The death toll of antivax is equivalent to a major war. https://t.co/ep5nilM8fn
— Noah Smith ?+?=? (@Noahpinion) February 3, 2022
I’ll let those of you who understand numbers argue about the validity of the above.
The U.S. has lost 13.5 million years of life during the pandemic. 100s of 1000s more people died since 2020 than expected. Scientists know this based on a metric called excess deaths—a comparison of the recorded number of deaths vs. what would be expected https://t.co/B0V9kZ63M0
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 3, 2022
Medicare will provide free at-home Covid tests beginning in the spring, govt officials say. Beneficiaries can pick up kits at the point of sale w/out having to be reimbursed. It's the 1st time Medicare will pay the entire cost of an over-the-counter test https://t.co/lgxvNXGVhd
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 4, 2022
New @KFF analysis finds that >200,000 residents and staff in long-term care facilities have died, accounting for nearly 1 in 4 COVID-19 deaths in the US.
This loss is staggering, especially since these facilities account for ~1% of the population.https://t.co/u7YptJcieG
— Priya Chidambaram (@preetabread) February 3, 2022
As a result, the US death rate is now ~80% of its peak before vaccines and rising, whereas countries with high vaccination rates are 20-30% of their pandemic peak pic.twitter.com/YL8A1sQPyd
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) February 3, 2022
======
Beijing Games see 21 new COVID cases on Feb 3 vs 55 a day earlier https://t.co/lKMJ7Jm0tF pic.twitter.com/NihnahyWiD
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 4, 2022
#BREAKING: Two sources have said Hong Kong health authorities have determined China’s Sinovac vaccine is of no use against the Delta and Omicron variants, thus toughening control measures to minimise any chances of infection. About 40% of the inoculated population chose Sinovac.
— Ezra Cheung (@ezracheungtoto) February 4, 2022
Local media HK01 yesterday reported that health officials would further tighten social distancing measures, including reducing the number of diners in restaurants from four to two people per table, and boosting daily testing capacity to 200,000 individuals, from 100,000.
— Ezra Cheung (@ezracheungtoto) February 4, 2022
India reports over 500,000 deaths from COVID-19, experts count millions more https://t.co/03fKhdKGWi pic.twitter.com/5okQXvvvwr
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 4, 2022
… The country, which has the fourth-highest tally of deaths globally, recorded 400,000 deaths by July 2021 after the devastating outbreak from the Delta variant of the coronavirus, according to official data. Some believe the figures were much higher.
“Our study published in the journal Science estimates 3 million COVID deaths in India until mid-2021 using three different databases,” Chinmay Tumbe, an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, who co-authored the study, told Reuters.
Last month, the Indian government dismissed the study as baseless in a notification saying there is a robust system of birth and death reporting.
India’s states record deaths from COVID after collating data from their districts. In the last few months, several states have updated the number of deaths, some under pressure from the country’s top court. In most instances, authorities said there were lapses due to delayed registrations and other administrative errors…
Last month, the government eased testing norms and told states to drop mandatory testing for contacts of confirmed cases unless they were old or battling other conditions. But, with the number of tests falling, the government issued a revised circular warning states they would miss the spread of the virus.
According to official figures, India’s overall number of COVID infections has reached 41.95 million, the second-highest globally behind the United States.
To prevent new surges, the government has vaccinated three-fourths of the eligible 939 million adult population with the mandatory two-dose regime…
In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat, authorities have received over 100,000 claims for COVID-19 compensation, of which 87,000 claims have been approved, according to a senior government official.
The number of claims received is nearly 10 times the official COVID-19 death toll of 10,545, as per government data.
“There has not been any under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths…The policy for paying compensation is very liberal as per the Supreme Court’s directives, which is why the number of applicants is more than the COVID-19 deaths,” the official said, declining to be identified due to the sensitive nature of discussions.
