Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

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

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.  Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

The revolution will be supervised.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

Bark louder, little dog.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

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

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Feb. 14-15

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Feb. 14-15

by | 65 Comments

This post is in: ,


======

… The city of Suzhou – a trading, commercial and industrial hub in the eastern province of Jiangsu – reported eight domestically transmitted infections with confirmed symptoms for Monday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Tuesday.

The highly transmissible Omicron variant was detected among the cases, a Suzhou official said on Monday, without specifying the number of Omicron cases.

Despite the low caseload by global standards, Suzhou said on Monday it had suspended some long-distance bus services, locked down affected buildings and urged residents not to leave home or the city for nonessential reasons.

On Tuesday it closed 15 highway entrances and required drivers and passengers leaving through others to have proof of negative test results within 48 hours.

Suzhou Industrial Park – an important high-tech development zone that hosts about 100,000 companies and accommodates manufacturing facilities of foreign firms such as Samsung and Eli Lilly – started a round of mass testing on Monday…

Including the infections in Suzhou, about 80 km (49 miles) west of Shanghai, mainland China detected 40 locally transmitted cases with confirmed symptoms for Monday, according to the NHC.

There were no new deaths, leaving the death toll unchanged at 4,636.

As of Feb. 14, mainland China had 107,094 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both locally transmitted ones and those arriving from abroad.

======


From a thread by the “Director @UCL_CORU, Prof Operational Research”:

Vaccines are amazing but do wane – esp vs sympomatic infection. Immunity from infection wanes too. Surely Omicron has proven that high levels of antibodies in your population are no guarantee against v high levels of illness & disruption. 2/13

We *could* act as we used to & accept millions of people getting sick once or twice a year. Yearly education, business disruption. And gradually, a slightly sicker pop’n. That seems to be the current plan in UK and e.g. US. But that’s NOT the *old normal* – it’s worse 3/13

We *can’t* go back – but we *can* go forward *if* we accept we need some adaptations – driven by what we have *learned*.

Learning: 1. Outdoors is pretty safe – so let’s invest research and funding into making indoor air as much like the outdoors as possible 4/13

It’s *not* easy, but it *is* possible – we did it with clean water, electricity infrastructure, CFCs, telephone and broadband…

The best thing about cleaner indoor air is it works against *any* airborne disease and also reduces e.g. allergies. 5/13

2. Vaccinate the world as soon as possible – and keep working towards vaccines that are longer lasting and more variant proof.

3. Invest in global infrastructure to support surveillance of new variants of Covid *and* other new infectious diseases. There will be more. 6/13

4. Add permanent surveillance of Covid infection rates in UK to existing programmes for flu, measles etc in public health

5. Invest in understanding & treating longer term clinical impacts of Covid, inc organ damage & Long Covid + treatments (eg antivirals) for acute phase. 7/13

6. We need to urgently increase funding and staffing for NHS if it is expected to cope with regular Covid surges *and* existing backlogs *and* years of understaffing and not enough money.

This includes *supporting* existing staff to stay..! 8/13…

Fundamentally, world is different now. Acting as if it isn’t, which UK seems determined to do, may feel good in short term but will result in a new normal worse than the old one.

I prefer for us to build a new normal that’s *better* than frequent sickness & disruption. 13/13

======


As a person of faith, I find this kind of narcissistic thimblerigging deeply offensive:

… In some institutions, religious exemptions are being invoked by staff and approved by managers in large numbers. It’s a tricky issue for hospital administrators, who are struggling to maintain adequate staff levels and are often reticent to question the legitimacy of the requests…

As of Monday health care workers in 24 states — all but three of which went for then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election — will be required to have received their first vaccine dose or an exemption. The mandate already took effect late last month in jurisdictions that didn’t challenge the requirement in court, although enforcement actions won’t begin immediately.

It affects a wide swath of the industry, covering doctors, nurses, technicians, aides, hospital volunteers, nursing homes, home-health agencies and other providers that participate in the federal Medicare or Medicaid programs…

While reasons given for seeking exemptions vary, the vaccines’ remote link to fetuses aborted decades ago is often cited — lab-grown cell lines descended from those fetuses were used in testing and manufacturing processes. The vaccines do not contain fetal cells, however, and workers generally are seeking the exemptions without the backing of major denominations and prominent religious leaders.

But as the health care mandate takes effect, hospital leaders acknowledge that they see the exemptions as a way to retain staff at a time when resources are already stretched thin…

Reader Interactions

65Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Monroe County, NY:

    There were 53 new laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 2/14/22.
    There were 42 new positive home tests reported on 2/14/22.

