Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

How stupid are these people?

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

This fight is for everything.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/Thursday, Feb. 9-10

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Wednesday/Thursday, Feb. 9-10

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It’s also a trash take because 30% of those deaths happened between Jan-March, before vaccines were widely available even to seniors. But I’m sure that’s somehow Biden’s fault, too.

As I argued many times, the US’ bad performance vs Covid in 2020 was not all on Trump: the pandemic revealed deep problems with our public-health bureaucracy. But there were specific things Trump did (or did not do) that did clear damage to the pandemic effort. Why deny it?

One problem with Covid intellectually is that it’s now impossible to be a Covid contrarian and be serious, because Covid contrarian positions are now all stupid. (Saying kids shouldn’t wear masks and schools shouldn’t close isn’t contrarian today.) GG’s thread is a case in point.

Basically, you can say true stuff about Covid and be boring, or try to be original, which requires saying stuff that isn’t true. That’s why so much of my writing about Covid takes the form of critique: it’s the only intellectually engaging mode of writing about Covid that’s left.

The one dimension of the Covid debate that remains intellectually interesting is what it tells us about how ppl use and misuse data, present and misrepresent it, interpret and misinterpret it, and how an explosion of information creates its own set of problems.

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    319 new cases as of 2/9/22.
    Still no test kits in the mail.

    Full vacinations now at 70.7%. Nice to see this is still going up, although a lot slower rate than it was last year.

  2. 2.

    debbie

    JFC, how stupid is GG? The pandemic was gearing up to slam us during TFG!!!? s and? s, you stupid, stupid git.  ?

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 19,090 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 2,975,422 cases. It also reports nine deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 32,065 deaths – 1.08% of the cumulative reported total, 1.12% of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 1.47.

    86 confirmed cases are in ICU, 35 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 5,712 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,835,464 patients recovered – 95.3% of the cumulative reported total.

    14 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 6,555 clusters. 395 clusters are currently active; 6,160 clusters are now inactive.

    18,956 new cases today are local infections. 134 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 165,653 doses of vaccine on 9th February: 14,195 first doses, 2,097 second doses, and 149,361 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 64,434,353 doses administered: 26,142,833 first doses, 25,727,038 second doses, and 12,769,610 booster doses. 80.1% of the population have received their first dose, 78.8% their second dose, and 39.1% their booster dose.

  5. 5.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    There is 100% overlap between the anti cancel culture people and the anti covid mitigation people. They simply shifted to anti-covid mitigation.

    I guess their subscribers got bored with the same think piece on “cancel culture” at elite universities, over and over again. They’re now all going to write about liberals and masks for 6 months.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    WINDSOR, ONTARIO – A Canadian trucker protest blocking traffic on the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit could disrupt supply chains already battered by the pandemic.
    Travelers have been unable to cross into Canada since Monday as a protest against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for international truckers dragged into a third day. U.S.-bound traffic started flowing Tuesday but the gridlock is causing long delays and major backups at the Port Huron border entry.
    A major trade route, the Ambassador Bridge carries 40,000 commuters and $323 million in goods every day—roughly a quarter of the trade between Michigan and Canada.

    Can we get some actual reporting on the “truckers”? People who live in Windsor say this blockade is short on trucks and long on anti-vaxxers and various other Right wing groups in cars. Can someone go there and look?

  13. 13.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 2/9 China reported 7 new domestic confirmed (none previously asymptomatic) & 1 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.

    • At Zhuhai there currently are 16 active domestic confirmed cases (all presumed Omicron) in the city.
    • Shenzhen did not report any new domestic positive cases. 4 residential & 1 office buildings are currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Guangzhou there currently is 1 active domestic positive case, part of the transmission chain spreading from Baise in Guangxi.
    • At Yunfu there currently are 7 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city, all part of the Omicron transmission chain spreading from Shenzhen.
    • At Huizhou there currently are 6 active domestic confirmed cases in the city, part of the Omicron transmission chain spreading from Shenzhen.
    • In the rest of the province there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases (1 each at Heyuan & Meizhou), both part of the Omicron transmission chain spreading from Shenzhen.

