LIVE: Moment of silence at U.S. Capitol marks 900,000 U.S. COVID-19 deaths https://t.co/x9MJM0VnXF
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 8, 2022
To add more context to this. In June Gallup poll, 89% thought COVID situation was getting lot/little better. By August, it had dropped 74 pts (!!!) to just 15%. https://t.co/Q2SEDwBATc https://t.co/KCStb2L1su
— Amy Walter (@amyewalter) February 8, 2022
Eventually we will reach a point where that last red line will flatten out or go down, but it will not be because of prudent action on our part. And there are already hundreds of thousands more deaths than there might have been.
— Cheryl Rofer (@CherylRofer) February 8, 2022
U.S. CDC urges Americans to avoid travel to Japan, Cuba, Armenia over COVID cases https://t.co/fEvxdY3VIv pic.twitter.com/kEIXU7mTta
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 8, 2022
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COVID disrupts health services in over 90% of countries -WHO https://t.co/kSav00dO3z pic.twitter.com/QusSGtyB6h
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 7, 2022
China has ordered inhabitants of the southern city of Baise to stay home and suspended transportation links amid a virus surge partly linked to omicron. Classes have been suspended, non-essential businesses closed and mass testing of residents ordered. https://t.co/Qs9cWcK6z5
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 8, 2022
Olympic organizers say there are 32 athletes in isolation facilities after testing positive for the coronavirus and that the average time spent in isolation is seven days. https://t.co/7NPoE2h6AV
— AP Sports (@AP_Sports) February 8, 2022
#HongKong's new #Covid19 measures in full. https://t.co/FTmp7G4o8D pic.twitter.com/AUhEuyDxHr
— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) February 8, 2022
Looking forward to living the reality of the next few months resulting from a string of unforced errors by Hong Kong authorities. https://t.co/KnWedoLOB5
— Oliver Farry (@ofarry) February 8, 2022
It *was* the hamsters, after all!
Sneezing hamsters sparked a Covid outbreak. Pet hamsters probably carried #delta variant into Hong Kong. Genomic analysis of viral samples from the rodents supports reports that a pet shop was the source, which has so far has infected ~50 people https://t.co/2O62DJXmUk
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 7, 2022
NEWS: @USAID provides vaccine delivery supplies to Thailand ?? to support efforts to get #COVID19 vaccines into arms and protect vulnerable communities across the country. To date, the US delivered a total of 2.5 M vaccine doses. More here: https://t.co/F6fQty1fsC https://t.co/XVKqzR8p3f
— USAID Bureau for Asia (@USAIDAsiaHQ) February 7, 2022
South Korea's #omicron surge continues sweeping the country. Health officials report that S. Korea has now surpassed 1 million known infections https://t.co/PKPc9IdKjm
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 7, 2022
Malaysia COVID-19 panel recommends full border reopening in March https://t.co/4taQi2FJXy pic.twitter.com/fa8uMjGfWY
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 8, 2022
Australia's COVID hospital admissions fall after Omicron peaks https://t.co/c0ERftWP1t pic.twitter.com/mTUQmmjByF
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 8, 2022
New Zealand PM warns of more COVID variants in 2022 https://t.co/ewe1HmTSC7 pic.twitter.com/AV2YJfGt3o
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 8, 2022
Germany's government says it's working on plans to relax coronavirus restrictions after the peak in new cases has passed, likely by the end of February. https://t.co/fzfh8ILshM
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) February 7, 2022
The #COVID19 crisis in Russia seems fully out-of-control – 10X increase in 1 month.