Japan's serious COVID cases climb to 4-month high; record infections https://t.co/McEnRy3Qc7 pic.twitter.com/6C1Zq94Mb8
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 4, 2022
S.Korea extends social distancing rules as Omicron cases spike https://t.co/Hyjbe1LdIq pic.twitter.com/5D3VU7oKsg
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 4, 2022
Direct international flights to Bali have resumed for the first time in two years as Indonesia opens the resort island to foreign travelers from all countries, but mandatory quarantine remains in place for all visitors. https://t.co/YEd3jUQVVk
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 4, 2022
For more than two years, the isolation of the Pacific nation of Tonga helped keep COVID-19 at bay. But last month’s volcanic eruption and tsunami brought outside deliveries of desperately needed fresh water and medicine — and brought the virus. https://t.co/VprZHtIeAL
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 4, 2022
Russia reported another record number of new coronavirus infections Friday with a total of 168,201 new Covid-19 cases and 682 deaths recorded over the last 24 hourshttps://t.co/MkBmnxbv5T
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) February 4, 2022
Germany's health experts divided over COVID curbs as infections hit record https://t.co/Bn1jHOmDrh pic.twitter.com/Im8ACGfnxQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 4, 2022
Austria's sweeping #Covid vaccine mandate is becoming law. The measure requires everyone 18 or older to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The mandate is wider-ranging than any other European country https://t.co/8S1iOP0DLy pic.twitter.com/rIWKFTpQDB
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 4, 2022
Spain is ending its outdoor mask mandate on Feb. 10, reversing a late December order that was put into place because of the omicron coronavirus variant. The government says infection levels have now peaked. https://t.co/oecHvge5rU
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) February 4, 2022
Every African country that has screened for it, is finding #BA2 subtype of #Omicron, spreading rapidly across the continent, says @WHO .https://t.co/sSTHdVwewq
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) February 3, 2022
Please read the story for details & nuance. They don't intend on infringing on Moderna's patents, and many steps remain before this vaccine would be ready for people. Rather, this is a first step towards self-sufficiency.
— Amy Maxmen, PhD (@amymaxmen) February 3, 2022
The Canadian government will not use troops against truckers whose nearly week-long protest of coronavirus vaccine mandates has brought traffic in central Ottawa to a halt, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said https://t.co/yFsXpb74uG pic.twitter.com/ypESMuhuV4
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 4, 2022
======
In a study of unvaccinated US adults up to 20 months, antibodies were detected in 99% of people who reported a positive COVID-19 test result, in 55% who believed they had COVID-19 but were never tested, and in 11% who believed they had never had #COVID19. https://t.co/03md2KhvGL
— JAMA (@JAMA_current) February 3, 2022
Volunteers deliberately infected w/ SARSCoV2 became contagious in just 2 days, much earlier than scientists originally estimated. Finding is from the 1st human Covid 'challenge trial.' UK study had 36 young/healthy volunteers. Viral load peaked at day 5 https://t.co/xJx2cwLJ7E
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 3, 2022
New research confirms that #Omicron has a decreased capacity to enter lung cells compared with other variants—but that doesn't mean it's free of consequences. Omicron is a paradox. Like other variants, it can make people extremely sick & cause some to die https://t.co/XaKppnfEHz pic.twitter.com/G3YHcg8eIs
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 3, 2022
SARSCoV2's spike proteins bind to the heart's vascular cells, possibly contributing to severe microvascular damage. The condition is seen in severely-ill Covid patients. UK researchers say the spikes trigger an inflammatory state https://t.co/AQBSXv8rfz
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 3, 2022
"But “I’ve yet to see where they are really moving the needle in terms of actually getting people better.”
2/2
— Diana Zicklin Berrent ? (@dianaberrent) February 3, 2022
======
Lot of fighting RE vax mandates for public employees is safety of co-workers/public w whom they interact, vs the employees’ freedumb. There’s too little talk about responsibility of public workers to be available to perform their work duties for which they are paid via our taxes
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 24, 2022
The responsibility to vax is not just to avoid getting others sick, it’s also so you can increase the likelihood that you’ll be able to fulfill your responsibilities to others. And it’s important not just w public employees. The obvious category of people who need to vax…
…to be available to others is health care workers & first responders. But really it’s anyone who has someone who depends on them for something important: for financial support, for physical assistance, for guidance, for companionship, for love.
