“The death toll during the Omicron wave is about 17% higher so far than the death toll in the Delta wave.” Deaths are starting to decline, but “an average of about 2,300 people — more than the death toll of Hurricane Katrina — are still dying every day.” https://t.co/XnnbN7RBSI
— Dr Kathleen Bachynski (@bachyns) February 19, 2022
It's not over 'til it's over: We’ll be grappling with Covid-related fallout as long as the specter of new variants looms, and the virus keeps raising the bar every few months https://t.co/mJ9S8OVaB6 pic.twitter.com/gpv1prB0mW
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 19, 2022
Among countries in the world, the United States currently ranks #67 for "fully vaccinated" and #54 for boostershttps://t.co/gWCbSb6EfD pic.twitter.com/QU1aSNbKEa
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) February 19, 2022
U.S. FDA considers approving a second COVID-19 booster shot -WSJ https://t.co/N7OyQroNO0 pic.twitter.com/aFW4E1jDjL
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 20, 2022
This was incredibly painful to write. It brought up terrible memories of the worst of the AIDS epidemic. All that death. All that suffering. All that pain: The Moral Danger of Declaring the Pandemic Over Too Soon. Thanks to the @NYTimes for publishing it. https://t.co/05n1MtsNnL
— Gregg Gonsalves (@gregggonsalves) February 17, 2022
… [O]nce more, the desire to get back to normal and to declare the end of another pandemic, at least for some of us, is palpable after more than two years of death, suffering and hardship. Governors’ recent lifting of mask mandates reflects that. There’s a demobilization that many suggest is contingent on what might happen with new variants but could easily become permanent. Much, if not most, of the country has moved on or wants to move on from Covid-19.
It’s also clear that SARS-CoV-2 will be with us for the foreseeable future and that it, too, will follow the fault lines of social and economic inequality in America. It will persist in countries — likely many in Africa — where people have insufficient access to coronavirus vaccines. Some will blame low vaccination rates on the hesitancy of those nations’ residents rather than drug companies withholding their vaccine technology to allow for global scale-up.
There has to be a better way out of the rubble of the past two years. What would it mean to move into a future in which a common fate mattered as much as our own? It would mean no one was disposable.
The lesson of the AIDS pandemic is that it’s easy to leave people behind, even if it is at the cost of our collective peril. Coronavirus variants can develop in people with weakened immune systems who struggle to clear infections on their own, like those with untreated H.I.V. Think of the home we’ve then made for viruses like SARS-CoV-2 by impeding access to vaccines and by allowing millions to go without AIDS treatment even now. Variants can emerge because of our desire to put it all behind us. No one is truly safe until we all are. Yet might we act to save millions of people not just in the interest of self-preservation but also simply because it’s the right thing to do? That would be a signal that this pandemic has changed us. For good.
“I have stopped pinning my hopes on this being over, ever,” said Katherine Raz, a business owner. “I’m just preparing for the worst all the time and not hoping for the best.” https://t.co/P51OrmLuSR
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 19, 2022
Despite the NYTimes’ predictable doomerist phrasing, this doesn’t sound all bad:
… If workers flood back to the job market as school and child care becomes more dependable and health risks recede, it will be easier for manufacturers and shipping companies to ramp up production and deliveries, giving supply a chance to catch up to demand. That in turn could allow inflation to cool without losing the economy’s progress over the past year.
“If you got the public health situation improved, you would see economic improvements in terms of increased work, increased output, increased functioning of the economy,” said Aaron Sojourner, a University of Minnesota economist who has studied the pandemic economy. “I do think that’s a real constraint.”
But people who retired early or left jobs to care for children may not go back to work right away, or may choose to work part time. And other changes may be similarly slow to reverse: Companies that were burned by shortages may maintain larger inventories or rely on shorter supply chains, driving up costs. Workers who enjoyed flexibility from employers during the pandemic may demand it in the future. Rates of entrepreneurship, automation and, of course, remote work all increased during the pandemic, perhaps permanently.
Some of those changes could lead to higher inflation or slower growth. Others could make the economy more dynamic and productive. All make it harder for forecasters and policymakers to get a clear picture of the postpandemic economy.
“In almost every respect, economic ripple effects that we might have expected to be temporary or short-lived are proving to be more long-lasting,” said Luke Pardue, an economist for Gusto, a payroll platform for small businesses. “The new normal is looking a lot different.”
The CDC has four levels that start at “low” and escalate to “moderate,” “high” and “very high.” https://t.co/e4w27H7TtX
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 19, 2022
=======
Sunday read by @LawrenceGostin
"COVID pushed global health institutions to limits, but we could transform this into a historic opportunity for once-in-a-lifetime reforms of our national and global health systems based on science, equity and solidarity"https://t.co/hRhrJz3fCN
— Chikwe Ihekweazu (@Chikwe_I) February 20, 2022
WHO's @DrTedros on #COVID19 @MunSecConf today:
"Is it ending now? That’s one of the major questions being asked. Indeed, high #vaccine coverage in some countries, combined with the lower severity of #Omicron, is driving a dangerous narrative that the #pandemic is over."
