it.

    The political buzz manufacturers say that COVID control measures are politically unpopular. The people want the pandemic to be over but they REALLY don’t want to do anything to bring that about–or so the kind of people who write op-eds say.

    (Personally, I think it’s more like gun control or abortion–opinion is more nuanced and there may be a plurality for stronger controls, but the other side is way more intense and will fill your voicemail with death threats, so the feeling of the vox populi leans to their side.)

    That’s why I think the ultimate solution will be to retreat into lies and denial–just declare victory and be done with it.

  51. 51.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cermet:

    We’ll be better prepared for the more lethal ones with better drugs and vaccines.

    We may be WORSE prepared because COVID has supercharged the anti-vaccine movement and caused sentiment against all vaccines. I expect to see old plagues like measles and mumps making a big comeback.

  52. 52.

    New Deal democrat

    @Matt McIrvin: “The political buzz manufacturers say that COVID control measures are politically unpopular”

     

    I think we are kind of in violent agreement. I agree with the above sentiment. GOP leaders react to present public opinion by actively moving to shape and change it going forward, while Dem leaders sigh and throw up their hands.

  53. 53.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 8,210 new cases of COVID-19 and 31 new reported deaths of people who have tested positive. Note that there were no deaths reported yesterday due to a technical issue with data collection so that figure is cumulative. At the moment there are about a hundred deaths occurring due to COVID-19 each week in Scotland.

    1,083 people were in hospital yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19, with 29 people in intensive care.

    Vaccinations continue but slowly, with about 0.1% of eligible people getting booster shots each day resulting in the 18+ age group creeping up towards 75%. Germany recently announced a fourth vaccination dose rollout, the Scottish government will take JCVI advice on whether to go ahead with a fourth dose in the near future. It’s likely this will happen but not soon.

  54. 54.

    Tenar Arha

    @NeenerNeener: @lowtechcyclist: @BillinGlendaleCA:

    ? Be interesting to track where there’s slower deliveries. For reference I live in the Boston area, & I ordered the tests as soon as the website was listed on Twitter on Jan 18th. They came on Jan. 26th, a day earlier than the email I received said I’d get them. (Definitely a good thing that they arrived early before the Blizzard last weekend).

  55. 55.

    Peale

    @Matt McIrvin: Yep. I doubt we’ll be able to find out that much information about the next pandemic to even take personal self-preservation measures. That’s really going to be the end game here. Or there will be an outbreak and we’ll all want to stay home, but we’ll be forced to go out and eat in restaurants because it is apparently the role of the state to guarantee business for bars and nightclubs.  We’ll be fined for not doing things to catch the next plague.

  56. 56.

    Peale

    I did get my tests yesterday, as did my mom. So they are getting delivered. Going to guess by next Friday, those of us who ordered them will all have them.

    My girl scout cookies that I ordered were delivered in two days, though. So the GSA does appear to have more sophisticated logistics in place at the moment.

  57. 57.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: I have repeatedly seen the inevitability of more waves used as an argument for ending all NMIs. “If we have to do this forever, why bother? Just accept that mass death from COVID will be a reality for the foreseeable future, because we can’t go on like this.”

    With “like this” including simple things like wearing masks, which is the thing I really don’t understand.

  61. 61.

    smith

    @The Moar You Know: ​
    35% of our populace will not take

    The anti-vaxxer shrieking makes it look much worse than it is: For the entire population, less than 25% are totally unvaxxed. For those who can make the decision for themselves — those over 18 — the totally unvaxxed are only 13%. Our simple-minded media, as usual, focuses on the shiny, or in this case loud, object, and gives the impression that anti-vax is a huge nationwide movement, but the numbers say otherwise.

  62. 62.

    Bill Arnold

    Glenn is asserting a causal connection between media warmongering and war deaths, but denying a causal connection between working hard to convince an audience of millions that public health measures against an deadly pandemic are worthless, and the resulting pandemic deaths.
    He appears to believe that nobody (or perhaps just nobody he cares about) notices his dishonesty in argumentation. Both caused mass death. People damaging public health measures against the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic caused and continue to cause a very large number of human deaths, more than most wars, even if one tries to downplay COVID-19 deaths by measuring loss of life-years. Joe Rogan is committing stochastic mass murder for selfish gain (the audience size guarantees this beyond a statistical reasonable doubt), as is the Republican Party (that plus power, for the GOP). That this is difficult to prove (and perhaps even legal) in current legal systems is simply showcasing major flaws in such systems. (Tobacco companies. Sacklers. Fossil fuel extraction companies. etc)

  63. 63.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Another Scott:

    Lots of folks asking, “Why does Louis DeJoy still have a job?”

    Here’s why.

    Shaded red dot is John Barger, Republican DeJoy supporter. Biden replacement nominee is pending.

    Blue dot not under Biden is Lee Moak, Democrat who backs DeJoy.

    USPS Govs lack the votes to fire DeJoy.
    pic.twitter.com/XA3luMvsRK

    — Jacob Bogage (@jacobbogage) February 3, 2022

  64. 64.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    it’s red America dragging the average down

    I’d say in every possible way – and some that even the most jaded wouldn’t have expected.

  65. 65.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I got mine on Tuesday.

    I managed to order very shortly after the start time, I’d bet that a few million people ordering all at once and given the initial problem with apartment numbers on the ordering form, it is going to take a bit longer to get them all delivered.

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    @Matt McIrvin:

    With “like this” including simple things like wearing masks, which is the thing I really don’t understand.

    Many countries wear have a lot of people wearing mask anytime there is an air disbursed illness active within the population. They may mind the masks but they mind dying and killing others a lot more. Not our conservatives, they take the live free or die mantra to a much farther degree than was originally intended.

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