    70.9% of Monroe County residents now fully vaccinated. It’s inching up slowly, but it is going up.

    Deaths are also still going up, now at 1753 since March of 2020.

    Hospitalizations:

    94 cases hospitalized; 69% unvaxed
    13 cases are in the ICU; 61.5% unvaxed
    NO CASES INTUBATED! As of this report, anyway.

    Still no test kits in the mail at my house.

  2. 2.

    Cermet

    Yes, the world has forever change (not that that doesn’t always occur) but in a big way that affects every single human on the planet. Like AGW everyone pays a new price – but of course, the poor, weak, and old pay the highest prices.

    Only the media can post utter crap like the statement that Biden’s world vaccine goal of reaching ‘x’ vaccination level has failed. Like Biden can in any manner or way control what the world does – that is simply an insane and asinine statement.

  3. 3.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reports 22,133 new Covid-19 cases today in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 3,083,683 cases. It also reports 24 deaths as of midnight, for an adjusted cumulative total of 32,149 deaths – 1.04% of the cumulative reported total, 1.11% of resolved cases.

    Based on cases reported yesterday, Malaysia’s nationwide Rt is at 1.38.

    103 confirmed cases are in ICU, 55 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 7,584 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,868,538 patients recovered – 93.0% of the cumulative reported total.

    16 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 6,629 clusters. 444 clusters are currently active; 6,185 clusters are now inactive.

    22,053 new cases today are local infections. 80 new cases today are imported.

    The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 149,888 doses of vaccine on 14th February: 38,738 first doses, 1,489 second doses, and 109,661 booster doses. As of midnight, the cumulative total is 65,198,894 doses administered: 26,297,198 first doses, 25,734,211 second doses, and 13,373,479 booster doses. 80.5% of the population have received their first dose, 78.8% their second dose, and 41.0% their booster dose.

  4. 4.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 2/14 Mainland China reported 40 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 7 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Guangdong Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed 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 15 active domestic confirmed cases (all presumed Omicron) in the city.
    • Shenzhen reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both mild), both quarantine hotel workers already living in “close loop”, both traced closed contacts of the domestic positive case reported on 2/12. 1 Medium Risk office building has been re-designated to Low Risk. 4 residential buildings remain at Medium Risk.
    • Dongguan did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case in the city, a person who recently returned from out of province.
    • 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 (1 each at Heyuan & Meizhou) cases remaining.

    Guangxi “Autonomous” Region reported 1 new domestic confirmed case. There currently are 270 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Baise reported 1 new domestic confirmed case. There currently are 268 active domestic confirmed cases (all presumed Omicron) in the city, most 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. 2 villages at Jingxi have been elevated to Medium Risk.
    • The rest of the province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed (1 each at Nanning & Chongzuo) & 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Chongzuo) cases remaining.

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

    Tianjin Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. 9 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 18 active domestic confirmed cases (all presumed Omicron). 2 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. The High Risk community has been re-designated to Medium Risk. All other Medium Risk areas have been re-designated to Low Risk.

    Liaoning Province reported 29 new domestic confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic). There currently are 92 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.

    • Huludao reported 28 new domestic confirmed cases, all at Suizhong County, all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 89 active domestic confirmed cases in the city. 1 village at Suizhong County is currently at High Risk, & a residential compound there is currently at Medium Risk.
    • Shenyang reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (perviously asymptomatic). There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed & 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.

    At Shandong Province there currently are 1 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 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining in the city.

    At Hebei Province 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed cases (3 at Xiong’an, 4 at Hengshui & 3 at Langfang) 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 all remaining domestic positive cases have recovered or were released from isolation.

    Heilongjiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 20 active domestic confirmed (all at Mudanjiang) & 40 active domestic asymptomatic (11 at Heihe, 25 at Mudanjiang & 4 at Qiqihar) cases in the province. 5 residential buildings at Heihe are currently at Medium Risk. All areas in Mudanjiang are now at Low Risk.

    At Shanghai Municipality there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.

    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.

    Suzhou in Jiangsu Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed (6 mild & 2 moderate) & 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases (all presumed Omicron), all workers at the massive Suzhou Industrial Park or their close contacts, 5 from fever clinics & the others are traced close contacts. There currently is 8 active domestic confirmed & 5 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 6 residential buildings have been elevated to Medium Risk.

    At Tongren in Guizhou Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, part of the transmission chain spreading from Huludao in Liaoning.