And, of course, for parenting…
I’m sure none of these thoughts are original or deep. But I think it may help to talk a bit less about the making others sick—if that argument hasn’t convinced them yet, I doubt it ever will—& more on how we need them to be around to fulfill their responsibilities to others
I would hope there’s been polling on the messaging of not getting sick/limiting the severity of the illness so that you can fulfill your responsibilities to others/because others depend on you being healthy. If not, there should be ASAP
Thoroughly dishonest counter-argument:
You may personally think this ad is BS or whatever. But as a political matter, giving your opponents the ability to run an ad like this is a big self-own. And clock is ticking on fixing it. https://t.co/5y2Q2MxQdk
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) February 3, 2022
as long as we can't enforce vaccinations, we're always going to have some kind of scattered, temporary closures or inconveniences, and it's in the republican party's interest for those to happen as often as possible.
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) February 3, 2022
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
There were 356 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 yesterday.
There were 185 positive home COVID tests reported yesterday.
Hospitalizations:
155 cases are hospitalized; 71% are unvaxed
22 of these cases are in the ICU; 77% are unvaxed
14 of these cases are intubated; 71% are unvaxed
YY_Sima Qian
On 2/3 China reported 12 new domestic confirmed (2 previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
At Xi’an in Shaanxi Province 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently 11 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
At Guangdong Province reporter 5 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. As the province does not breakdown recoveries between domestic & imported cases, I cannot track the count of active cases in parts of the province.
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 4 new domestic confirmed cases, all at Hebei District (all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine). 1 domestic confirmed case recovered . There currently are 64 active domestic confirmed cases (all presumed Omicron). 2 residential buildings are currently at High Risk. 5 residential buildings remain at Medium Risk.
Beijing Municipality reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (mild), a medical staff working at the designated COVID-19 hospital, found via daily screening. There currently are 97 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 Fengtai District in Beijing.
At Shanxi Province there currently are 3 active domestic confirmed cases in the province (2 at Datong & 1 at Yuncheng).
At Hebei Province 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 & 1 village at Xiong’an are currently at Medium Risk.
At Yili Prefecture in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 11 active domestic confirmed (8 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 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 2 new domestic confirmed cases (presumed Omicron), both at Hangzhou, from persons under centralized quarantine. There currently are 113 active domestic confirmed (107 mild & 6 moderate) & 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.
At Huanggang in Hubei Province there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city, party of the transmission chain from Hangzhou in Zhejiang.
At Anshun in Guizhou Province 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 46 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 493 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
At Yunnan Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 8 active domestic confirmed (3 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 2/3, China reported 17 new imported confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 51 imported asymptomatic cases, 4 imported suspect cases:
Overall in China, 97 confirmed cases recovered (38 imported), 36 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (all imported) & 2 were reclassified as confirmed cases (1 imported), & 1,437 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,673 active confirmed cases in the country (755 imported), 6 in serious condition (1 imported), 869 active asymptomatic cases (754 imported), 4 suspect cases (all imported). 42,398 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 2/3, 3,001.642M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 749K doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 2/4, Hong Kong reported 131 new positive cases, 1 imported & 130 domestic (59 of whom do not have sources of infection identified).
On 2/4, Taiwan reported 71 new positive cases, 46 imported & 25 domestic (including 9 from the Kaohsiung Port outbreak & 10 from an outbreak in a logistics company at Taoyuan).
Baud
I didn’t watch the ad, but is something I’d expect Chuck Todd to say.
Dorothy A. Winsor
OTOH, I see Iowa is shutting down its case count and vaccination sites, so no more cases there! Take that, libs
debbie
@Baud:
The replies aren’t any better.
Baud
@debbie:
Never read the replies.
James E Powell
With respect to that ad with the children, why aren’t our people running ads that say Republicans want to keep the pandemic going, Republicans don’t care how many people die, we would be out of this pandemic if it weren’t for Republicans.