    Guangxi “Autonomous” Region reported 7 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 187 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Baise reported it 7 new domestic confirmed cases, most in the rural Debao County, all part of the same transmission chain. There currently are 186 active domestic confirmed cases (all presumed Omicron) in the city, ~ 80% of whom are residents in the same village, all part of the transmission chain spreading from Shenzhen in Guangdong. 1 village at Debao County is currently at High Risk, & a hotel is currently at Medium Risk.
    • At Nanning there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case, part of the transmission chain spreading from Baise.
    • At Chongzuo there currently are 1 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases.

    At Shaoyang in Hunan Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed cases in the city, part of the transmission chain spreading from Shenzhen in Guangdong.

    Tianjin Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. 6 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 35 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 remain at High Risk. 2 communities, 1 residential compound & 1 residential building remain at Medium Risk.

    Liaoning Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Shenyang, found from screening of all persons recently returning from Huludao. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed (1 each at Huludao & Shenyang) & 3 active domestic asymptomatic (2 at Shenyang & 1 at Dalian) 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 village at Hengshui remains at Medium Risk.

    At Yili Prefecture in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region 1 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed (3 at 4th Div. of XPCC & 2 at Horgos) & 6 active domestic asymptomatic (3 each at Horgos & 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 did not report any new domestic positive cases. 3 domestic cases recovered & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 26 active domestic confirmed (all at Mudanjiang) & 49 active domestic asymptomatic (8 at Heihe, 36 at Mudanjiang, 4 at Qiqihar & 1 at Suihua) cases in the province. 3 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 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 4 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. 8 residential compounds, 4 businesses & 1 shop at Hangzhou remain at Medium Risk.

    At Huanggang in Hubei Province there currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city, part 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 27 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 260 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 2/9, China reported 22 new imported confirmed cases (2 previously asymptomatic), 27 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:

    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 5 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese nationals returning from Russia & 1 each from Iran, Myanmar & Turkey; 8 asymptomatic cases, 3 Chinese national returning from Russia, 2 each from Myanmar & Singapore, & 1 from
    • Yangjiang Port in Guangdong Procaine – 2 confirmed & 3 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese crew members off a cargo ship w/ last port of call in the Philippines
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case, a Hong Kong resident coming from Hong Kong
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case (1 previously asymptomatic), coming from Malaysia; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 coming from the UAE & 1 from Hong Kong
    • Shanghai Municipality – 8 confirmed cases, 4 Chinese nationals returning from Canada & 1 from the UK (via Helsinki), & 3 South Korean nationals coming from South Korea; 1 suspect case, no information released
    • Changchun in Jilin Province – 2 confirmed cases, both coming from South Korea
    • Guangxi “Autonomous” Region (location not specified) – 1 confirmed (previously asymptomatic) & 1 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Singapore
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from South Korea; 3 asymptomatic cases, 1 each from Canada, Japan & South Korea
    • Beijing Municipality – 4 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Laos & Myanmar, via land border crossings

    Overall in China, 96 confirmed cases recovered (48 imported), 39 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (31 imported) & 2 were reclassified as confirmed cases (both imported), & 3,263 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,428 active confirmed cases in the country (640 imported), 4 in serious condition (1 imported), 824 active asymptomatic cases (739 imported), 2 suspect cases (both imported). 40,352 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 2/9, 3,022.646M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 6.496M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 2/10, Hong Kong reported 986 new positive cases, 1 imported & 985 domestic. There are another ~ 800 cases who are preliminarily positive, awaiting confirmation.

    On 2/10, Taiwan reported 83 new positive cases, 46 imported & 37 domestic (11 of whom have already been under quarantine, the rest are from new clusters).

  14. 14.

    Matt McIrvin

    @debbie: GG’s take on COVID is like his take on drone attacks: because they were just getting started under Bush, they were the one statistic he could use to prove that Obama was actually the worse warmonger of the two and the Democrats were therefore the real war party–so drone attacks became the single most important thing. Once Obama dialed them down, then Trump took over and he increased drone attacks, they were no longer of any import.

    He is a dishonest cherry-picker of stats to make whatever point he wants to push. This isn’t ignorance, it’s a strategy.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    Locally,

    Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported seven new coronavirus-related deaths and 519 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,233 fatalities and 228,336 cases.