    At Henan Province 17 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 109 active domestic confirmed cases in the province. 

    Yunnan Province reported 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Malipo County in Wenshan Prefecture, 2 traced close contacts under centralized quarantine & 1 from screening of residents in areas in under movement restrictions. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 10 active domestic confirmed (2 at Kunming, 5 at Sipsongpanna Prefecture & 3 at Wenshan Prefecture) & 16 active domestic asymptomatic (6 at Sipsongpanna Prefecture & 10 at Wenshan Prefecture) cases remaining. All of Mengla County in Sipsongpanna Prefecture is now at Low Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 2/13, Mainland China reported 40 new imported confirmed cases (3 previously asymptomatic), 37 imported asymptomatic cases, 2 imported suspect cases:

    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 7 confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 2 Chinese nationals returning from Fiji (via Sydney) & 1 each from Laos, Malaysia, Vietnam & Ethiopia, & a foreign national coming from Iran; 10 asymptomatic cases, 3 Chinese nationals returning from the Philippines, 2 from Australia & 1 each from Burkina-Faso (via Istanbul), the DRC (via Nairobi), Mozambique (via Nairobi), Bangladesh & Russia
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 5 confirmed cases, 5 Mainland Chinese residents & a US national returning from Hong Kong
    • Dongguan in Guangdong Province – 3 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, all coming from Hong Kong
    • Jiangmen in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), coming from Hong Kong
    • Foshan in Guangdong Province – 3 asymptomatic cases, all Mainland Chinese residents returning from Hong Kong
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 8 confirmed cases, 5 Chinese nationals returning from Singapore & 1 each from South Korea & Thailand, & a Mainland Chinese resident returning from Hong Kong
    • Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from South Korea
    • Shanghai Municipality – 6 confirmed cases, 3 Mainland Chinese residents returning from Hong Kong, 1 Chinese national each returning from Canada & the UK (via Helsinki), & a Japanese national coming from Japan; 2 suspect cases, no information released
    • Chongzuo in Guangxi “Autonomous” Region  – 2 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Fangchenggang in Guangxi “Autonomous” Region – 2 confirmed cases, no information released 
    • Qingdao in Shandong Province – 2 confirmed cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Russia
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Mainland Chinese returning from Hong Kong; 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Harbin in Heilongjiang Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from Japan
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), a Chinese national returning from Egypt; 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Egypt & Thailand, & 2 South African nationals coming from Singapore
    • Lianyungang in Jiangsu Province – 1 confirmed case, coming from Singapore, off a flight that a landed cat Shanghai
    • Wuxi in Jiangsu Province – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Japan, off a flight that a landed cat Shanghai
    • Yunnan Province (location not specified) – 3 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Laos, via land border crossings
    • Shenyang in Liaoning Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released 
    • Ningbo Port in Zhejiang Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese crew member off a cargo ship w/ last port of call in Mauritius
    • Anhui Province (location not specified) – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released 
    • Chongqing Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, coming from Singapore

    Overall in Mainland China, 80 confirmed cases recovered (30 imported), 50 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (47 imported) & 4 were reclassified as confirmed cases (3 imported), & 5,746 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,398 active confirmed cases in the country (701 imported), 6 in serious condition (1 imported), 791 active asymptomatic cases (714 imported), 3 suspect cases (both imported). 30,116 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.

    As of 2/14, 3,052.435M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 5,748M doses in the past 24 hrs.

    On 2/15, Hong Kong reported 1,619 new positive cases, all domestic. There are another ~ 5,400 cases who are preliminarily positive, awaiting confirmation. 

    On 2/15, Taiwan reported 45 new positive cases, 40 imported & 5 domestic.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    One obvious problem with calling opposition to vaccine mandates “populist” is that the position is, in fact, massively unpopular

    Doesn’t matter if the popular side doesn’t unite.

    @Cermet: 

    Dem presidents have God-like powers but like the God-like discretion to refuse to solve all problems perfectly.

  6. 6.

    John S.

    Carrie Lam sounds like a pretty shitty leader based on some of those tweets. I suppose she’s just your garden-variety Communist party puppet, which is pretty much the only thing that can be “elected” in HK at this point.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    The stupid, it burns kills.

    When nurse Julia Buffo was told by her Montana hospital that she had to be vaccinated against COVID-19, she responded by filling out paperwork declaring that the shots run afoul of her religious beliefs.