Why aren’t we attacking the plainly evil people?
New Deal democrat
Nationally US cases continue to decline from their Omicron peak, now down over 55%, but still above the peak of any previous wave. Deaths remained just under 2500 and could be plateauing. All Census regions show sharp declines, with the Northeast down over 80%.
There are *no* States left where cases are rising.
States where cases have declined to at or near pre-Omicron levels, or in the case of CT, even below:
CT (50 pre-Omicron vs. 45 now per 100k)
DE(73 vs. 67),
DC (36 vs. 30)
IL (80 vs. 60)
ME (75)
MD (31 vs. 20)
MA (73 vs. 70)
NH (102 vs. 90)
NJ (50)
NY (50)
OH (60)
PA (67 vs. 57)
RI (100 vs. 90)
On the one hand, this is excellent, because not even in South Africa or Ireland have cases declined below pre-Omicron levels, as they have in CT, and only Ireland has declined fully to its pre-Omicron level. On the other hand, all of these are high rates of infection even after the declines compared with other referenced countries, especially compared with neighboring Canada.
In that regard, there was some pessimism expressed yesterday that the US can never defeat COVID. If so, that will reflect solely a lack of political will, as shown by comparing the US’s experience with that of Canada, which until Omicron never exceeded 25 cases per 100,000, and even at Omicron’s peak had only 110 per 100k. It is now back down to 40 per 100k. The equivalent numbers for the US are 75, 245, and 117 per 100k respectively.
Baud
@James E Powell:
IMHO I’ve come to the conclusion that we don’t have a large enough constituency to support such an ad. Relatively few of us actually support Democrats being “tough,” because too many people still hope to win over the GOP voters than organize against them and isolate them.
debbie
I apologize for the O/T, but I have to sign on for work. This is really disturbing:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
You got to love how that add is utterly oblivious to the fact it’s talking about an infectious disease. So what if some idiots are going out and partying, it’s dumb thing to do right now.
p.a.
Rethugs: “The Constitution IS a homicide pact.”
jefft452
“more on how we need them to be around to fulfill their responsibilities to others”
annnnd you lost them
laura
It’s been one month since Amir Khalid last posted a comment before taking a few days leave for a medical procedure. He’s missed. Holding out hope for his return.
sab
@James E Powell: They aren’t doing it because running against them doesn’t work. Our side does better when we are for something. If we just run against them then our normies just stay home and their guys turn out in droves.
Kay
The ad is a lie though. Children aren’t “locked out of school”. The localized school closures are not due to “lockdowns”, they’re due to staffing shortages caused by covid exposure or infection. So what were Democrats supposed to do to not give them the “opportunity” to run this ad?
The biggest proponent of opening schools was Joe Biden. He ran on it.
I get that political media like the ad- they’re all passing it around and promoting it- but does it matter at all to them that it isn’t true?
Spanky
@Kay:
I’M assuming that by this point that question is rhetorical.
sdhays
@Kay: “Why isn’t the National Guard marching teachers into schools at gunpoint to deal with these ‘staffing shortages’?”
//
Baud
@Kay:
Twitter politicos have a masculine outlook and care more about boldness than honesty.
Kay
It’s fine if we’re “done with covid” and telling people to go back to work, but let’s be clear that with the rates of infection in Republican counties like mine we’re telling people who are either actively infected or ill to go back to public facing, low wage retail and service jobs where they will infect others. There’s no paid sick leave in this country. There’s no workplace protections for these people. They can’t stay home if all of media and all politicians are telling them to “go back to normal”- “normal” means they go to work sick.
This “voluntary covid restrictions” plan assumes something about “going to work” is “voluntary” for lower tier workers. That’s not true. They’re not going to stay home if they’re positive for covid. They’re not even going to test. They already don’t test even if they’re symptomatic. They don’t want to know because it doesn’t make any difference-they can’t stay out of work for 2 weeks anyway.
lowtechcyclist
Examples?