"The figure of 189,071 new infections on Sun was abt 2,800 cases >the previous day & continued a surge that began in mid-January, when daily new cases were around 17,000."https://t.co/iu2YoLZWCE— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) February 7, 2022
WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE – Police in Canada's capital said they are cracking down on fuel and funding to end an 11-day protest against COVID-19 measures, while a judge granted an interim injunction against deafening honking that has irked residents https://t.co/JusiC2az7M pic.twitter.com/TwOqX7TFJv
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 8, 2022
Canada’s public safety minister joined other Canadian leaders in pushing back against prominent U.S. Republicans who offered support for the protests of COVID-19 mandates that have besieged downtown Ottawa for more than a week. https://t.co/qdJW42Bi53
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 7, 2022
Facebook says it has taken down dozens of groups, pages + accounts that latched onto the truck convoy protest in Canada but were run by spammers and scammers, including in Vietnam https://t.co/W81fiudaUs
— Elizabeth Culliford (@eculliford) February 8, 2022
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Past infection with covid-19 does not necessarily confer protection against future infection, especially when it comes to the delta and omicron variants, researchers have warnedhttps://t.co/Jbk2pUF1Ds
— The BMJ (@bmj_latest) February 7, 2022
Huge study finds that Covid increases the risk of cardiovascular disease 12 months later.
"Governments & health systems around the world should be prepared to deal with the likely significant contribution of the COVID pandemic to a rise in the burden of cardiovascular diseases." https://t.co/fDjNAr8F3U
— Amy Maxmen, PhD (@amymaxmen) February 7, 2022
Many babies of mRNA-vaccinated moms have antibodies at 6 months; Moderate COVID tied to higher childbirth risks https://t.co/oGEkVnFhmA pic.twitter.com/ftl8IKsg2T
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 8, 2022
U.K. experts attempt to define #LongCovid in kids. Consensus panel comes up w/ 5 criteria signifying the condition:
-Affects physical/mental/social well-being
-Interferes w/ aspects of daily living
-Persists ~12 wks after initially testing Covid+https://t.co/9Lcj8RJ3x9 pic.twitter.com/CSH5EcgrLB— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 8, 2022
About 30 million white-tailed deer roam the continental United States, and we keep giving them the coronavirus. https://t.co/x1fD5lHDtZ
— NYT Science (@NYTScience) February 7, 2022
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"If data were driving these decisions, we wouldn't at all remove mask mandates right now…These are the very decisions that are going to prolong the pandemic and lead to far more suffering than we need to have happen.” @MCarnethon https://t.co/HiEm8nwzBT
— Anne Sosin (@asosin) February 8, 2022
In rural California—ruby red Trump country—unvaccinated 'freedom lovers' are still overwhelming hospitals. The facilities have small staffs that are made up of overworked doctors and nurses https://t.co/aBs8lNwiFX
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 8, 2022
Hooray!
Over the last 15 days new #COVID19 cases in NYC have fallen >60%.
The NYC transmission rate on Jan17 the rate was 1,184.4 per 100,000 residents.
On Feb1 it was 223.73 cases per 100K — a decline of 81%. ????https://t.co/fkB3wHCaEQ pic.twitter.com/ZxraErBfDI— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) February 8, 2022
in this article re: Fauci, NYT quotes 14 Republicans, 0 Dems https://t.co/M5dbrRTyZE
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) February 7, 2022
Aching saga of 23-yr-old patient
"There is a look of terror, confusion & questioning on every family member's face.
She experienced a cardiac arrest & due to #COVID19 she has now lost both legs to coagulopathic comps & is on dialysis due to renal failure."https://t.co/zWqc4Y3Tt6— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) February 7, 2022
New & Exclusive: The pandemic has been a financial windfall for anti-vaccine groups, including the Informed Consent Action Network, helmed by Del Bigtree. ICAN brought in $5.5 million in 2020, 60% more than the previous year and their best year yet. https://t.co/XgbVbPBktW
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) February 3, 2022
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
There were 97 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 2/7. There were 83 new positive home tests on 2/7.
Well, at least we’re out of the triple digits in daily new case counts.
Deaths now at 1742 since March of 2020.