    She cited various Old and New Testament verses including a passage from Revelation that vaccine opponents often quote to liken the shots to the “Mark of the Beast.” She told her managers that God is the “ultimate guardian of health” and that accepting the vaccine would make her “complicit with evil.”
    [snip]
    As of Monday health care workers in 24 states — all but three of which went for then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 election — will be required to have received their first vaccine dose or an exemption. The mandate already took effect late last month in jurisdictions that didn’t challenge the requirement in court, although enforcement actions won’t begin immediately.
    [snip]
    At the 25-bed Community Hospital in McCook, Nebraska, in the southwestern part of the state, about 20% of the 320 employees have not been vaccinated. About 35 applied for exemptions, and others are still deciding what to do. The hospital has rejected some requests that relied on specious religious reasoning.

    “If it’s a complete, like, essay on the science behind why this shouldn’t be allowed, or a complete essay on why a certain political party or political figure is an idiot, which we’ve seen, we don’t go with that because that’s not religious at all,” hospital president and CEO Troy Buntz said. “We do push back on those, but I don’t know if other people are even reading the exemptions as much as they probably should be.”
    [snip]
    …Marcella Dahl, a primary care clinic nurse in Sidney, Montana, said she feels like some people are abusing the exemptions and it’s alarming that some religious leaders are encouraging the practice.

    “Half of the people saying this don’t even go to church,” Dahl said. “I think it puts everybody at risk.”

    Faith-based opposition to immunizations in the country historically has been limited to just a relatively few small denominations such as the End Time Ministries and the Church of the First Born. But during the pandemic, some more mainstream preachers have spoken out against the vaccines from the pulpit.

    “That’s new, and that’s a problem,” said Dr. Chris Beyrer, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “If you are not going to be vaccinated and you’re going to be caring for the frail, the elderly, you should get out of health care.” Source

    The stupid, it burns kills II.

    South Dakota Senate Republicans gave hearty support on Monday to Gov. Kristi Noem’s proposal to allow employees to gain exemptions from their employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates, passing it with the two-thirds majority required if it is to be enacted immediately.

    The bill drew just four “nay” votes in the 35-member Senate, sending it to the House. The proposal would allow employees to receive an exemption to their employer’s vaccine requirement by citing either a medical exemption certified by a medical professional, any religious grounds for refusal or a test showing antibodies against COVID-19 in the last six months. Source

    FYI.

    A spectator’s single clap echoed through the mostly empty National Aquatics Center after the British curling team knocked a Swiss stone out of position, a difficult move that usually would trigger cheers from fans.

    The spectator looked around at the audience of about 200, surrounded by thousands of vacant seats, and stopped clapping.

    Halfway through ten sets of curling, as teams shouted in Russian, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Dutch and Italian, the crowd shrank further when more than half stood up and left for another event: The souvenir shop had opened.
    [snip]
    During the curling competition, spectators were separated by empty seats. In an anti-coronavirus measure, signs in competition venues tell spectators in Chinese and English, “NO CHEERING.” Source

  10. 10.

    lowtechcyclist

    D.C., Maryland join others in easing COVID restrictions

    You know how, in horror movies, there’s always that point where they *think* the monster has been beaten and they can now breathe easy?

    It’s the new “Groundhog Day” and we’re at that scene yet again.

  12. 12.

    New Deal democrat

    Cases in the US declined to 150,000, only 30,000 above their level just before The Omicron wave started. Deaths declined slightly to 2300.

    US Census regions vary between 25 (Northeast) and 55 (West) cases per 100,000, with all regions declining, compared with the 20 to 40 range in Canada’s provinces. At the current rate of decline, within a week the Northeast will be below any point in the past year except for May through July. PA is already there. MD, DC, and PR are also close. On the other hand, the States doing the worst, still at or close to roughly 100 cases per 100,000, are mainly  rural States hit later: AK, WV, KY, ID, TN, MT, ND, FL, MN, MS, and NM. No States show any increase, although SC is flat.

    Deaths in the U.K. are down by 1/3rd, while in South Africa they have risen back close to their peak. Dr. Tom Moultrie of South Africa continues to believe this is haphazard, late reporting rather than a new wave. Cases in the U.K. are down over 60%, while in South Africa they have been flat for the past 3 weeks at a level off 85% from peak, but over 8* their level before Omicron. This may be the BA2 subvariant creating a long tail – but so far there is no evidence of that in the US or Canada.

    This is about the best, most hopeful data trend I have seen since the Delta wave started last July. *If* the current trends hold, the Northeast corridor, Ohio, and PR could be down to their late spring 2021 averages within two weeks. I’ll worry about the next variant tomorrow; today I am optimistic.