MORE— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) February 18, 2022
Tedros/3
"Not when we have a highly transmissible virus circulating almost unchecked, with too little surveillance to track its evolution.
In fact, the conditions are ideal for more transmissible, more dangerous variants to emerge."#COVID19 #pandemic #WHO— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) February 18, 2022
Mainland China reports 195 new COVID-19 cases vs 137 a day earlier https://t.co/68NVLf2uki pic.twitter.com/SBIkJaFHDk
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 20, 2022
Beijing 2022 reports no new COVID cases among Games-related personnel on Feb. 19 https://t.co/9T2pMgcgMY pic.twitter.com/O4gA8jiCno
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 20, 2022
Hong Kong ramps up isolation facilities including at cruise terminal to battle COVID https://t.co/f0n2KYGEhE pic.twitter.com/NLxHS5iq6O
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 20, 2022
UK reports 34,377 new COVID-19 cases, 128 deaths https://t.co/GDSFcGpkVv pic.twitter.com/zy1ZtJSs7G
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 19, 2022
Britain to set out plans to scrap COVID self-isolation laws https://t.co/kjzqAvjO90 pic.twitter.com/zjFM8QAwQa
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 20, 2022
"When excess deaths are evaluated on a global scale, the vast majority of them may have been in the developing world. Africa wasn’t miraculously spared from the pandemic, and there’s little reason to think it could not be hit far harder next time."https://t.co/659qvY9d1B
— Philip Schellekens (@fibke) February 18, 2022
The world’s largest cruise companies said they will voluntarily follow public health measures meant to reduce the risk of coronavirus outbreaks on ships operating in the United States https://t.co/MCEQC4zkzT
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 19, 2022
======
Yesterday, that “milder” virus killed more people than 9/11.
No idea why there is this obsession with classifying Omicron as “milder” when it’s greater infectiousness offsets its lower lethality. https://t.co/Ax5394lyrb
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) February 16, 2022
Coronaviruses similar to SARSCoV2 have been found in cave bats in Laos. Genetically close viruses were discovered circulating in cave bats inhabiting limestone karstic terrain. Findings support hypotheses SARS2 originated in cave-dwelling bats of So. China https://t.co/ZEeqOg6hpn
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) February 18, 2022
… The researchers tested 645 bats (belonging to six families and 46 species) living in the limestone caves in northern Laos. In doing so, they found three viruses that they considered to be closely related to SARS-CoV-2.
In addition, the genetic sequences encoding regions that bind to ACE2—the human cell receptor that SARS-CoV-2 uses to gain entry to cells—in the novel viruses were similar to that of SARS-CoV-2. This is particularly important because the spike sequence of the virus determines the binding affinity and is responsible for host range.
The bat viruses were able to bind to human ACE2 receptors more efficiently than the original SARS-CoV-2 strain isolated from humans. One of these viruses was also shown to replicate within human cell lines but was inhibited by antibodies neutralizing SARS-CoV-2.
In addition, the team found that the receptor binding domain (RBDs) of the spike proteins of these viruses differ from that of SARS-CoV-2 by only one or two residues at the interface with ACE2. Lastly, none of these bat viruses harbors a furin cleavage site in the spike…
Covid won’t end up like the flu. It will be like smoking.
Hundreds of thousands of deaths, from either tobacco or the pandemic can be prevented with a single behavioral change. Choosing not to get vaccinated is a modifiable health risk on par with smoking https://t.co/EFgUz3X5Wi— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 19, 2022
======
A Marine Corps reservist who was charged with entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot is now accused of conspiring with a nurse to steal, forge and distribute hundreds of fake Covid vaccination cards, prosecutors said.https://t.co/jc9Qq1tjcZ
— The New York Times (@nytimes) February 18, 2022
… Prosecutors said the scheme lasted from at least March 2021 until this month and offered buyers blank vaccination cards, or completed vaccination cards with falsified information.
Buyers could also be entered into immunization databases, which allowed them to receive the Excelsior Pass, which displays a user’s vaccination status in a digital app, prosecutors said.
As part of the scheme, Mr. Liu bought blank vaccination cards from Mr. Rodriguez, and then forged and distributed them for a profit, prosecutors said.
Mr. Liu also directed buyers to meet Mr. Rodriguez at his clinic in Hempstead, N.Y., which was not identified in court records, prosecutors said.
At the clinic, Mr. Rodriguez would destroy a vial of the vaccine, and then record the dose on a vaccination card as if he had administered it to the buyer, prosecutors said. He would then enter the information into immunization databases, falsely indicating that the buyer had been vaccinated, prosecutors said.
Both men promoted the scheme on encrypted messaging apps and on social media, using code names for the vaccination cards such as “gift cards,” “Cardi Bs,” “Christmas cards” and “Pokemon cards.”…
Have you let @NeoliberalSnow know? He might want to get in on the party. pic.twitter.com/rTUi8VCoK9
— Dr. StephanieB (@sboumedi) February 19, 2022
This pointy-headed numpty spent most of last year shrieking for America's southern border to be closed because brown migrants and asylum seekers might bring in Covid. Now she wants far right Canadian anti-vaxxers to go to the head of the line. https://t.co/E7lwkbQsFL
— Dan Murphy (@bungdan) February 19, 2022
Correction: Herrell was still banging the drum on stopping disease-carrying migrants at the border as recently as way back in two weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/zjCcgRW3BG
— Dan Murphy (@bungdan) February 19, 2022
Wat pic.twitter.com/wAxyGoI0ac
— vocational politics stan account (@Convolutedname) February 17, 2022
American conservatives, please stop being little babies triggered every time you are asked to abide by some minor rules that inconvenience you and take it like the rest of the world: by bitching about it and doing it anyway.