    Four of the latest deaths were on Oahu, one was on the Big Island, one was on Maui and one was on Kauai. No further information was released regarding the latest deaths.

    The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 910 fatalities on Oahu, 168 on Hawaii island, 117 on Maui, 23 on Kauai, three on Molokai and 12 Hawaii residents who died outside the state. Source

    Deaths statewide since the coming of Omicron exceed numbers from all prior infections.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    He has no credentials outside of the right wing echo chamber.  He’s really no different from any other propagandist they have.

  18. 18.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Right- it takes a lot of effort for free speech warriors to carefully ignore the 22 state law gag orders in public schools their work inspired. Faced with actual government censorship – state laws banning discussions of whole areas of thought- they all moved on to complaining about masks.

    Our “public intellectuals” suck, Baud. They’re bad. I personally think it’s tied to income inequality. There isn’t enough competitive pressure from below to knock them out and take their jobs. The sameness is what kills me. Can you call yourself a contrarian when you move in a herd like this? Should every “contrarian” be saying exactly the same thing on every issue?

  20. 20.

    New Deal democrat

    A question came up yesterday about whether deaths have actually been declining in the earliest hit countries. According to Dr. Tom Moultrie, South Africa’s have been falling; big delays in reporting explain why that hasn’t shown up in the data yet; see link here:
    https://mobile.twitter.com/tomtom_m/status/1491463643392876547
    The U.K. had an extra data dump about 9 days ago. With that gone from the average, deaths are down 25%. In Canada deaths are down 20%.

    In the US, deaths are still at their peak of 2450, but should start to decline within about 1 week. Cases are now down over 70%, but still above all previous peaks except last winter. All Census regions are down by roughly 2/3’s or more. The Northeast is down almost 90%, to a level equal to December 1, two weeks before Omicron hit. Vermont and Wisconsin are back to their pre-Thanksgiving levels. Ohio is back to its level from early November.

    On the other hand, a few States have increased slightly in the past few days: CA, FL, ID, and MD – but this may just be noise.

    Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding is alarmed about the BA2 subvariant. There is evidence a previous Omicron infection may not prevent re-infection with BA2. But in the countries he points to where it has become the dominant infection – India, Sweden, South Africa – it has only correlated with a slower Omicron trajectory, not any reversal in trend. Still, it seems likely, because BA2 is even more transmissible than existing Omicron, that over the next 30-40 days it will slow the rate of decline in US infections.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Agree about lack of competition.  People like me have no path to success in today’s thought leadership culture.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    Elsewhere,

    AstraZeneca recorded a big jump in revenue on Thursday as it begins to take a profit from its coronavirus vaccine for the first time.

    The company recorded full-year revenues of $37.4 billion, an increase of 38% from the year before at constant exchange rates. Part of the boost came from $4 billion in sales of its COVID-19 vaccine, developed with the University of Oxford.
    [snip]
    The Anglo-Swedish drugmaker said in November it would begin to take a “modest” profit from the COVID-19 shot, which it had been providing “at cost” — around $2 to $3 —following an agreement with Oxford. Other COVID-19 vaccine producers, such as Pfizer and Moderna, have been booking hefty profits on their shots all along. Source

    Police on Thursday arrested dozens of protesters who were camped out on the grounds of New Zealand’s Parliament on the third day of a convoy protest against coronavirus mandates.

    The arrests came after Parliament Speaker Trevor Mallard took the rare step of closing the grounds.

    Police called in more than 100 extra officers from other parts of the country. Still, police seemed prepared to wait it out as officers formed a line and ordered people to leave but only very slowly advanced on them.

    By evening, police had arrested more than 120 people and charged many of them with trespassing or obstruction. Police wore protective vests but didn’t don riot gear or carry guns. Some protesters were readying to hunker down for a third night. Source

  23. 23.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Go to the bridge and count the trucks. 10 trucks can block a bridge. Canada is incapable of removing ten trucks blocking a bridge? If law enforcement are ALSO Right wing and refusing to do their jobs, then that’s the story, not ten trucks blocking a bridge. Are they afraid of the Right wing protestors, that they’ll set them off? How is that different than terrorism?

  24. 24.