  14. 14.

    Steeplejack

    @NeenerNeener:

    Your comment prompted me to check on my order, which I made on January 18, when we first learned that the USPS page was active.

    I found this useful article, which said to check whether I had received an order tracking number from USPS. I went back through my mail and found that I had. (You can use that number in any USPS search box.) I entered that number and got this message: “Your order of COVID-19 tests is being processed.” [Sad trombone sound]

    At least this answered one question I had—whether the tests had come and gotten snagged by one of my neighbors (six-unit building). Apparently not.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    When nurse Julia Buffo was told by her Montana hospital that she had to be vaccinated against COVID-19, she responded by filling out paperwork declaring that the shots run afoul of her religious beliefs.She cited various Old and New Testament verses including a passage from Revelation that vaccine opponents often quote to liken the shots to the “Mark of the Beast.” She told her managers that God is the “ultimate guardian of health” and that accepting the vaccine would make her “complicit with evil.”

    Do the patients who have the misfortune to encounter her in a hospital have the right to be notified that she follows religious dictates rather than accepted standards of care?

    What about the patients? Is anyone considering them at all? I want to know if my health care provider has religious objections to health care. I want the option to refuse having her in my hospital room. She’s a danger to me.

  16. 16.

    germy

    3. Evusheld, a drug is designed to be an additional layer of protection on top of the vaccines, to prevent Covid in immunocompromised people. Unfortunately, many people don’t know Evusheld exists or don’t know how to find out if they’re eligible and how to get a shot.

    — David Leonhardt (@DLeonhardt) February 14, 2022

  17. 17.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    During AiDS, the GOP supported all kinds of restrictions on people with HIV that had no basis in how that virus is transmitted.

  18. 18.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @John S.: Well, Hong Kong did manage to contain COVID-19 for 2 years, even in face of Delta. Omicron has proven a bridge too far. The problem is the city failed to maximize vaccination rate, especially among the elderly (that is on both the city’s government & segments of the population), during the 2 years that its policy bought, & also clearly failed to plan for the eventuality that its “Dynamic Zero COVID” will prove untenable. I am sure they were hoping that it would eventually prove unnecessary.

    The current outbreak has exceeded the city’s capacity for Test/Trace/Isolate. There is a danger of Omicron spread from Hong Kong to the rest of the Pearl River Delta, which is the largest manufacturing center in the world, especially for consumer electronics. Even if the Chinese jurisdictions maintain their success in containing & eliminating Omicron outbreaks as they are discovered, constant localized lock downs due to repeated introductions from Hong Kong will prove very disruptive to the global supply chain.

    As of today nearly 20 trucker drivers carrying goods to & from Hong Kong have tested positive in Shenzhen, though they have not seeded any community transmission, yet. The tightened response to  such cases is also impacting logistics of daily supplies into Hong Kong.

    Just today, 3 positive cases were found in Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, all Mainland Chinese residents who apparently had set sail from Zhuhai in Guangdong at end of Jan., met up w/ friends from Hong Kong while on the seas, returned to Guangzhou on 2/14. They proceeded to tour & eat their way across the city, before getting tested in the evening (presumably for travel), w/ positive results. Another 2 positive cases were found in Cenzhou in Hunan Province, both Mainland Chinese residents who took a boat from Hong Kong to Zhuhai (rumor has it they were smuggled in to avoid centralized quarantine) & then drove by private car back to Wenzhou. At least they had the presence of mind to get tested immediately.

    Right now just Mainland China & Taiwan are still keep lid on Omicron.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It’s only fair that patients can choose too.

    If you announce you will not be following ordinary standards of and care and prevention of disease transmission with this virus and you’re a health care provider, I have to wonder what other medical/patient care standards you ignore/subvert because your religion demands it.

    I want to be cared for by a health care provider who follows accepted, modern, consistent standards of care. If I wanted crack pot woo woo I would have chosen that. Can I rely on that in a hospital or not? Just depends on which employee wanders into my room and which set of standards that employee has refused to follow? Is she vaccinated at all? What else is she going to infect me with? If “God is the guardian of health” does she wash her hands and follow the other infection prevention rules, ot is it just pick and choose?

  22. 22.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    That’s a very good point. In NYC, I remember someone even brought up some sort of tattoo to warn others to keep their distance. ?

  23. 23.

    NotMax

    Head/desk head/desk head/desk.

