Is omicron leading us closer to herd immunity against COVID-19? Experts say it’s not likely that the highly transmissible variant – or any other variant – will lead to herd immunity.
Here’s why. https://t.co/AGnmKINS1y
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 23, 2022
“People are just over it. They’re tired of it.” The vaccination drive against COVID-19 in the U.S. is grinding to a halt. Lagging demand is stark in conservative areas of the nation where many people weren't interested in the shots in the beginning. https://t.co/qtUxZimSlX
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 23, 2022
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Negotiations on new rules for dealing with pandemics will begin at the World Health Organization on Thursday, with a target date of May 2024 for a treaty to be adopted by the U.N. health agency's 194 member countries. https://t.co/BeJFNWgL2u
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 24, 2022
For the first time since the #COVID19 #pandemic began, supply of #vaccines now exceeds demand.https://t.co/sYbEZpQ9YE
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) February 23, 2022
What went wrong with Hong Kong's Covid plan? https://t.co/IXesADGJO3
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 23, 2022
Hong Kong’s coronavirus surge leaves the most vulnerable without a place to isolate https://t.co/UENBmQ32oZ
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 23, 2022
Hong Kong rolls out vaccine passport and tighter COVID measures https://t.co/EuEdSfbLPj pic.twitter.com/jtlwndd1Do
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 24, 2022
Further international coverage of parents and children being separated in Hong Kong under the city's strict isolation policies as coronavirus cases surge https://t.co/CIUm3QDmpC
— Jerome Taylor (@JeromeTaylor) February 24, 2022
The World Health Organization said on Wednesday it has set up a hub in South Korea to train low- and middle-income countries to produce their own vaccines and therapies, and is expanding its COVID-19 vaccine project to a further five nations. https://t.co/PNeZ8eqvmx
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 23, 2022
Thailand reports record 23,557 new coronavirus cases https://t.co/jhvyZQ36qZ pic.twitter.com/x7AmQDTKIa
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 24, 2022
COVID surges in New Zealand, protesters against mandates chase away Ardern https://t.co/h1QlixqSTB pic.twitter.com/Bd4H4dXB20
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 24, 2022
Romania will donate 1.1 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines to Pakistan, Bangladesh, Algeria and Libya, the health ministry said on Wednesday. https://t.co/wjknzkeEdB
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 23, 2022
Slovakia will lift most COVID-19 restrictions over the next month, beginning with loosening measures for the unvaccinated before cancelling crowd limits in a later phase, according to plans approved by the government on Wednesday. https://t.co/cszkHeGF4F
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 24, 2022
The Italian government will end the COVID-19 state of emergency on March 31, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Wednesday, promising a gradual return to normal after more than two years of the health crisis. https://t.co/9g9WwSXP4c
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 24, 2022
Two years after Italy’s first covid lockdown, bikers trace a nearly 50-mile route through the red zone https://t.co/pMorbV8NpD
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 23, 2022
A few weeks ago, Denmark became the first major country to lift the last of its COVID-19 restrictions. Now, they have more cases per capita than nearly anywhere else in the world, and both COVID hospitalizations and deaths have shot up by about a third.https://t.co/jzpx0mN3nJ
— Kim Siever (@kim_siever) February 22, 2022
As we know from the US example, it's not just merely vaccines but *vaccination* that helps save lives.