— vocational politics stan account (@Convolutedname) February 17, 2022
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
There were 102 new cases of COVID-19 on 2/19.
Baud
I don’t see how Covid is comparable to AiDS since there is a vaccine for Covid.
The low vax rate in Africa is a problem, although I’m not sure there is a single causal factor for it.
Baud
Regarding conservative snowflakes, it’s pointless to call them hypocrites. They don’t care about the substance of the rule being enforced. They care about who is enforcing it against them.
Cermet
@Baud: There are a number of known reasons 1) Far younger population on average (i.e. few old people) 2) Few testing sites available no one can afford commercial tests kits 3) Far more rural people so cause of deaths are not medically determined or even noted 4) Delta hit a lot of people but this too was not as well documented for previous reasons
I’m sure there are more but these are fairly obvious.
New Deal democrat
Not enough State updates over the weekend to make an update worthwhile, but two comments in reaction to the highlighted material:
1. The derision by Hoarse (who’s turned into something of a Hoarse’s Ass in the past few months, being sharp elbowed to even the mildest criticism) and a few others about Omicron being “milder” really pi**es me off. It’s true that Omicron isn’t “mild,” but it sure as hell *is* milder than, say, Delta or even the original strain. An Omicron that was not “milder” than Delta would have meant 10,000 deaths per day. Is that what you wanted, @$$hole?
2. The note about the pandemic and inflation is right in my normal lane. The main driver of inflation has been a supply shock in the form of a shortage of labor and materials. Want labor to feel safe returning to work? Want to end supply chain disruptions? Than make working safe. To solve inflation, solve the pandemic. Period.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 28,825 new Covid-19 cases yesterday in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 3,194,848 cases. It also reported 34 deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 32,310 deaths – 1.01% of the cumulative reported total, 1.10% of resolved cases.
Malaysia’s nationwide Rt stands at 1.24.
97 confirmed cases are in ICU, 57 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 18,514 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,919,196 patients recovered – 91.4% of the cumulative reported total.
12 new clusters were reported yesterday, for a cumulative total of 6,704 clusters. 492 clusters are currently active; 6,212 clusters are now inactive.
28,734 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. 91 new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 151,156 doses of vaccine on 19th February: 72,991 first doses, 648 second doses, and 77,517 booster doses. Tthe cumulative total is 66,018,432 doses administered: 26,631,386 first doses, 25,742,431 second doses, and 13,924,411 booster doses. 81.3% of the population have received their first dose, 78.8% their second dose, and 42.6% their booster dose.
Baud
@New Deal democrat:
That’s why the powers that be on the right don’t want to solve the pandemic.
ETA: also agree with you on the “milder” point. Individuals want to know how dangerous the virus is to them if they catch it.
NotMax
FYI.
Baud
@NotMax:
Charles will do anything to be king, even infect his mom!
Sloane Ranger
Not sure if anyone is interested, but the BBC has just announced that the Queen has tested positive for COVID-19. She is fully vaccinated and apparently suffering from mild cold like symptoms. She plans to continue with her desk work.
There’s already an attempt to link this to Prince Charles testing positive shortly after seeing her, but that was about 2 weeks ago That seems a long lead time, especially if it’s Omicron, so I’m not convinced he’s the one who gave it to her.
NorthLeft12
What particularly worries me about our rapid return to”normal”, is the repeated reliance on people exercising good judgement and common sense.
If I have learned anything over the last two years it is that we have a determined minority (10 to 15%) of our country who are borderline sociopaths and ignorant prima donnas. They will never take any precautions against COVID unless there is some tangible and immediate benefit to themselves. Not to mention that the precautions must not inconvenience them in any way.
Even the simple idea of staying home when you are sick will be difficult for many people that do not have the benefit of paid sick days, which we cannot get past the conservatives who believe this will be abused by employees and will be too onerous for employers.
I don’t include the many asshats who show up for work sick, even with paid sick days, because they think the business will fall apart without them.
This is going to be tough.
satby
The problem with labelling Omicron “mild” is/was that let people interpret it as “not dangerous” and empowering a hella lot of people to drop precautions, which I think is the point Hoarse was trying to make. “Mild” diseases as we previously defined the term didn’t have daily death tolls of between 2-4k per day.
Baud
@satby:
But any word to describe the actual severity of Omicron would have that effect.
satby
@Baud: I think at the time Omicron emerged people were relieved to hear that a higher number who got it (and were vaccinated) might be asymptomatic or have a mild case, the caveats about “more highly infectious, able to evade some immunity” were there but overshadowed by “mild”. And the term was a godsend to the same bad faith actors who politicized the pandemic from the beginning, strengthening the calls to end mandates get back to normal even as 4k per day were dying. Hindsight, and all that, but emphasizing mild probably increased the death toll needlessly. We learn everything on the fly about this disease, I just hope some lessons stick for the next one.
debbie
Is anyone here thinking about getting a fourth jab? It was mentioned in the local news last night.