We ran against them in 2018 and it turned out pretty well.
I know, it’s easier to run against the other party when they’re in control. But it’s pretty clear who’s responsible for our still being in pandemic hell.
IMHO, this is a time for the Dems to be the ‘mad as hell and not going to take it anymore’ party. Run against all these fucking Covid traitors. Negative partisanship works.
Kay
What covid restrictions did for lower tier workers who were exposed or infected is give them cover with their employers. They could take time off work without getting fired. Leaving it up to them “as individuals” just means they have to deal with their employers on a individual basis, where they have absolutely no power because they have few or no regulatory workplace protections in this country.
Going back to normal” means they go back to working exposed, infected or sick. If they go back to work exposed infected or sick more unvaccinated people are going to die, and not just the workers- all the people who interact with them.
p.a.
@lowtechcyclist: Gotta run this by Mark Penn & Sinemanchin first. Maybe Lieberman too.
New Deal democrat
@sab: As a simple matter of psychology, people react more strongly to the loss of something good that they have than to the promise of getting something good in the future.
Hence the framing of the ad: “Dems are taking away your child’s schooling.” It was also effective for Dems in 2018: “GOP Senator/Representative X tried to take away your medical benefits.” But it must be a loss that people believe has or will actually happen(-ed). Thus In VA the ad against Youngkin in which he was caught saying he would move against abortion didn’t take, because it was still theoretical.
—
PS o/t: 467,000 jobs, 4.0% unemployment, 5.7% YoY wage gains. Woo Hoo!
Kay
@Baud:
I love how the virus itself is now being ignored. They don’t have the balls to say “we don’t care if more people get sick- what we want is to go back to normal” so they’re all going to pretend people who have absolutely no power or protections in their workplace can somehow voluntarily quarantine or take 2 weeks off for less severe covid infections and illness. They can’t, so they won’t.
Petulantly demanding that schools “open!” while ignoring staffing shortages and 10 and 20% absentee rates for infection or illness. They can go back to normal. What “normal” means in this country is the people who are serving them coffee or cutting their hair or changing their children’s diapers at the day care will be exposed, actively infected, or ill. Our low wage workforce doesn’t have sick leave. They don’t have paid time off. They can’t call off for a two week quarantine without government protecting them.
lowtechcyclist
No paid vacation either, no paid leave of any sort.
I’ve never understood why the Dems never try to get this through Congress. They could get it through the House right now, and at least force the Senate Republicans to filibuster a motion to proceed on the bill.
Make it simple: for every 40 hours on the clock, a worker earns a minimum of 2 hours of paid leave and 1 hour of paid sick leave. (Play with the numbers as you like, but this structure would apply to part time as well as full time workers.)
Baud
@Kay:
Are inconvenient facts really facts, Kay?
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
You saw how much support they got when they tried that with voting rights.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: One of the biggest problems in American politics is that the system makes it easy to obfuscate cause and effect–most people who are not political junkies think of the President as a kind of elected dictator who controls everything, but the party not holding the White House usually has a lot of power to obstruct and subvert, so they can drag his party’s reputation down through sabotage.
Negative partisanship is hard to maintain when your guy is President. You have to lose the Presidency first. Of course, the danger this time around is that antidemocratic measures by Republicans may make even that ineffective.
Kay
@lowtechcyclist:
I agree but “easy”? It would in no sense be easy. The opposition would be ferocious. Go back and look at the Family and Medical Leave Act. Unpaid. The Right went fucking bananas.
The proposal on the Right is to cover the cost by taking the money out of future Social Security benefits.
We have the worst workplace protections and policy in the wealthy countries, by a mile, and it isn’t because no one ever sat down and designed one. It’s because employers and the government don’t want to pay for it. They know people go to work sick. They don’t care.
Kay
Can someone ask the public health authorities and doctors on tv who are demanding we go back to normal but also insisting that people take precautions as individuals with no government backing exactly how individuals are supposed to do that?