Hospitalizations:
122 cases hospitalized, 69% unvaxed
18 cases in the ICU, 78% unvaxed
9 cases are also intubated, 67% unvaxed
The death count is going up as the hospitalization count is going down.
I still haven’t gotten my free test kits but we’ve had 2 snow storms and very cold temperatures since I signed up for them.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 13,944 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 2,939,198 cases. It also reports nine deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 32,043 deaths – 1.10% of the cumulative reported total, 1.12% of resolved cases.
Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 1.32.
81 confirmed cases are in ICU, 34 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 5,421 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,824,071 patients recovered – 96.1% of the cumulative reported total.
17 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 6,526 clusters. 375 clusters are currently active; 6,151 clusters are now inactive.
13,791 new cases today are local infections. 153 new cases today are imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 119,543 doses of vaccine on 7th February: 9,321 first doses, 2,188 second doses, and 108,034 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 64,108,866 doses administered: 26,117,440 first doses, 25,723,208 second doses, and 12,473,139 booster doses. 80.0% of the population have received their first dose, 78.8% their second dose, and 38.2% their booster dose.
Freemark
@Amir Khalid: Glad to have you back! No you’ve been back for a bit but I always checked in too late to let you know.
NotMax
FYI.
How long can I keep wearing the same N95, KN95, or KF94 respirator mask?
As with any one size fits all broad guidelines, grain of salt should be kept handy.
something fabulous
Speaking of jackals returning to the jackalfold, have I just missed him, or has Imm not been around for a while?
NorthLeft12
Cheryl Rofer’s tweet with graphic really hit home for me. This repeating cycle of partial success, then abject surrender speaks volumes about where our societies are right now.
I dislike equating this pandemic to a war, but I can’t help but think of WW2 and how people (especially in the US, UK, and Canada) were dealing with all the death, restrictions, and mental strain in 1942 or 1943 when the situation looked particularly dire and hopeless.
My father and his family were refugees from Poland ?? starting in 1939. They were transported to a labour camp in Siberia, were let out in 1942 when the USSR joined the allies, and spent the war in Iran, India, and Kenya, before eventually getting to England after the war. He, his mother, and surviving brother emigrated to Canada to join his older sister who married and settled in Canada first.
I think of this incredible journey and all the hardships they endured, and wonder if us privileged first world societies can bear this kind of stress.
I know people can still go through that and retain hope and humanity because I see the amazing refugees from Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. that are helping to make Canada a better place to live.
Anyway, thanks for “listening” and please stay safe, well, and hopeful.
New Deal democrat
Nationwide deaths continue their plateau at roughly 2450. Cases have declined almost 65% from peak, but are still equivalent to their pre-Omicron all time peak last winter. All Census regions are down over 50%, with the Northeast (and PR) down over 85%. NY, NJ, CT, DC, DE, and MD are at the same level as they were last April, well below their winter 2020-21 peaks, and as of yesterday were still declining with no signs of stopping. *If* the current rate of decline of 50% per week is maintained, they will be at last June’s lows in 4 weeks.
For once the US is lucky, as every other country hit hard early by Omicron has had case levels stall out at (Ireland) or well above (UK, South Africa) their pre-Omicron levels, or the rate of decline has slowed substantially (Canada).
YY_Sima Qian
On 2/7 China reported 65 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangdong Province did not report any new domestic positive 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.
Guangxi “Autonomous” Region reported 64 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases cases. There currently are 108 active domestic confirmed & 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
At Shaoyang there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed cases in the city, part of the transmission chain spreading from Shenzhen in Guangdong.
Tianjin Municipality reported 1 new domestic confirmed case, at Hebei District (a traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine). 5 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 51 active domestic confirmed cases (all presumed Omicron). 2 residential buildings remain at High Risk. 5 residential buildings remain at Medium Risk.