    The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is the committee that makes decisions regarding the CDC-recommended vaccine schedule. Antivaxxers predictably don’t like the ACIP, or any scientist on it, and promptly assert, without evidence, that these scientists are in the pockets of Big Pharma. There is even – or at least used to be – a facebook group called ‘Inundate the CDC ACIP Meetings’ that tries to encourage wild-eyed conspiracy theorists to swamp said meetings.

    The FB group is run by one Lynette Marie Barron, who describes herself as an “Advocate & Activist for Vaccine Truth. Radio Show Host & Business Owner!” and an “Advocate & Activist for Medical Health Freedom”, as well as a “Mother fighting for the lives of our children against Vaccinations”. Barron is apparently the mother of two daughters she describes as “vaccine injured”, and is in general as crazy as they come, tirelessly promoting every piece of antivaccine misinformation she comes across …. Source

  27. 27.

    Cameron

    @Kay: If God is the guardian of health, why are they staying in the health-care profession?  Isn’t that kind of blasphemous?

  28. 28.

    sab

    @Kay: On of my granddaughter’s half sister’s caught Covid at her middle school. Masking and vaxxing were optional there. She was unvaxxed because her idiot mother wouldn’t let her be vaxxed. She wore masks at school, but most of the other kids didn’t.

    After she got it, her 8 month old baby brother got it and wound up on oxygen in the hospital. Everyone recovered, fortunately.

    Idiot mother works in a nursing home. In Ohio

    ETA Mandates all through the system would have been very helpful.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Patients should be noticed. It is simply not fair to demand that people who are vulnerable enough to be in a hospital are subjected to this without their informed consent. I don’t want her in the room- not with me, not with my family members, I want a different nurse. I don’t have time to interview each hospital employee on which infection mitigation rules they follow and it’s not my job.

  32. 32.

    lowtechcyclist

    @debbie: Make them wear a patch that says, “Plague Rat.”

    If they got a religious exemption*, they can put “God says it’s OK” in small letters underneath.

    *Yeah – a ‘religious exemption’ from “love your neighbor as yourself.”  A funny thing for a supposed Christian** to ask for.

    **I’m sure there are some exceptions, but I bet >99% of the people asking for these exemptions identify as Christian.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    @sab:

    A “rights” analysis or policy includes the rights of others. These are health care facilities! Why is there no analysis of the rights of patients not to be subjected to this?

    It’s ridiculous. Are they protecting vulnerable patients from these people? Don’t the patients at least deserve notice?

  35. 35.

    Cameron

    @Kay: That’s how my friend got COVID.  She was in the hospital for other stuff, and a temp came in and succeeded in infecting 18 patients and staff.  Apparently God was off at an anti-mask rally or something.

  36. 36.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: What about the patients? Is anyone considering them at all? I want to know if my health care provider has religious objections to health care. I want the option to refuse having her in my hospital room. She’s a danger to me.

    This is a good question. So far I haven’t encountered a health care worker who wasn’t vaccinated, but I’m sure there are some down here. I wonder if someone will file a lawsuit if a relative who dies of Covid was treated by an unvaccinated worker and they weren’t informed of it. A responsible organization would give people a choice.

  37. 37.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @NotMax: She told her managers that God is the “ultimate guardian of health” and that accepting the vaccine would make her “complicit with evil.”

    By her logic her job is evil for thwarting God’s will on disease.

  39. 39.

    sdhays

    @lowtechcyclist: There are other religions than “Christian”, and you can have religious convictions without going to church. Christian™ churches don’t have a monopoly on religion, as much as they think they deserve to.

    That said, anyone who actually has religious convictions preventing them from getting vaccinated for COVID has problems with all vaccines and lots of other medicine and almost certainly isn’t involved in the health care industry already. Those who are requesting special exemptions just for the COVID vaccines are 1) stupid and gullible and/or 2) political performance artists.

  40. 40.

    NorthLeft12

    @Kay: Yes, this has been one of my concerns for awhile.

    My experience is that people who do not get vaccinated are very lax on all of the other precautions to prevent transmission of COVID. A nurse who does not believe in the science behind vaccines might not believe in hand washing, PPE, etc. I would not want a nurse like that taking care of anyone.

  42. 42.

    Cermet

    @Kay:  She’s a lying piece of sh*t. Don’t expect anything logical – that said, since she is lying about religious issues, seriously doubt any such nurse (but absolutely not true for those types with an MD degree) wouldn’t follow standard hygiene rules.