Walk me through how the Wendy’s counter person takes 10 days out after an exposure. Describe each step. Include the part where they don’t get paid. Say she’s “responsible” and doesn’t want to infect others. How does she do it?
Soprano2
@Kay: Not just lower wage workers, I think this applies to most people. I know that I’m fortunate to work for an employer where I have plenty of sick pay (and for Covid we had the special pandemic pay if you were sick or had to quarantine). There are lots of workplaces where the expectation for advancement of your career is that you come to work no matter what. One of my Jazzercise teachers who is also a special ed teacher (those people should get extra kudos for what they’ve had to do during Covid) told me a story about being really sick on the day the Chiefs won the Super Bowl in 2020. The Friday before, all the teachers received an e-mail whose message was basically “if you miss work Monday we’re going to assume it’s because you’re hung over from partying”, just not in those words. Even though she was that sick, she went to work on Monday anyway because she didn’t want to get in trouble for missing. She only lasted that one day, but it was enough to establish that she wasn’t a “slacker”. We have this pathetic work culture in this country where we expect people to work sick unless they literally can’t drag themselves out of bed or are throwing up, and it’s just sad.
Kay
11 x 40 = 440. That’s one week out. Should the Wendy’s employee take two? If she does she can’t pay rent.
My middle son has been infected 3 times. He’s vaccinated. He takes 10 days out with each infection but he’s in a union so he gets paid sick leave. That’s 30 days of sick leave just in the last year. Multiply that by what? 100 million? That’s what it takes to tell people to “voluntarily” take precautions at work. Hundreds of millions of dollars in sick leave.
Kay
@Soprano2:
Just so we’re all clear. Telling them to go back to “normal” means infected and/or sick people will be staffing stores and restaurants and cleaning airports. We shouldn’t allow these pundits and opinion-havers to ignore the reality of what they’re saying.
They shouldn’t be able to add the pious “but of course we all need to take precautions”. Obviously we don’t “need” to and they don’t really care because they must know these workers have no capacity or ability to take these precautions. So just let ‘er rip. Our covid stats are some of the worst in the developed world already. They’re going to get worse.
Kay
The people who lectured us for 5 years about how we don’t understand “real America” cover covid exclusively from the perspective of NYC and DC.
Schools aren’t ‘locked’, you morons. Look around. You all piled on one example at Chicago Public Schools because you’re like crazed lemmings. Your faddish, gimmicky “focus” is not reality.
NorthLeft12
The frustration level throughout all of Canada with the Pro-COVID protests is rapidly increasing. Any elected official who agrees to negotiate with them to remove restrictions is courting disaster IMO.
So, of course, the Federal Conservatives are going all in on weaponizing these selfish, entitled clowns who represent less than 15% of the population. Way less.
I agree that the military should not be used, but I do not understand why the Ottawa police have not started to ticket the trucks for the numerous violations (parking, noise, etc.). This will not only clawback some of the $10 million they have raised (a lot from the USA of course) but will impact their employability and ability to renew their licenses.
Many indigenous, people of colour, and environmental protestors are publicly questioning the standard of treatment they face(d) versus these protestors. Yeah, a real shock this is. /s
lowtechcyclist
What did they try? I missed it.
Cermet
As I said before, the Chinese vaccine is not very effective (I realized their lockdown was for very good reasons.) That said, my hat is off to the Chinese leaders deciding that millions of deaths are unacceptable so if the vaccine is ineffective so exactly what choice did they have? So they have done a very hard thing – a real lock down and damn the economics – better then overwhelmed hospitals, and mass deaths. Of course, in amerika, the choice is easy – death to the old, the infirmed or poor; capitalism must gets it daily quota of blood. The Chinese leadership is more moral then all republicans – not surprised.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
They got lots of support, what are you talking about?
Cermet
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Not by two Dems in the Senate and that killed it. Didn’t see waves of AZ or WV demanding it get passed.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
So you’re saying the Democratic Party doesn’t care that people have no paid vacation or sick leave?
That doesn’t actually make me want to give up on the Democratic Party, because I know there’s no better alternative.