Beijing Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. As Beijing does not separate recoveries between imported & domestic cases, I cannot track the number of active cases on the city. 1 community, 1 village & 1 residential building remain at High Risk. 3 communities & 2 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
At Liaoning Province 1 domestic asymptomatic case was a released from isolation. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (at Shenyang) & 3 active domestic asymptomatic (2 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 Datong in Shanxi Province there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the city.
At Hebei Province there currently are 18 active domestic confirmed cases (5 at Xiong’an, 5 at Hengshui, 6 at Langfang & 2 at Baoding) in the province, all part of the transmission chain from the cold storage warehouses outbreak in Fengtai District in Beijing. 1 Medium Risk village at Xiong’an was re-designated to Low Risk. 1 village at Hengshui remains 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 7 active domestic confirmed (4 at Horgos & 3 at 4th Div. of XPCC) & 16 active domestic asymptomatic (12 at Horgos & 4 at 4th Div. of XPCC) cases at the border crossing. 2 residential compounds & 1 residential building were re-designated to Low Risk. 2 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
Heilongjiang Province reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both at Heihe, 1 from regular screening of all residents at the border city & the other is a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 29 active domestic confirmed (all at Mudanjiang) & 51 active domestic asymptomatic (7 at Heihe, 39 at Mudanjiang, 4 at Qiqihar & 1 at Suihua) cases in the province. 2 residential buildings at Heihe are currently at Medium Risk. 5 residential compounds, 7 residential buildings, 4 residential building units, 4 office buildings & a produce market at Mudanjiang remain at Medium Risk.
At Shanghai Municipality 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 7 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Zhejiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. As the province does not regularly publish recoveries, I can no longer trace the count of active cases on there. 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 49 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 322 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
At Yunnan Province 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 2/7, China reported 40 new imported confirmed cases (10 previously asymptomatic), 42 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in China, 127 confirmed cases recovered (58 imported), 36 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (30 imported) & 14 were reclassified as confirmed cases (10 imported), & 2,313 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,473 active confirmed cases in the country (663 imported), 5 in serious condition (1 imported), 872 active asymptomatic cases (766 imported), 2 suspect cases (both imported). 42,525 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 2/7, 3,010.669M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 3.807M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 2/8, Hong Kong reported 625 new positive cases, most domestic.
On 2/8, Taiwan reported 48 new positive cases, 22 imported & 26 domestic (4 of whom are from untraced transmission).
debbie
@NorthLeft12:
Same here. Today I drop off the form for my doctor to complete and submit my request for an extension to work from home. If it’s not approved, I guess I’ll have to quit, but I will not go back in that building filled with thousands of maskless people.
Baud
@debbie:
I wonder if Republicans will give you unemployment like they did to people who got fired for failing to get vaccinated.
Haha. Just kidding. I know we are second class citizens to them.
New Deal democrat
@NorthLeft12:
This is why history repeats. Each generation forgets the lessons from the era that preceded its birth, and eventually when all those from the prior era are dead, the subsequent generations become complacent and have to learn the same lesson all over again. To paraphrase my old German grandmother, “those who cannot see must feel.”
We can improve technology all we want, but there is no changing human nature.
Alas, the current brand of “libertarians” think that when Hobbes called natural society the “war of all against all,” he was paying society a compliment. Eventually the lesson will be re-learned, but at what cost?
NotMax
Number of countries reporting cumulative total case totals of more than 500k now stands at 76.
10 countries now reporting total cases running into 8 digits:
U.S. (>78 million)
India (>42 million)
Brazil (>26 million)
France (>20 million)
U.K. (>17 million)
Russia (>13 million)
Turkey (>12 million)
Italy (>11 million)
Germany (>11 million)
Spain (>10 million)
.
Estimated total cases (from officially released numbers) worldwide now over 400,000,000.
Cermet
@New Deal democrat: While still too early to know, it is possible the various mRNA vaccines are more effective and causing this result. China has accepted its whole virus vaccine is essentially useless against Omicron and poor against Delta (hence their extremely smart and responsible actions) – however, a lot of countries depended on that vaccine or a similar design (UK) in much of the world – this is the difference I see that might be contributing to the different recoveries.