    MomSense

    @debbie: 
    He’s not stupid. This is what he has always done. He presents information to support his agenda. He did this constantly during the Obama administration carefully designing his message to sway progressives and liberals against the Obama administration. Most people couldn’t see it because his message then was about privacy rights knowing government surveillance has historically been used to bring down liberal movements (civil rights, anti war, Union organizing). He is a manipulator and he has always been team Koch libertarian white supremacist.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It’s just that economic/educational mobility is always portrayed as benefitting the strivers who succeeded against odds, but it was more than that, right? It weeded out the lowest quality at the top. They’re staying up there when they should have been knocked down by some scrappy individual :)

  26. 26.

    lowtechcyclist

    The busiest land crossing from the U.S. to Canada remains blocked for the third straight day after dozens of truckers shut down the Ambassador bridge in protests over COVID mandates.

    @Kay:

    Can we get some actual reporting on the “truckers”? People who live in Windsor say this blockade is short on trucks and long on anti-vaxxers and various other Right wing groups in cars. Can someone go there and look?

    Hell, they could even fly a drone overhead and take video.

    Whoever they are, with apologies to the memory of Edward Abbey, these people are the real Monkey Wrench Gang.  At this point, they just exist to throw sand into the gears so that everyone from GG to Tucker (I know, that’s like from A to B these days) can blame Biden for things not working well.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Right wingers like Glenn Greenwald and Tucker Carlson are not going to permit government to operate at all. We can’t have a bridge or trade until they get their way, like we couldn’t have school board meetings until they got their way. Once the Right is back in power all of their opposition will disappear.

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    @lowtechcyclist

    Cascade effects on both management and labor.

    A blockade of the bridge between Canada and Detroit by protesters demanding an end to Canada’s COVID-19 restrictions forced the shutdown Wednesday of a Ford plant and began to have broader implications for the North American auto industry.
    [snip]
    Ford said late Wednesday that parts shortages forced it to shut down its engine plant in Windsor and to run an assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario, on a reduced schedule.
    [snip]
    Shortages due to the blockade also forced General Motors to cancel the second shift of the day at its midsize-SUV factory near Lansing, Michigan. Spokesman Dan Flores said it was expected to restart Thursday and no additional impact was expected for the time being.

    Later Wednesday, Toyota spokesman Scott Vazin said the company will not be able to manufacture anything at three Canadian plants for the rest of this week due to parts shortages. A statement attributed the problem to supply chain, weather and pandemic-related challenges, but the shutdowns came just days after the blockade began Monday. Source

  31. 31.

    raven

    @Kay: A state lawmaker has asked University System of Georgia leaders to gather information about courses, curriculum, jobs and research that focus on topics such as anti-racism and social justice that he worries interfere with academic freedom and put the …

    Truncated on account of a paywall.

  32. 32.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay: Canada is incapable of removing ten trucks blocking a bridge? If law enforcement are ALSO Right wing and refusing to do their jobs, then that’s the story, not ten trucks blocking a bridge.

    This.  It’s time (and then some) to call out the cops for doing shit like ‘kettling’ on left-wing and minority protesters, then turning around and treating right-wing monkeywrenchers with kid gloves.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    Maggie Haberman
    @maggieNYT
    Here’s some reporting from the book’s later years – White House residence staff periodically found papers had clogged a toilet, leaving staff believing Trump had flushed material he’d ripped into pieces

    Another celebrity journalist who withheld information in order to package it into a book and now delivers it months late, to coincide with a book release. This is just the norm now, and they’re all making so much money none of them will object to it.
    That’s it’s the NYTimes- the “but her emails” paper- is just the cherry on top.

  34. 34.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    It’ll be an interesting experiment to see if the country is capable of engaging in a backlash against white right wingers the way you see when liberals and non-white people protest.

  35. 35.

    Peale

    @NotMax: In March, I’ll be heading to Hawaii. My partner needs to get out. 2 years as a nurse dealing with this is enough for him. I’m not enthused about flying just yet, but not enough to say no to him any longer. He wants to go somewhere where they are taking COVID seriously, which limited our options considerably.

  36. 36.