  43. 43.

    mrmoshpotato

    Religious exemptions are increasingly becoming a workaround for unvaccinated hospital and nursing home workers who want to keep their jobs as federal mandates go into effect nationwide this week.

    Oh cool – an explosion of Christian Scientists.  They refuse any and all medical treatment, ya know – right?

  45. 45.

    Mai Naem mobile

    This Texas cop and pregnant wife decided to not to get vaxxed and then went on vacation to Vegas staying at the Trump Hotel because you know President Biden said the pandemic was over. What happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas. Cop ofcourse has to wear his blue lives baseball cap in the WaPo pics. She spent over 4 months in the hospital and still has medical issues. I am sure the Houston Police Dept wants those kind of insurance bills. I am sure the cop will thank Obamacare for not having limits on his coverage right?
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/02/14/unvaccinated-pregnant-mom-covid-strokes-texas/

  46. 46.

    Cermet

    @mrmoshpotato: Actually, that group does not prohibit vaccination; they allow any member to decide for themselves – so yes, members are allowed to refuse a vaccine on religious grounds but the group does not officially state that vaccines are prohibited and allows individual choice. But that does mean a member can site their belief and refuse.

    So the truth is, very few and no major religious groups prohibits vaccinations.

  47. 47.

    Cermet

    @Mai Naem mobile: I will say they allowed the public to see their mistake and its consequences So in that, they are certainly trying to show everyone that avoiding vaccines is dangerous and even deadly (an outspoken uncle did die of covid) – they show themselves as examples of this mind set – that took guts to admit to the world about their foolish actions. I’ll give them that.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Cameron:

    If God is the guardian of health, why are they staying in the health-care profession? Isn’t that kind of blasphemous? 

    You want logic from these stupid, selfish, plague rat slapdicks? :)

  50. 50.

    Robert Sneddon

    There was a nurse who claimed a religious exemption from vaccination with nine pages of handwritten Christian apologia, lots of cherry-picked Bible references. She contracted COVID-19 over the New Year and died a few days ago before her claim for exemption could be considered. Pity, that.

  51. 51.

    pajaro

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Yes, the good political leaders in DC have decided that, for most purposes, the pandemic is over.  Notably, the virus was not invited to their deliberations and is not currently available for comment.

  52. 52.

    Sloane Ranger

    Monday in the UK we had 41,648 new cases. This is reduction of 30% in the rolling 7-day average. Please bear in mind that these figures will involve catch up from the weekend. New cases by nation,

    England – 31,943 (down 373)

    Northern Ireland – 2465 (up 307)

    Scotland – 5118 (down 183)

    Wales – 2122 (up 627).

    Deaths – There were 35 deaths within 28 days of a positive test reported yesterday but this is probably an undercount due to Registry Office closures over the weekend. The rolling 7-day average is down by 27.2%. 23 deaths were in England, 2 in Northern Ireland, 10 in Wales and none in Scotland.

    Testing – 784,455 tests took place on Sunday, 13th. This is a big reduction from recent numbers but many schools in England are on half term so children may not be being tested as much. The rolling 7-day average is down by 13.2%.

    Hospitalisations – As of Friday, 11th, 12,357 people were in hospital and 416 were on ventilators. The weekly average for hospital admissions was down by 12.8% as of 8 February.

    Vaccinations – As of 13th, 91.3% of all UK residents aged 12+ had had 1 shot (unchanged over the last 4 days), 84.8% had had 2 (unchanged from the day before) and 65.7% had had a 3rd shot/booster (unchanged since the day before).

  53. 53.

    The Pale Scot

    As a person of faith, I find this kind of narcissistic thimblerigging deeply offensive:

    Bloody Protestant savages. It wouldn’t be hard to find theologians that could catalogue which creeds have a claim to being righteously antivaxx. Some outfits have these people answer a questionnaire listing all the treatments that used fetal cells, like aspirin, insulin etc that they have refused in the past. If they lie it’s grounds for dismissal. At least tell them their company provided health insurance won’t cover them if they get COVID

  54. 54.

    Fair Economist

    @YY_Sima Qian: If Hong Kong isn’t reporting any imported cases, they must be so overwhelmed they can’t keep track. Not good.

    I don’t see how China can keep out Omicron if it goes pandemic in Hong Kong. Is the border closed? Wouldn’t that be a huge economic problem?

  56. 56.

    Bill Arnold

    @Baud:

    During AiDS, the GOP supported all kinds of restrictions on people with HIV that had no basis in how that virus is transmitted.