But goddamn, that’s exactly the sort of thing that makes me understand why people do.
ETA: Right now, the Democrats are “the government” that “don’t want to pay for it.” Just to fill in the missing step.
Soprano2
What stands out in our local Covid numbers for the Omicron wave is the reduction in deaths. Number of cases are way, way higher than any other wave, and hospitalizations are almost as high as the Delta wave, but deaths are much, much lower. At the peak of Delta in July 2021, there were 75 deaths. In January, the peak of Omicron, we have 37 deaths. Most all of those are probably unnecessary deaths caused by people being unvaccinated, but I’m also sure that many more people here are vaccinated than were in July 2021. It’s powerful proof that the vaccines have made a big difference in how fatal Covid has to be.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Cermet:
AZ Dems have censured Sienma, at least IIRC. Polling shows Dems there are very fed up with her
Soprano2
@Cermet: You miss the biggest difference between us and China, which is the reason for the different approaches – China is a dictatorship where they can put you in jail for defying the government. Do you honestly think there is anywhere in the U.S. that would have tolerated what the Chinese are doing for even a few days? I don’t like the way the pandemic has been handled in the U.S. either (she says from a state where the state attorney general is suing any school that tries to have a mask and quarantine policy), but I get tired of people pretending that we could have implemented draconian measures easily. That was never going to happen here.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Evidence? I haven’t seen any.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
See my comment at #43
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I’m not sure I would count that as support for Dems.
My point is, trying and failing does not gain us new support from people who appreciate the effort. The most it does, maybe, is keep us from losing the support of existing base voters. Maybe.
dyspeptic
With county by county data, you would think we could have a real comparative analysis of deaths after vaccines, sane people vs. Glenbeckistan
lowtechcyclist
I agree with what you’re saying otherwise, but ‘the most it does’ is what the Dems need to do this year. Midterms are about turning out the people who’ll vote for you if they vote at all.
That itself is a tall order this year, I agree, but no need to make the job even harder by trying to figure out how to win the mushy middle too. We’ll need them in 2024, but not now.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist: I disagree. We need both, and we lose when either one walks away. And as I said above, I don’t believe trying and failing incentivizes turnout on our side. But we’ll see. The House has passed a slew of good bills that the Senate can’t pass. If trying is sufficient, we’ll do well in November.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Kay: The bit the greedy swine ignore in your Wendy’s worker scenario; she gets sick, lets assume she is vaccinated, because she’s not an idiot, so that’s about three days of a fever. So, she’s too ill to work, has to take the three days off, then goes back to work, claims it was something she ate (not a far stretch since she works at Wendy’s) and doesn’t give a shit for the next two weeks she is infecting the good white Middle Class Republicans who need their 2,000 calorie power lunches before they go back to their white collar jobs because she needs to pay the rent.
Suzanne
@lowtechcyclist:
Yes.
People who agree with us are giving up because they don’t think it’s worth their time and effort and energy and resources.
And it is difficult to argue with their logic.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: I think the real wild card in this years mid terms is how the GOP losing 2% of their base is going to change the vote. Since the vast majority of people dying now are over 50 and Republican those are the Republicans most likely to vote in midterms.
Baud
@Suzanne:
I can argue with their logic, but it won’t convince them.
lowtechcyclist
In addition to having no idea what they tried in the way of making voting rights a negative partisanship sort of issue, you’ve still got to pick an issue that your voters are already at least somewhat angry about, and harness that anger. For too many Americans, voting rights is an abstraction because it’s never been an issue for them.
With Covid, I could be wrong but it at least seems that a shit-ton of Americans are fed up with the anti-vax, anti-mask crowd.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I hope so, but that’s a separate issue of whether our people turn out.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I thought this for a hot minute, but then it seemed to me that the fed-up people began directing their anger away from the GOP and right-wing culture and onto how other people were handling the GOP and right-wing culture.