Chris T.
I keep expecting to see “Breaking – governments all over the world urge US citizens not to travel to their countries because of COVID. Not because the Americans will get COVID but because Americans are COVID.”
wenchacha
@NeenerNeener: I ordered my test kits as soon as I could. Still haven’t arrived here in Penfield, either.
Ken
@Chris T.: That was my first thought when I saw “U.S. CDC urges Americans to avoid travel to Japan, Cuba, Armenia over COVID cases”. I don’t know about Armenia, but I had the impression Japan and Cuba both have much lower numbers than the US.
Baud
@Ken:
It’s not a competition. The issue is coming home if you get sick overseas. Regardless of how bad we are, it’s the governments job to advise Americans about the situation in other countries.
New Deal democrat
@Cermet:
Ironically we may also be seeing a silver lining from the bad Delta outbreak this past summer and fall.
At least when it comes to deaths from Omicron, some of the best vaccinated jurisdictions – VT, PR, CA, OR, DC – have had the best records. But so have some of the worst-vaccinated jurisdictions that had ghastly Delta outbreaks – FL, MO, AL, GA, MT. Meanwhile a few of the most-vaccinated jurisdictions – NJ, NY, MA – have had among the worst death rates from Omicron, as well as some of the usual suspects – TN, IN, WV, AZ.
Anyway, just from the numbers it looks like having had a bad Delta outbreak may have provided some protection against the worst Omicron outbreaks.
Zzyzx
King County, WA (Seattle) is still at about twice the previous peak in cases but it’s down to about 1500 cases a day from the 6500 that we were at a month ago and it’s still falling fast. Hospitalizations and deaths have also seemed to peak, but deaths only went from 4 a day in November to 8 at the peak, so a weird day could push it back up again.
I do think that – in theory – relaxing mask mandates when numbers look good does make sense in that it seems to be easier to get people to do something for a short period of time than indefinitely. OTOH, I don’t think we’ve reached the point yet to do that.
My internal metric was like 10-20k cases and an average of 2-300 deaths a day nationally. We hit that for a bit last summer and I’m hoping that we get there again soon.
Personally, I’m rolling the dice and trying to go on the vacation I booked last year when things looked better in a few weeks. That means getting a negative test a week from Saturday so I’ve been completely locked down since last week.
sab
@NorthLeft12: A month ago Solon Ohio City School District had the highest Covid infection rate of any school district in Ohio. So they finally mandated masks. Yesterday they dropped the mask mandate.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: My guess is that we will stall out at case rates well above the levels of last June, when the dominant COVID strain was Alpha, was a better match for vaccine immunity and likely had a way smaller R0. For about a month, the pandemic was functionally over and even people with no prior immunity were at low risk.
But new hospitalizations will become quite low until the next variant hits.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat:
High vaccination, but not particularly high booster rates. The parts of New York City where I can find numbers are highly vaccinated, but actually have lower rates of booster shots than the national average. I suspect that’s significant.
WaterGirl
@debbie: I obviously hope they approve your working from home. But if they don’t, I hope you can be at peace with your decision to quit – knowing that they showed you who they were, that you gave them an opportunity to be better, and that they basically told you they don’t care about you.
Profits over people. There’s enough of that in the world already. If you quit, there will be a lot of uncertainty but I’m sure there will be a good job for you somewhere where they don’t see people as a cog in the wheel.
Wishing for the best possible outcome for you!
NorthLeft12
Wearing a mask ? is such a simple and effective precaution that I really struggle to have a scintilla of empathy for those that refuse to wear one AND campaign relentlessly against any wearing of masks.
Once the mask mandates are removed the usual sociopaths will immediately stop wearing them and aggressively challenge any business or institution that attempts to require one for entry into their space. It will be a shitshow.