    MomSense

    I think what is happening now with the declare COVID over campaign is sadly reminiscent of the way tobacco companies fought public health regulation and the petroleum chemical and auto industries have fought climate crisis legislation.  They are promoting bullshit studied like the Johns Hopkins study which is not actually a study but a libertarian economist with Cato ties cherry picking information and defining his terms, like lockdown, dishonestly in order to push for an end to public health measures.  Of course the usual suspects, elite media, etc are running with this but it is going to be devastating for lower and middle income workers and their families and communities.  It already is and has been in the GOP controlled states.  Bari Weiss can write her whiny drivel from home but people with  families work at grocery stores and will lose their housing if they get sick or if they can’t work because they have a high risk child at home.
    They are pushing an end to masking on schools.  So kids are going to have to decide for themselves if they wear masks?  That won’t lead to trading and bullying.  What about the kids who are immuno compromised? They won’t be able to go to school, someone will have to stay home with them or not – both can lead to horrible consequences. And fuck all these morning Joe types who are pushing this shit. I don’t actually think kids are suffering because of masks.  They are incredibly adaptable. There is no safety net for the people who will be left behind and harmed by this declare COVID over. We are entering a new dark period and it won’t affect all of us.

  38. 38.

    Peale

    @Baud: it will be a challenge to the punditry. The narrative is always liberal overreach leads to conservative backlash, led by Joe Lunchbucket. I don’t think they can process the story any other way.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    @Peale:

    Yeah, the punditry is a lost cause.  I wonder how much influence they have on regular folks.  I guess we’re about to find out.

  41. 41.

    MomSense

    @debbie:

    A lawyer whose one case was defending a neo Nazi from charges of inciting violence.  Free speech!

    Oh and he got in trouble for illegally recording a conversation.  He didn’t get consent.

  42. 42.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Baud: GG (and Taibbi) have aged out of edgy so they have shifted to the provocative lane. They once revealed a truth or two, but now it’s just predictable blather.

  43. 43.

    bluefoot

    I’m angry at all those pushing for lifting mandates. It’s way too soon, community transmission is still really high. I know people who are immunocompromised and to whom Covid is a huge risk. Are these people supposed to stay shut in or put their lives at risk every time they walk out the door? What about their family members? I know a 10 year old w a an immunocompromised parent and she’s afraid of getting Covid and infecting her parent. But hey, let’s drop mask mandates and vaccine requirements.

    I feel like we really are a country of sociopaths.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    Bari Weiss made a smooth transition from writing the same essay over and over about how people are leaving elite private schools because we talk too much about black people to how people are leaving elite private schools because of mask mandates. Oddly, the “contrarians” all write about the same things, and in exactly the same sequence. They interview only one another and promote only the work of fellow travelers. You can be Left, Right and Center but you must be a “contrarian” on the exact same issues and only those issues and only other “contrarians” who focus on the exact same things may be included.

    How people who are supposed to be “public intellectuals” – paid to think and expound- ended up with such an incoherent and shallow view of “debate” is a reflection of the poor quality of their whole group.

  46. 46.

    Percysowner

    On the bright side, I am THRILLED about the idea that my 4 year old granddaughter will finally be able to be vaccinated. I watch her 4 days a week and 3 of those are in a part time preschool (everyone masked, they play outdoors unless the weather is truly horrific and anyone who can be vaccinated is) and we still panic whenever she gets cold symptoms. It will be a real relief once we have another layer of protection for her.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Taibbi gives interviews where he talks about the forgotten working class. He’s their spokesperson. He’s going to lecture Joe Biden, who pumped more support down to working class and poor people than any president in history, including FDR, about “the working class”. Ya know- the guys and gals he hangs out with on substack, who buy 60 dollar annual fees to read the work of middle aged, rich “rebels”.

    They’re unbearable. Insufferable.

  53. 53.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Sure Lurkalot: When GG had less of a history it was possible to believe his intentions were genuinely progressive and he was just uncompromising in his principles. Now, it’s clear that he’s just a Republican troll with the gimmick of claiming to be a progressive so he can exploit the willingness of liberals to consider “counterintuitive” critiques of their own side. It’s a slightly different version of Conor Friedersdorf’s “here’s how liberals are doing liberalism wrong” wheeze.

  54. 54.