At this point, I just don’t have any expectations regarding voter reactions.
lowtechcyclist
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
2% is small compared to the usual drop-off between a Presidential year and a midterm. Every little bit helps, but it’ll only make the difference if we can make it that close in the first place.
lowtechcyclist
I hear you, but I still think it’s got the best chance of anything the Dems can try to run on at this point. Better ideas are welcome.
YY_Sima Qian
@Cermet: I think I mentioned before that even if China has been exclusively using BioNtech & Moderna mRNA vaccines, the CCP regime would be continuing w/ the “Dynamic Zero COVID” strategy, until it is unnecessary or untenable. The kind of Omicron tsunami that has hit Europe (let alone N. America) would be economically damaging, socially traumatic & politically destabilizing (possibly regime threatening). Why go through that when one still has the option of possibly avoiding it?
It is also not clear to me the full context of Ezra Cheung’s tweets. We have known since 1st days of vaccines’ availability that precision is required when discussing & comparing their performance. If HK has decided that 2 shots of Sinovac does little to prevent Omicron infection & spread (especially if the 2nd shot was months ago & no boosters), then that is not surprising. Even the mRNA vaccines aren’t all that great in the regard, especially w/o boosting. However, if they are saying the Sinovac vaccine is ineffective against hospitalization & death, then that would be a 1st. I have read multiple studies (including out of HK) that conclude the Sinovac & SinoPharm inactivated whole virion vaccines do produce robust T- & B-cell immunity. Serious/critical case rate in recent Delta/Omicron outbreaks in China has been an order of magnitude lower compared to a year ago. Sinovac & SinoPharm vaccines account for > 50% of all vaccine doses in arms around the world to date. If they are ineffective against hospitalization/death by Delta, we would have seen plenty of reports by now.
Bill Arnold
@lowtechcyclist:
The Democrats have full control over about 50 percent of the US government (executive branch and 1/2 the legislative branch (1/3 + (1/3)/2), and procedural control over 67%, though it is near impossible to get legislation passed. The Supreme Court is solidly in partisan Republican control, as are many lower courts., and the Republican Supreme court is visibly poised to block any Democratic legislation that gets passed, for partisan political gain.
YY_Sima Qian
@Soprano2: It has been obvious since the 1st wave during Spring of 2020 that type of government is not the important factor affecting adequacy of pandemic response. Plenty of authoritarian regimes in the world, but only a few have managed decent showings: hard authoritarians like China & Vietnam (until Delta for the latter), soft authoritarians like Singapore, Macau & Hong Kong (of course, HK’s authoritarianism is turning much harder w/ the National Security Law last year). There are plenty of democracies (both liberal & illiberal) in the world, & few have managed decent showings, either: Taiwan, South Korea, Australia (until New South Wales surrendered to Delta, but at least got a chance to face Omicron w/ high vaccination rate), & New Zealand. The common thread across the board is competence of health authorities, empowerment of scientists/experts, state capacity for governance, population’s respect for authority during crisis, & (for the E/SE Asians) a relatively collectivist social ethos. Much of W. Europe did succeed in suppressing the 1st wave, but failed to sustain their efforts. The US’ pathologies are unique, or at least uniquely bad, but later blows softened by the technical prowess of its pharmaceutical industry.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — 7,676 new cases of COVID-19 and 17 deaths of people who have tested positive reported yesterday, still on a plateau after the descent from the Omicron peak over the new year period.
1,042 people were in hospital yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19 with 27 people in intensive care, not much change over the past week or so. If I squint I see a slight downwards trend but I may be deluding myself.
In other news the Novavax vaccine has been approved for adults in the UK, adding to the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines, the AstraZeneca adenovirus vaccine and the Jannsen aka J&J vaccine (which isn’t actually in use in the UK but any visitors vaccinated with it are considered vaccinated per se in Britain).
schrodingers_cat
Most groups classified as minorities already vote for Democrats by a wide margin. The Republican party is the party of white grievance and its base is the white people. So instead of whining about the Democrats are failing you today, white people need to work on their relatives and friends who vote Republican. If Ds can win a majority of white women our politics will change tomorrow.
NotMax
Locally,
Elsewhere,