Mike E
Lots of denial going on, and not only in this particular realm of science, unfortunately. Sadly.
OzarkHillbilly
Don’t bitch about it around me tho, I don’t want to hear a word from the WATBs.
Mike E
@debbie: I read a comment from a jackal who got their 4th jab by walking into a sparsely attended vaccination clinic using an alias and a burner email account claiming it was their first shot. They said the peeps there were more than happy to oblige.
mrmoshpotato
Amen, you whiny ass titty plague rats.
Geminid
Yvette Herrell, the New Mexico Congresswoman who called for admission of Canadian protesters to the U.S., will likely be a one-termer. New Mexico’s Democratic redistricters drew the new 2nd District to have a Democratic majority. The 2nd runs from the state’s southern border to central New Mexico.
Fun-ish fact: Herrell is a member of the Cherokee Nation.
germy
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@debbie: I am, if it is offered through my health plan or local health department. I have worked in person in a crowded building, since the beginning of the pandemic. I am over 60 and my coworker is now hospitalized and not expected to return. And the mostly youngish people I work with think it’s “over”. I see no reason not to get a fourth shot
people seem to forget, a lot of the diseases we vaccinate for require multiple initial shots and boosters every so many years…
germy
Scout211
@debbie:
Unless you are immune compromised, it is being considered by the CDC for this fall. And yes, we will be signing up as soon as it is approved. Source.
Joe Falco
@debbie: I’ll get my fourth jab same as I did when I got my booster: when the CDC and doctors say I should. It’s not a matter of how I feel about it, it’d whether it’s the safe course of action to take.
Van Buren
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I will get one ASAP. The vaccination rate for students at my school is c. 20% and mask mandates will likely end soon. Seems like a no brainer.
germy
@Joe Falco:
Yes, that’s pretty much my plan.
I’m also more than willing to get a fifth, sixth, seventh shot if that’s recommended. I’d like to go back to movie theaters, restaurants, etc. without worrying about suffering a breakthrough case.
New Deal democrat
@satby: I understand the criticism of using the term “mild.” It’s the application of that criticism to “milder” – you know, comparatively, relatively – that frosts me. It is the single most succinct description, without having to engage in long phraseology.
NeenerNeener
@debbie: Yes, going to ask my GP when I see him on Friday. I had my booster shot back in August when they were still full doses.
Robert Sneddon
@germy: Vaccination won’t guarantee you don’t get a breakthrough case. It vastly reduces the odds of that happening to you in particular, but in a population of millions of vaccinated people some will get infected, a few will get really sick and some of those will die. Epidemics are statistics.
Baud
@New Deal democrat:
Liberals love long phraseology though.
Robert Sneddon
@NeenerNeener:
Britain has been carrying out booster and third doses for some time now. Boosters are half-doses of mRNA vaccines for anyone who has already received an initial full course of vaccinations. Third doses are full-strength single mRNA vaccinations for people with chronic diseases and suppressed immune systems where it is believed the standard vaccine protocol provides less protection for that individual.
YY_Sima Qian
On 2/19 Mainland China reported 101 new domestic confirmed (none previously asymptomatic) & 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangdong Province reported 8 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 Guangxi “Autonomous” Region 7 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 235 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
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.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 65 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 143 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
At Tianjin Municipality 2 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 3 active domestic confirmed cases (all presumed Omicron) remaining.
Liaoning Province reported 9 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 138 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
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 there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining in the city.
At Hebei Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed cases (2 at Xiong’an, 4 at Hengshui & 1 at Langfang) remaining in the province, all part of the transmission chain from the cold storage warehouses outbreak in Fengtai District in Beijing.
At Heilongjiang Province 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 8 active domestic confirmed (all at Mudanjiang) & 31 active domestic asymptomatic (13 at Heihe, 15 at Mudanjiang & 3 at Qiqihar) cases in the province. 2 residential buildings at Heihe have been re-designated to Low Risk. 3 residential buildings at Heihe remain at Medium Risk.
Chengmai County in Hainan Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a person who flew from Harbin in Heilongjiang (w/ layover at Xiamen in Fujian) to Haikou in Hainan on 2/17. The case tested positive on 2/18, per requirement for anyone arriving from out of province. The case came from Jidong County in Jixi in Heilongjiang. W/ the discovery of the case at Chengmai County, Jidong County has now uncovered 1 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases from contact tracing.
At Shanghai Municipality there currently are 1 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.
Jiangsu Province reported 16 new domestic confirmed. There currently is 82 active domestic confirmed & 30 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, a person who traveled from out of province.
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.
Luzhou in Sichuan Province reported 2 new domestic symptomatic cases, 1 is a person who returned to Luzhou from Fuzhou in Fujian on 2/16, found via mandatory testing of all persons who travel from out of province, the other is a traced close contact of the 1st case. This would suggest that there is cryptic community transmission at Fuzhou.