    But that is different. We must respect the rights of people who hold religious beliefs that include obeying God by spreading deadly infectious diseases.
    It’s in the US constitution, somewhere: The Right Of Godly People To Kill Random People.
    (Also to cause lifelong damage in even more random people, but that’s a minor additional detail.)

  57. 57.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Fair Economist: Travel across the Mainland-Hong Kong has always required quarantine since the start of the pandemic, there is customs & immigration control just like an international border (the border is also fenced & has a creek w/ concrete banks for much of it), though there were “green lane” exemptions when cases were very low in Hong Kong. Logistics & goods transfer never stopped. However, a lot of Mainland Chinese w/ residencies in Hong Kong or Hong Kongers w/ Mainland residencies are trying to make their way across the border right now.

    Hong Kong has been registering few imported cases in recent weeks because the city’s government had stopped flights to much of the world w/ high Omicron prevalence weeks before.

  58. 58.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @YY_Sima Qian: Hong King’s economy rests on 4 pillars: finance, logistics, real estate & tourism related services. Finance is large borderless, & will continue to do fine as Chinese companies increasingly eschew Wall Street for IPOs. Logistics might see some impact from a major Omicron wave. Real estate is essentially a local oligopolistic market through collusion between the tycoons and the city’s government (has been since the British colonial days). Tourism related services had been badly mauled by the 2019 protests (since the vast majority of the tourism comes from Mainland China), w/ the pandemic making things that much worse.

  59. 59.

    Bill Arnold

    @matt:

    Fuck David Leonhardt. He spends 90% of his time ragging on people for wearing masks.

    I’m done with him. He is on team Stochastic Mass Murder, just for an improved personal position on Team Contrarian. If I ever meet him physically I will call him a selfish mass murderer to his face.

  60. 60.

    J R in WV

    @Amir Khalid: ​
     

    Tennis star Joker deserves what comes for him: Covid infection with long-term effects ending any sort of athletic endeavor.

    He’s killing people by setting a terrible example.

  61. 61.

    lowtechcyclist

    @sdhays: You seem to be taking issue with something I said, but damned if I can figure out what.

    If you think that a significant portion of religious exemptions to vaccination are sought by adherents of non-Christian religions, that might explain where you’re coming from.  But it doesn’t appear that you believe that, so I’m confused.

  62. 62.

    bluegirlfromwyo

    @Kay: Absolutely there needs to be informed consent. We got lucky on this. My husband’s now former primary care physician is unvaccinated. If we hadn’t known her political leanings and her sister’s unvaxxed status, we wouldn’t have known to ask. Even then, it wasn’t the doctor who told us, it was her receptionist. People who go to the hospital or even to most doctors offices don’t have that kind of inside knowledge. No one shouldn’t have to assume that risk on their own.

  63. 63.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Bill Arnold: I too have had it with the contrarian centrist anti-maskers.

    At least the RWNJ anti-maskers make some sort of perverted sense: it’s all about tribal identity for them, and my wearing a mask means I’m a member of one of the tribes they hate.

    But the contrarian anti-maskers, OTOH, I have no idea why it upsets them when someone else wears a mask.

    OK, maybe I do: maybe they’re just picking on people to demonstrate what they believe is their superiority in reasoning.  In which case fuck’em.

  64. 64.

    Ruckus

    @Amir Khalid:

    Let’s see, he’s screwing his career over not getting a vaccine for a deadly disease, in a career that he travels around the world to play tennis so it’s rather likely that he’s had to get other vaccines and he’s not willing to get this vaccine. Hmmmm. I’m thinking he’s at the very least anti-this-vaccine. Also I have no idea how many vaccines are needed to travel freely around the world currently but I bet it’s over zero. We got a bunch of them in boot camp during the Vietnam war, from which I enjoyed the extra 9 days of boot camp that I spent in the hospital with a 105 deg temp. Good times.

  65. 65.

    Ruckus

    @lowtechcyclist:

    I’d bet it takes rather perverted “logic” to make any kind of excuse for not protecting one’s self and others from a deadly disease. In the US it’s obviously mostly political, the right wing PTB seem to not giving a fuck about their own supporters. One might assume that they would see the futility of killing off their own supporters but I’d bet they think that they will kill off more of the actual humans that oppose them. Freedom at any, and every price, including losing power. Because I’d bet that the RethuglicanPowersThatBe are vaccinated. Their last idiot leader is, I’d bet that DeathSantus is. How many of the idiot congress rethuglicans are?

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