NorthLeft12
@debbie: I accelerated my retirement date partly due to my employer’s lack of concern regarding COVID precautions.
I wish you the best of luck and peace with your decision.
O. Felix Culpa
@Zzyzx: I’m rolling the dice for a trip in mid-April, on the theory that omicron will be at a low point by then and (hopefully) any new variant will not have taken over yet. I’m going to isolate myself for a week before leaving to (again hopefully) have a negative test upon arrival.
Also too, “Sneezing Hamsters” is the name for my next band.
Fair Economist
COVID has re-taken the #1 spot in causes of US deaths, surpassing heart disease and cancer. It’s been there for nearly a month now! I’m disappointed that the media refuses to discuss exactly how bad it is.
@New Deal democrat:
That’s mostly because we had a very elevated case rate pre-Omicron, because of our plague rat problems. South Africa’s rate right now is less than half our pre-Omicron rate.
Of course cases are rapidly becoming a low-value metric with the changes in testing to home testing, which doesn’t get reported, and the increasing attitude that “It’s not serious, I don’t need to test.” From now on we have to look at hospitalizations and deaths, plus wastewater for comparisons over time, although that’s not useful for comparing locations because there are so many other variables involved in wasterwater concentrations.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — 6,630 new cases of COVID-19 and 14 new reported deaths of people who have tested positive. The deaths may include some from the weekend when such reporting is incomplete.
950 people were in hospital yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19 (within 28 days, typically), with 18 people in intensive care. This continues the reduction in cases serious enough to require hospitalisation and especially ICU treatment (which does not necessarily include intubation and forced ventilation).
Vaccinations in Scotland continue but at a low level. Nearly 75% of 18+ adults have now had a third dose or booster jab.
It’s coming up to the anniversary of my first COVID-19 vaccination. I expect that any benefit I got from that initial treatment has worn off over the past twelve months. Counting people who got vaccinated more than nine months ago as being adequately protected from the new variants is probably wishful thinking but it’s all we’ve got to work with, until we get variant-specific vaccines out of trials and into peoples arms.
I got my booster (half-dose of Moderna) back in early November so it’s been three months from then. Roll on the second booster…
Tazj
@NorthLeft12: The discourse around masks and vaccines has become crazier. There are two towns in my county that say they want to secede from the county because of mask mandates. Of course, they would never do it because they would then lose money but they still get to go on the news and make a big deal out of it. One town supervisor is the former county sheriff who said he wouldn’t enforce NY gun control laws and tried to keep the federal government from investigating the county prison when there were suicides. I thought he was out of government now but no, he still has a job.
There are more people at stores without masks and I see more and more cars with anti-mask and anti-vaccine rhetoric on them. These people are making up stuff to be mad and feel oppressed about.
I think the wise thing to do would be to wait longer until cases decrease further to get rid of the mask mandates instead of getting rid of them the second things are starting to get better.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
What makes Cheryl Rofer observation even more crazed is because 13% of the population refuse to take any measures against the virus because of freedumb we have a control group to show us how bad it would be. But apparently,..data is hard?
It looks like Omicron is 5x more contagious than Delta, but significantly less severe, maybe, but since they don’t break down what strain people are infected with and their vaccination status it is all mushy.
Matt McIrvin
@Fair Economist:
The other drum I’ve been beating is that any single number indicating vaccination has become a low-value metric, because it may encompass everything from people who got one J&J shot in spring 2021 to being recently up to date on boosters. It doesn’t necessarily indicate the current level of immunity–though it’s also clear that any level of vaccination is far superior to none.
VOR
I think the framing of the Omicron variant as “mild” was a major mistake. Lower death rate X much higher infection rate = about the same number dead. It appalls me that the US has 2500 dead per day and it is just shrugged off, What Cha Gunna Do?