At Henan Province 4 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 35 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Yunnan Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 14 active domestic confirmed & 26 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the province.
Imported Cases
On 2/19, Mainland China reported 94 new imported confirmed cases (3 previously asymptomatic), 35 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 55 confirmed cases recovered (29 imported), 43 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (42 imported) & 3 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all imported), & 1,641 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,622 active confirmed cases in the country (829 imported), 7 in serious condition (1 imported), 687 active asymptomatic cases (582 imported), 4 suspect cases (all imported). 33,991 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 2/19, 3,080.788M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 5.036M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 2/20, Hong Kong reported 6,067 new positive cases, 12 imported & 6,055 domestic.
On 2/20, Taiwan reported 70 new positive cases, 66 imported & 4 domestic (all already under quarantine).
germy
thread:
germy
debbie
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
I hesitate only because the shots set off my autoimmune issues which take a couple of months to get past (not that COVID wouldn’t). I wonder if at some point, my body will stop fighting off the vaccines.
debbie
@germy:
?. Shades of Red Green!
satby
@Baud: I’d just say more precise phraseology. It’s possible to be more succinct and convey the correct information. Is a disease milder if it causes 17% more deaths than the previous mutation? After all, all the same people were unvaxxed during the Delta wave too. I don’t see it as an either/or, I see it as and/both: more infectious, still dangerous to unvaxxed/ potentially milder to vaxxed. But we didn’t know that until after the wave was well underway.
artem1s
@Baud:
the vaccine for COVID isn’t going to eradicate it anymore than the treatments for AIDS does. The diseases also continues to spread unabated in poorer countries which in turn affects the efficacy of containing infections with the treatments available. Pharma companies never made AIDS treatments cheap or free and disinformation due to homophobia has meant getting people tested and ongoing treatment is harder. In turn the countries that are wealthy enough to have readily available treatments, HIV has become somewhat invisible to us. For the majority of us the pressure to ‘do something’ about AIDS has largely faded into back ground noise because the xtian right isn’t screeching about rounding up and killing HIV+ gheys all night on FuckedUp News and 700 club.
Even now there are communities that ‘feel’ safer to us because there is a large percentage of the population that is taking advantage of treatments and will continue to have ‘safe’ intercourse, sexual or non-sexual, no matter what their crazy uncle recommends as a cure or treatment or returning to normally ignoring it.
Baud
@satby:
It’s accurate to say the symptoms are milder. When tallking about the disease’s effect on the population, one might say its deadlier because of the infectiousness. To me,”mild” connotes the effect on the individual who gets the virus, rather than the effect on the population. But as you say, you can’t really be sure about how deadly a variant is until you see its effects play out.
Kay
@Robert Sneddon:
People competely accepted and accept this with flu shots but for some reason it turned into a giant problem with covid shots, and “proof” that the vaccinations “don’t work” just like boosters became hugely controversial when people have been getting a tetanus booster for 70 years with no questions at all.
Even the “experimental” criticism is bogus. All vaccines were new at one time and people got them anyway. What did they want? A volunteer population to test the vaccine for them? They got that anyway and they’re still bitching incessantly.
This whole discussion has been poisoned by bad faith actors and grifters. The normal thing to do would have been to compare the covid vaccination to other vaccinations, not to treat it as a singular unique thing that people are completely unfamiliar with.
Baud
@artem1s: Sure, with respect to places like Africa, they are more alike, as I indicated. In most other places, the disease is mostly a voluntary choice, because of the vaccines.
satby
@New Deal democrat: I think semantics are the least of the problem here, honestly. Scientists were the original source of “milder” and they seldom bother with the political outcomes of their preliminary findings. But I’m kind of on team Hoarse here, “milder” Is not what I would have led with officially before “more infectious and just as dangerous to the unvaxxed”.
dm
Remember that Anime convention in NYC last November? “Minnesota man diagnosed with omicron after attending anime convention…”? 53,000 attended. Eek, superspreader event!
The con was held with the ground-rule that you had to have proof of vaccination, and everyone masked. Also, the convention center had installed HEPA filters, which have been shown to remove virus particles from the air.
It was a great lab-experiment for the CDC (all attendees contact information was available, after all).
End result: the prevalence of COVID among con attendees was no greater than the prevalence of COVID among people in NYC. Those who came down with COVID tended to be people who attended parties and went to bars. (Plus, only 16 cases of Omicron — the dominant strain in people who attended the con was Delta.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/17/health/nyc-anime-convention-2021-superspreader-event.html
Baud
@Kay:
It’s argument that “X isn’t perfect and therefore all judgments about X are valid” is a commonplace bad faith argument not limited to Covid. You see it in politics anyone someone states (accurately) that Dems aren’t perfect, as if that alone is enough to make their political choices rational and moral.