    YY_Sima Qian

    I don’t understand the eagerness by even Blue State governors w/ D-majority state legislatures to end masking mandates. It is by the far the least disruptive NPI measure, whether economically or socially. It should be the last NPI measure lifted. I understand that masking mandates have been poorly enforced in many parts of the US (if they had them in the 1st place), but officially lifting them will signal to a part of the population that had been wearing masks to stop. All this against current CDC advisory. What is the motivation of the Blue states for doing this?

  55. 55.

    NotMax

    @Peale

    Presume you already know about the Safe Travels Program for flying to Hawaii.

    Oh, and be sure to bring a pen with you aboard the plane. You’ll have to fill out a form for the state before touching down and the cabin staff does not provide a writing implement.

  57. 57.

    sdhays

    @Matt McIrvin: I remember years ago, before Obama came to office, that he admitted he did that. He’s a lawyer, not a journalist, and he considered it his job to muster the best argument for his side that he could offer. Informing his readers was not the point.

    I stopped paying attention to him after reading that. If someone doesn’t see it as important to operate in good faith, I don’t see why they deserve my time or attention. Unfortunately, we live in an era of propaganda, and he has ridden that wave to fame and fortune.

  59. 59.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: IMHO it’s time for the government to crack down, and I have no idea why they aren’t doing it. Start ticketing people, arresting those who resist, and towing their vehicles. Should have been done a few days ago. Once they see a few people experience consequences, the rest of them would probably quickly disband.  I wonder if Biden is communicating with the Canadian government about how this is affecting the U.S

    And yes, stop talking about them as if they are all “salt-of-the-earth truckers” and start telling us who they really are. For some reason the press has a really hard time criticizing white working class people no matter what they do or say.

  60. 60.

    Another Scott

    @YY_Sima Qian: I suspect that the relentless reporting that “normal” people are sick of the public health measures is making sensible politicians think that they have to get in front of these “relaxation” efforts or people will rebell. I think that it is terribly misguided – the objective numbers are still horrifying. Public health measures don’t care that a crank decides to get noisy – the effective way to combat the pandemic hasn’t changed.

    And I suspect that if one looks at the relentless reporting, one will see that – yet again – it has at its base an astroturf group with Koch and other billionaire RWNJs behind it. The birthers and teabaggers never went away…

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  61. 61.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @bluefoot:

    I feel like we really are a country of sociopaths.

    Maybe. But I think it’s more accurate, and possibly more useful, to consider that we’re a country made up of a high percentage of followers and a small percentage of leaders…just like every other country. By ‘followers’ and ‘leaders,’ I don’t mean just political followers and leaders. I mean that most people, for a huge variety of reasons, are not or choose not to lead. That’s OK; it’s the human condition. The problem that may be specific to the US is that we’ve equated monetary wealth with all that is good (and wise and to be emulated) for so long and so profoundly that as a society we’ve ceded real leadership and power to a relatively tiny percentage of the population that is ‘successful’ partially because that percentage is, in fact, sociopathic.

    Just an observation; no solutions here except the blood of tyrants is needed to water two birds in a bush or something like that.

  62. 62.

    Geminid

    @lowtechcyclist: The blockade of the Ambassador Bridge and it’s consequences are big news on Detroit local media. WXYT TV for one has a long story that also told about a border blockade between Sweet Grass, Montana and Coutts, Alberta. There wasn’t much about the numbers and composition of the blockaders, who are on the Canadian side. That might be reported by Windsor, Ontario local media. The blockade is causing grocery store shortages as well as auto plant closures.

  63. 63.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @lowtechcyclist: Hell, at least follow Erdern’s example in New Zealand. Yank a handful out of the trucks, zip tie them, and drag them off. If they resist? Throw them off the fucking bridge.

  65. 65.

    sab

    @MomSense: Me too. My kindergarden grandchild does not care about masks. They are what you wear at school. It’s normal.

    OTOH Today will be her first exposure to active shooter drills.

  66. 66.

    Cermet

    @YY_Sima Qian: Simple: M-O-N-E-Y. That’s all there is – business’ demand cash flow so these people – dem or thug – immediately jump. They know who provides the money they need to hold office and keep their own money flowing

  67. 67.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 7,275 new cases of COVID-19 and 24 new reported deaths of people who have tested positive reported overnight. 904 people were in hospital yesterday with recently confirmed COVID-19 with 19 people in intensive care.