Matt McIrvin
@Robert Sneddon:
It has not–based on everything I’ve read from immunologists. If you’d gotten no subsequent shots, the sterilizing antibodies from that shot would be completely gone, and you’d likely have no protection against developing an infection. But your memory B-cells and T-cells would still know how to fight COVID viruses, and your chances of dying or getting seriously harmed would still be much lower than in an immunologically naive person.
That first shot also made your subsequent shots more effective, because your immune system was primed by it to react to the later shots.
I still find New York City’s age-adjusted data by vaccination status remarkable. Relatively few people in NYC got booster shots, and a lot of them were probably last vaccinated quite some time ago, yet being fully vaccinated at any point in the past still apparently reduces your chances of being a recorded COVID case (which is, of course, different from just being infected) by almost a factor of 10, and your chances of dying by a factor of 20. That’s far enough into the Omicron wave that the numbers are nearly all Omicron. And if you’re boosted, that’s presumably a lot stronger.
Sloane Ranger
Yesterday (Monday) in the UK we had 57,623 new cases. This is a 10.4% reduction in the 7-day rolling average. Probably low as offices will still be catching up on the weekend backlog. I expect a jump when today’s numbers are released. New cases by nation,
England – 48,601 (down 932)
Northern Ireland – 3105 (up 411)
Scotland – 2535 (down 707)
Wales – 3382 (up 1514).
Deaths – There were 45 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported yesterday. Expect there to be a much large number today as offices process the reporting backlog. The rolling 7-day average is down by 7.1%. 34 deaths were in England, 2 in Northern Ireland, 9 in Wales and none in Scotland.
Testing – 1,006,934 tests took place on Sunday, 6th. The rolling 7-day average is down by 7.9%.
Hospitalisations – There were 14,207 people in hospital and 474 on ventilators on Friday, 4th. THe 7-day average for hospital admissions was down by 10.4% as of 7th February.
Vaccinations – As of 6 February, 91.2% of all UK residents aged 12+ had had 1 shot, 84.5% had had 2, and 65.3% had had a 3rd shot/booster.
Jackie
@wenchacha: We just got our tests yesterday – eastern WA. Expiration dates are 7/22 – I was hoping for closer to 12 months.??♀️
Miss Bianca
@O. Felix Culpa:
Destroy All
MonstersHamstersMatt McIrvin
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Most people think in terms of stories, not statistics. And everyone’s heard enough stories about people who “did everything right” getting sick that many infer from that that none of the control measures do anything–it’s all useless theater.
Matt McIrvin
@Matt McIrvin:
Note also, the “age-adjusted” there is very important–the raw numbers make vaccination look much less effective than it actually is because vaccination increases greatly with age, and so does vulnerability.
Jay
Since September, cases in BC have hovered around 1,000 new cases a day, and still are, despite the vaccinations. Starting in December, the Testing Sites were at capacity, so the December/January/February numbers of new cases, may be higher.
The recommended protocol, ( mandated at my work), is stay home and quarantine if you have Covid symptoms. On day three, take a home test, ( good luck buying one, I only have tests through my employer), at day 5, get a PCR test, ( good luck with that again),
Work “requires” a negative PCR test to return to work, but it’s not enforceable, not practical, and for almost everybody, staying home isn’t affordable, so we are getting Covid outbreaks in pulses.
laura
@Amir Khalid: I’m so happy to see your nym again on the daily☺
Bill Arnold
The Nature paper on cardiovascular outcomes post-acute SARS-CoV-2 infection is an important paper. Worth at least looking at the diagrams.
It is a large study (150K test-positive people and 2 sets of 5(-6) million controls (one pre-covid-19)) using Department of Veterans Affairs information:
Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19 (Nature, 07 February 2022, Yan Xie, Evan Xu, Benjamin Bowe & Ziyad Al-Aly)
They didn’t try to break out Omicron; it’s not clear yet if cardiovascular outcomes are different for an Omicron(-family) infection. We should assume that there are similar risks for an omicron(-family) infection until proven otherwise.