Baud
@Baud:
It’s= The
debbie
@Kay:
“Bad faith” is the operative word here, and not just for COVID.
satby
Not necessarily, that’s so dependent on individual immunity, vital load exposure, etc. that phrase gave people a false sense of security. People who had covid before vaccines and got vaccinated (so presumably had decent immunity absent other issues) and still followed covid protocols still could get very sick or die. I think we’re talking past each other here, just like with all iterations of a new disease to humans, milder applied to some people but not others, so a blanket statement of fact as if it applied to all was probably not the best approach. Edited to add, and I’m not even including the bad faith actors here, I’m just going by human nature.
Baud
@satby:
It’s always the average case though. Just like I say covid is a deadly disease even though it hasn’t killed me yet. Or that the cold has a milder symptoms than the flu.
At bottom, I don’t think it would have been possible to change public or individual behavior absent misleading people as to the nature of Omicron.
germy
When I google symptoms:
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid: The 2nd District is most definitely NOT a Democratic majority, however the new lines improve the district to a more likely Democratic outcome. 3rd District Democratic control was weakened as a result, but is still likely Dem.
Matt McIrvin
@debbie: If and when the FDA and CDC tell me to get a fourth shot, I will. I don’t see much point in finagling another booster before then. All evidence is that I should be well-protected from serious illness by my existing vaccinations, my N95 masks are effective, and general case rates are dropping rapidly at the moment. It sounds as if they may recommend another booster as a seasonal thing in the fall.
SiubhanDuinne
@Sloane Ranger:
There are already comments, though, about “Charles is getting impatient.” It’s hateful. Personally, I don’t see Charles as in any kind of hurry to become King (although I think in the past he probably was). He’s certainly smart enough to know that he has all kinds of freedoms as Prince of Wales that are unlikely to be available to him as sovereign.
Wishing Her Majesty a speedy, complete, and comfortable recovery.
Matt McIrvin
@dm: I was at that convention with my wife and daughter. All we personally did was hang out on the merchandise floor–no mingling with other attendees in hotel rooms, etc. We tested ourselves repeatedly because we went to visit my parents for Thanksgiving shortly after. None of us got COVID.
It was interesting, though, being for once on the side of being scolded as a stupid plague rat on social media.
debbie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Anyone blaming Meghan yet? I wouldn’t be surprised. ?
Kay
@Baud:
The new standard is children have to DIE in large numbers or it’s not worth preventing disease.
It’s ridiculous. The baseline should have been “infectious diseases of our past” not “let’s treat this like no one has ever encountered a vaccine or booster or public health mitigation in daycare or school or work before”.
It’s so ordinary to for older adults to get a set of boosters for childhood diseases when they’re around a newborn they call them “grandparents shots”. Completely uncontroversial before covid.
None of these people should get a flu shot. It changes every year! There are breakthrough infections! Useless!
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I suspect that most COVID vaccine refusers, in fact, do not ever get flu shots.
rikyrah
We aren’t leaving people behind IN THIS COUNTRY.
We have a group that REFUSES TO GET VACCINATED.
rikyrah
@debbie:
Won’t think twice if they say that we should
There go two miscreants
@Geminid: I already made a note to send a few $ to the Democrat running against Herrell, when I find out who that is.
Robert Sneddon
@SiubhanDuinne: Prince Charles hasn’t said it out loud but it’s rumoured he is considering skipping the Crown and letting it pass directly to his son, William after his mother passes. It’s not family policy for him to abdicate though since the Edward VIII debacle still lingers in the family history, especially with Liz.
He’s 73 now and there’s been a rash of recent old-folks-getting-out-of-the-way around the world, well except in America where gerontocracy is well established in the halls of power. Even the Divine Emperor of Japan “retired” in favour of his son a couple of years back without the usual State funeral intervening. Saying that all of the older British Royals get worked on by the medics like a prize cow so a long vaguely healthy lifespan is sort-of expected for them these days. The one memorable exception in recent times is Liz’s sister Margaret who smoked like a chimney and died after a series of strokes aged 71.
Starfish
@Baud: The mRNA vaccination for COVID is bringing about more research into vaccination for HIV. The mRNA vaccines are unlocking new areas of medical research.
New variants are evolving in immunocompromised people, like all those people that we left with HIV in some countries due to our healthcare assistance being driven by people’s religious agendas.
Right now, HIV is most prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, and guess where we have failed to send COVID vaccines?
We are making new variants more likely with our refusal to get health care to some of the poorest places on Earth.
We can continue to say, “It is their fault for being poor,” but this is going to bite us in the butt because new variants are not going to stay in the place they originated.
The way we treated South Africa with the travel ban is going to be a disincentive for people reporting that they have found a new variant, especially in places where there are not that many researchers looking for interesting new variants.
Geminid
@O. Felix Culpa: I was going by Cook Political’s Dave Wasserman , who said the plan signed by the Governor in December transformed the NM-2nd from +12 Trump to +6 Biden, by trading Southeastern communities for areas west of Albuquerque. But Wasserman spreads himself pretty thin, while you are right there amongst the sagebrush, so I believe you.
But I’m curious. Are you seeing any visible results from Governor Lujan Grisham’s clean power plan? Wind generators or solar power installations?
Starfish
@Sloane Ranger: Just because the royal family is announcing that she has COVID now does not mean that the PR people were not informed days ago. People have been speculating on this since Charles saw her. They even asked. They did not get an answer when they asked.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s what I object to- the one-offness they claim. If you’re a person who doesn’t do much to prevent illness or prevent infecting others don’t pretend this one refusal is a high moral mission or based on your “research”.