    Same as usual, cases and deaths have plateaued out somewhat, hospitalisation numbers are falling slowly. It looks like most isolation, masking and other restrictions are going to be relaxed or done away with soon. Scotland may continue with a mask mandate for shops, schools etc. for the moment. Reporting of COVID-19 cases etc. is moving to a Mon-Fri schedule with no official reporting happening on weekends.

  69. 69.

    NorthLeft12

    @Kay: This blockade/protest is not about the mandate for cross border truckers. This protest, and the others across Canada are about two things;

    1. The immediate elimination of all COVID restrictions and recommendations. Mandates, masking, spacing, indoor limits, testing, isolation periods, .. all of it.

    2. They want PM Trudeau and the Liberal government to resign. That was one of their documented goals before arriving in Ottawa which all protestors who wanted financial support had to approve and sign.

    Of course the Conservatives and their fellow travellers are in full support of this. They fancy themselves as the beneficiary of this seditious act.

  70. 70.

    Matt McIrvin

    @YY_Sima Qian: Mask mandates have become an issue like gun control and abortion rights: support for them is fairly broad but shallow, whereas opposition is extremely intense, theatrically disruptive and sometimes violent. All that contributes to the impression that there is broad grassroots opposition to masks.

    It’s an effective wedge issue because masks, while not particularly onerous an intervention, are extremely visible–you literally wear them on your face. I think that contributed to Trump instinctively jumping to the anti-mask side–he always thrived on division and chaos and he knew it was something that could function as a tribal marker to divide people.

  71. 71.

    J R in WV

    @MomSense:

    The coal industry found a radiologist at Johns Hopkins who could diagnose a life-long coal minor as black lung free from a single x-ray despite his very low blood oxygen level. He could do this with every coal miner’s x-ray he was presented with. In his mind there was never any coal dust in a coal miner’s lung until the autopsy found enough coal for a good fire.

  72. 72.

    Jackie

    Gov Inslee (WA) says he’ll lift mask mandates for outdoor events with under 500 people starting the 18th. He’ll make announcements pertaining to indoor activities and schools next week.

    I’m guessing it will be based on a county by county decision, as most Red counties are still registering high Covid rates.

  73. 73.

    sab

    @J R in WV: I have been extremely skeptical ( i.e. entirely disbelieving) of absolutely everything out of Johns Hopkins ever since

    ETA Johns Hopkins where coal miners don’t ever get black lung disease.

  74. 74.

    James E Powell

    @MazeDancer:

    The new plan is “Fuck it, let other people deal with it.”

    This is the same plan as we used for the foreclosure crisis back in the day.

  75. 75.

    Soprano2

    @NorthLeft12: I still don’t understand why no level of the Canadian government is doing anything about this. It’s becoming more and more disruptive, and I have to imagine that the amount of people who are being inconvenienced by it dwarfs the amount who support it. It is that the government entities are actually in sympathy with these bozos? It has to make the city, province, and federal governments all look extremely weak and ineffectual that they can’t seem to get a handle on this small amount of people who are hugely disruptive.

  77. 77.

    Eunicecycle

    I don’t have children in school any more but I was dismayed to see our local diocese is lifting the mask mandate. There doesn’t seem to be any reason other than “it’s time.” Cases are dropping in Ohio but we still have 200 people dying a week. I don’t understand it.

  78. 78.

    Audrey

    @Soprano2:  It’s mainly because the Premiers in the affected provinces are all Conservatives and therefore support the white supremecist/anti democracy terrorists.  The Federal government can’t move in without the request of the provinces and therefore….

    In Ontario at least, Doug Ford seemingly can’t even be found and won’t answer for the fact that he’s doing absolutely nothing.

  79. 79.

    Bill Arnold

    @Matt McIrvin:

    He is a dishonest cherry-picker of stats to make whatever point he wants to push. This isn’t ignorance, it’s a strategy.