I had small children before advent of the chicken pox vaccine and after it. When I had my younger children get it was “new”. It’s no longer “new” because millions and millions of people got it over years. That’s how time works. Thank God these people weren’t so prominent when the polio vaccine came out. They’d be telling us very few children were seriously ill anyway, when compared to all children.
They understand that their objection to mandates will absolutely and inevitably be applied to a whole host of public health mitigations, because there’s no reason they shouldn’t be? If the rationale is “freedom” well then that applies to all of it.
Geminid
@There go two miscreants: New Mexico’s 2nd District Democrats will nominate their Congressional candidate in the June 7 primary.
NorthLeft12
@rikyrah: Agree, Canadian cons are claiming vaccine mandates and other public health guidelines are “divisive”.
They blame the majority of people for the actions of the very small, yet very loud, minority.
Does that sound familiar to you folks in the US?
debbie
@NorthLeft12:
I assume that’s a rhetorical question. Because, of course.
O. Felix Culpa
@There go two miscreants: Gabe Vasquez is the only Democrat running for NM CD2, to my knowledge. I don’t have any insider info about him, but he seems like a good guy. Would be an immense improvement over Herrell in any case.
O. Felix Culpa
@Geminid: I believe that Wasserman significantly overstates Democratic gains in CD2, but I don’t have the numbers easily to hand. (Shorter: I’m too lazy to do the research right now.)
NM Political Report is a good place to follow news on New Mexico, if you’re interested.
I haven’t been travelling much in the state recently, so can’t speak to the prevalence of new wind and solar installations. Thankfully, the governor’s hydrogen hub proposal was defeated in the just-ended 2022 legislative session. I support MLG, but think that several of her recent measures–including removing mask mandates with only one day’s notice and “tough on crime” legislation–are cynical reelection ploys. Increasing teachers’ salaries was a good move, though.
Fair Economist
Flu Report for 2/6/22 – 2/13/22
Positivity up from 2.0% to 3.0%. Lab cases down from 930 to 1,324, with only 447 added to previous weeks (lowest for over 2 months). H3N2 continues its unprecedented dominance, 99.8% of all typed flus and 100% of all subtyped Type A flus. Hospital admissions up from 993 to 1073.
Mortality due to pneumonia, influenza and COVID down to 22.6% from last week’s 26.3%, but still astronomically high compared to pre-COVID levels. My interpretation is that flu continues to pick up as COVID precautions are being relaxed, since we have not had enough flu cases to provide substantial immunity. I would guess flu season will worsen some from here but there’s probably not enough time left for it to get really bad. Even the worst seasonal flu outbreak is just a blip compared to COVID anyway.
Fair Economist
@germy:
This is *WRONG*. There was a Yamagata flu sub-typed in October 2021. In addition, they haven’t been sub-typing B flu in the US most of the winter (I’m guessing because there have been so few in the unprecedented H3N2 takeover), so there could have been more.
Miss Bianca
@NorthLeft12:
I had to cover a meeting of our local Board of County Commissioners (who also, for our collective sins, sit as the Board of Health – all of whom caught COVID last year after a huge, maskless public meeting where they declared they weren’t going to follow any state COVID rules any more), where the HR Director was trying to get them to codify sick leave and COVID leave policies (“Don’t call it COVID leave – COVID is over! Call it ‘public health emergency leave, please!”) and all those assholes could do was fantasize about some government employee malingering and taking three-day holidays. Their absolute moral panic at the thought that someone, somewhere – some who was not them! – possibly GETTING AWAY WITH SOMETHING! – is such a morbid obsession on the right, it makes me sick.
Fuckers.
O. Felix Culpa
@Miss Bianca:
Repeated, because true.
J R in WV
@debbie:
I went to the Kanawha County Health dept, where we got our 3rd shot last August, seeking a 4th shot a couple of weeks ago.
No good, they got a lot of static for giving third shots early before Federal authorization because they had a large stock of vaccines about to expire, and believed in arms was better than in the local medical waste incinerator.
Maybe I should have tried a CVS or something? If you count months, we’re now 6 months past that third shot, which was a full dose of Moderna.
wenchacha
I’m sitting in my Ramada room in Mountain View. We arrived here on the 16th, with plans to visit our son,DIL, and grandson for the next week and a half. I was N95’d and face-shielded, we tested negative before visiting.
Yesterday, I got sniffles and slight chills, and headache. Negative test again this AM. Our grandson is in daycare, so there’s a good chance I just caught a cold from him, maybe when he was giving me a sloppy kiss.
I dont want to spend my vaca in quarantine! We came here to help out the young working parents and cuddle our little grandbaby! And enjoy some California winter weather!
Ella in New Mexico
@Geminid:
The only reason Trailer Trash Herrell talks like this is because she was elected in a poorly drawn, gigantic 2nd district that tried to include as much Red as possible in order to protect Northern NM and Albuquerque Dems and moderate R representatives from having to compete with them.
If you happened to live in the most populous county, Dona Ana, your vote was worth practically nothing. We did happen to squeak out a narrow win with Xochitl Torres in 2018 (who worked very hard to represent the broad needs and politics of the district) and TBH I have no idea how we did it except a lot of R’s must have stayed home.
BTW: I know she’s touted the “I’m Cherokee” thing aside from having had an ancestor way back somewhere the woman has NO bona fides on Native American issues.
I’m so looking forward to her having to deal with Democrats in her campaign. She didn’t have to before this. Watching her wave her MAGA flag and have to talk about closing the borders to all those diseased, evil criminals with people who actually came from and still have family on the other side of the border will be Karmic.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@NorthLeft12: Obama was “divisive” because he upset conservatives with his liberalism and he upset racists with his Blackness. How rude of him!
J R in WV
@Fair Economist:
Help me out here… how does 930 to 1,324 equate to down. I can see a way it could be, but I don’t want to assume which can make an ass of me. A simple explanation would help…
ETA: 930 + 447 = 1377, not 1324…?
Sloane Ranger
@Robert Sneddon:
I’m not sure about this as I don’t believe that William is in any hurry to take the Crown either. If the rumours are right, I have a mental picture of Charles and William arguing, “You be King.”, “No. It’s your turn first!”.
And the Queen is certainly trying to ensure a smooth transition for Charles, what with indicating that she’s OK with Camilla becoming Queen Consort and getting the Commonwealth Heads of Government to agree to Charles being Head of the Commonwealth on her death (although there’s no technical reason why Charles can’t abdicate and still be Head of the Commonwealth).
BTW, what’s the SNP position on an independent Scotland joining the Commonwealth?
Aziz, light!
@Ella in New Mexico: My nephew in Tulsa is one-sixteenth Cherokee and has tribal membership (his job is government relations manager of the Cherokee Nation’s billion dollars worth of businesses). To be a member one needs only to have an ancestor documented on the Dawes Roll (official list of Cherokees after passage of the Dawes Act in 1887). Fifteen sixteenths of non-Cherokee covers a lot of political ground.
Bill Arnold
@Baud:
Sheesh. The probability of catching the omicron variant is higher for every encounter with an infected individual than with previous variants.
A lot higher.
This is part of the computation(/estimate) of the probability of dying or suffering long term damage from any so-far-circulating SARS-CoV-2 variant. .
Mask restrictions should be relaxed when community spread has reached a low level. We are nowhere near reasonable thresholds, yet, and facial covering requirements are being eliminated <strong>for political reasons</strong> My county in NYS (statewide facial covering requirement dropped a week ago) is at about 18 detected cases per 100K per day, and appears to be close to leveling-off. Probably at least that many asymptomatic cases, out shopping, working and generally sharing their SARS-CoV-2–laden exhalations with others unless they are wearing a decent mask. (About 60 percent masked when at the grocery store yesterday, down from about 97 percent a week ago, a 1300 percent increase in the number of people unmasked.)
Geminid
@Ella in New Mexico: Wikipedia tells me that Herrell is a member of the Cherokee Nation, so she must meet their standards. Not that this makes her any better or worse a politician. Herrell, along with fellow Republican Markwayne Mullin (OK), and Chickasaw Tom Cole (OK), sit with Sharice Davids (KS), a Ho-Chunk, in the House Native American Caucus.
I don’t think Herrell did herself any favors by coming to the defense of the Canadian protesters. It raised her profile among angry Democratic donors, but I don’t think it will create much loyalty among Republicans. I think they are so jaded a politician has to be really outrageous to get their attention.
Scout211
@J R in WV:
My BIL got approval for his second booster shot from his blood cancer doctor.
Currently it is only approved for the immune compromised. If you can get a letter from your doctor stating that you are immune compromised, I would think your county would give you a second booster. Typically pharmacies that have the vaccine will take your word for it as an immune compromised person, but that varies by region.
Matt
The other lesson, the one most people are too polite to bring up: there’s no social penalty at all for advocating literal genocide-by-neglect in the name of Jeebus.
Chetan Murthy
Two reports:
We can read all these tweets and posts about the dangers. And b/c we’re here, we are relatively well-protected, b/c we’re not stupid. But at some point, if we start to feel that we need more protection, let us say, if we find too many of the people on public transit with us are unmasked, then we can get a fourth shot. Nobody’s going to stop you: just go to a community event in an area where you’re pretty sure takeup of shots is low, and almost certainly the people at the event will be thrilled to help you. And to boot, if you come near the end of their availability time, the shot you get would have been destroyed anyway.
Protect yourself. “You’re on your own, buddy”.
Weekend Editor
Weird juxtaposition:
(a) Eric Topol tweeted the CDC data tracker says the unvaccinated are at 26 times more mortality risk than the vaccinated & boosted, implying COVID-19 protections are the last firewall between the unvaccinated and risk of death;
(b) simultaneously Ted Cruz sponsored legislation to strip schools of federal funding if they take COVID-19 protections.
Betsy
@NorthLeft12: They are working along the argument that there has to be supermajority or total agreement on a policy to enact it. That’s an argument people make when they are in the severe minority.
They basically want to give their minority veto powers.