    It’s lawyer-style argumentation, and it is loathsome when used in a scientific context, which a pandemic is. The pandemic responses are political, sure, but they are almost always, to wildly varying degrees, caricatures of the responses that point-in-time scientific consensuses would recommend. (The cranks are what they are, and most scientists off the record will name names.)
    If he tried that shit in a scientific seminar, at least one of the old male senior scientists would happily shift into asshole mode, and make a point of eviscerating the arguments in a deliberately humiliating way, and the rest of the audience would encourage him, with smiles.

  80. 80.

    gwangung

    @NotMax: We’ve posted our conference three times now, from 2020 to 2021 to 2022 and now to 2024. We won’t go until person until the folks on the ground give the all clear; we don’t want to contribute to the problem.

  81. 81.

    Bill Arnold

    @YY_Sima Qian:

    I don’t understand the eagerness by even Blue State governors w/ D-majority state legislatures to end masking mandates. It is by the far the least disruptive NPI measure, whether economically or socially. It should be the last NPI measure lifted.

    It is disheartening. I’m in NY State (also your concern IIRC) and will now feel much less safe going to local retailers, who mostly will be losing my business.
    Will continue wearing an N95 until the new cases per day per 100000 locally is like 1-2. (Currently 15-20). Not interested in getting infected with any SARS-CoV-2 variant that attacks via ACE2/TMPRSS2; brain fog (causes still unknown) would be personally devastating (I would pursue revenge, at scale, on anti-public-health psychopaths), and heart arrhythmias (causes also still not well understood) are also a personal concern.

  82. 82.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Bill Arnold: While there may well come a day when I feel comfortable not wearing an N95 mask in public, I certainly don’t feel any rush and intend to keep doing so indefinitely. The main question is when I’ll be willing to dine indoors again.

  83. 83.

    Jackie

    Saw a report – here? – stating that adults 65+ have a much higher risk of increased heart problems after having Covid. I’m in that age group, so I don’t see leaving  my masks off while shopping or in crowded situations happening anytime in the foreseeable future.

  84. 84.

    Matt McIrvin

    I think the biggest contributor to my personal peace of mind aside from vaccination has been the Omicron-era normalization of, not just masks, but good masks that actually provide significant protection to the wearer. A crazy-making thing in the early COVID pandemic was the knowledge that the masks most people were wearing mostly functioned as collective protection for others rather than for oneself, that so many other people didn’t bother to cooperate, and that as a good citizen I wasn’t supposed to be hoarding the type of masks that really would do some good for me.

  85. 85.

    NorthLeft12

    @Soprano2: I‘ll mostly echo what Audrey said. The initial protest in Ottawa was handled far too gently by the police there. I believe their expectation was that these were “good people” who would leave after the weekend, despite them saying they were going to stay until Trudeau was overthrown and all COVID precautions were eliminated. By the time they realized what was happening they had a much bigger problem.

    I do find it very frustrating that at the same time the police were patting themselves on the back because the protest did not turn “violent” and was “peaceful”(?). The cops seemed to think that any attempt to ticket or arrest the protestors would be immediately met with violence. Not my definition of good people.

    All the Ottawa police actions have emboldened the protestors. They hate Trudeau with a white hot passion, and other groups have spread the activity to virtually every US Canada crossing. Shit is getting real serious and I hope that our LEOs start taking some decisive actions.  I don’t have a great deal of confidence that they will.

  86. 86.

    New Deal democrat

    @NorthLeft12:

    Just a thought, but I wonder if the US and Canadian police have joint jurisdiction over the entirety of the Ambassador bridge, similar to bridges between US States. If so, given the disruption to US factory production, the US could do Canada a solid, and back up tow trucks to remove the blockade from the bridge via the US side.

    I have a feeling most Canadians wouldn’t object, and the dropped jaws of the protesters would be extra delicious.

  87. 87.

    dc

    My university students wear masks in class without complaint, they just do it. And by age this pandemic messed up their last year of high school and their first year (and second) year of college. They don’t whine about it. They do better than their parents and grand-parents (many of whom are probably right wing idiots given the composition of my state and the fact that it is a large public university). I’m not saying they aren’t socializing as young people will do without masks. But in class, they follow the rules and they aren’t sociopaths.​

  88. 88.

    JaneE

    Glenn Greenwald didn’t used to sound that ignorant.

    Kids in grade school can tell him why Biden wound up with more deaths even with vaccines and treatments – without even hitting the political reasons.

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