Vaccination requires supply, yes, but also logistics, resources, *trust* and follow-up. It would be a shame to forget this as we transition out of the vaccine scarcity phase.— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) February 23, 2022
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on Wednesday that the Caribbean was falling behind in its effort to fight COVID-19 as only 63% of its eligible population was vaccinated and large regional discrepancies persist. https://t.co/VrPR0L4C5n
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 24, 2022
AstraZeneca plc signed an agreement with Canada for 100,000 doses of its antibody therapy for prevention of COVID-19 in some high-risk patients, the country's government said on Wednesday. https://t.co/NG4LgmctoL
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 23, 2022
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A new Covid vaccine has shown 100% efficacy against severe disease & hospitalizations. Vax is made by the European-based companies Sanofi & GSK, which got billions of development dollars from Operation Warp Speed, the Trump program to speed vax development https://t.co/xi1q5Od6xD
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 23, 2022
Two doses of a new Covid vaccine that is based on a conventional approach achieved 100 percent efficacy against severe disease and hospitalizations, and it could be an effective booster after other Covid shots, the vaccine’s manufacturers announced on Wednesday…
The new vaccine had an efficacy of 75 percent against moderate-to-severe disease. It showed 58 percent efficacy against symptomatic disease in its Phase 3 clinical trial. Although that number is lower than was observed for the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in their initial trials, it is “in line with expected vaccine effectiveness in today’s environment dominated by variants of concern,” Sanofi and GSK said in a statement. The number of infections observed in the trial was small, however, and the efficacy may have been lower in a bigger trial.
Used as a booster dose after one of the other available coronavirus vaccines, the Sanofi-GSK shot increased antibody levels by 18- to 30-fold. The companies intend to submit the vaccine for authorization to regulatory authorities in the United States and Europe, they said on Wednesday…
In laboratory studies, two doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine stimulated the production of more neutralizing antibodies than an approved mRNA vaccine, according to the companies. The data have not yet been published. The vaccine was safe and well-tolerated by adults of all ages, the companies said…
Hopkins researchers have found that remdesivir improved clinical outcomes and reduced mortality for COVID-19 patients.https://t.co/lasWRgxu9U
— Johns Hopkins University (@JohnsHopkins) February 23, 2022
U.S. FDA limits use of GlaxoSmithKline-Vir COVID-19 drug https://t.co/aX2usls6nW pic.twitter.com/ERQiHYmC91
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 23, 2022
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and Vir Biotech’s (VIR.O) COVID-19 antibody treatment should not be used in places with circulation of variants that are not susceptible to the drug.
Vir has said the drug, sotrovimab, retains neutralizing activity against the emerging BA.2 form of the Omicron coronavirus variant…
The GSK-Vir drug is one of the few COVID-19 treatments shown to have worked against the original Omicron variant, spurring demand.
The United States had briefly paused the distribution of other antibody drugs from Regeneron (REGN.O) and Eli Lilly (LLY.N) over concerns they do not work against Omicron.
COVID raises risk of mental health problems; new Omicron version not making people sicker in S. Africa https://t.co/SdaQI59zIC pic.twitter.com/fwlOQouJyQ
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 23, 2022
U.S. pregnancy deaths show outsized toll on Black women in pandemic's first year, report shows https://t.co/kGolUmrjfA pic.twitter.com/OKoSTEgjTb
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 24, 2022
Covid shots are an unlikely cause of a rare inflammatory disorder in kids, according to new research. Condition is multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children —MIS-C, a post-Covid disorder. Some speculated Covid shots might cause it. Data says 'no' https://t.co/6pNNhFwnZt
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 23, 2022
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Masks are coming off in blue states. Some say it’s long overdue.
Others worry that political pressure to return to normal is endangering the immunocompromised, elderly and young children not yet eligible for vaccines. https://t.co/OmbYshy71h
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 23, 2022
Google allows Bay Area employees to work from office, eases COVID-19 norms https://t.co/LoE5VyLYwd pic.twitter.com/IY8JoTweDB
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 24, 2022
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
131 new cases as of 2/23
I don’t know if this is the start of a trend up again, or an anomaly because of the Monday holiday this week.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 31,199 new Covid-19 cases yesterday in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 3,305,157 cases. It also reported 55 deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 32,488 deaths – 0.98% of the cumulative reported total, 1.07% of resolved cases.
Malaysia’s nationwide Rt stands at 1.13.
118 confirmed cases are in ICU, 72 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 20,399 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 2,994,840 patients recovered – 90.6% of the cumulative reported total.
14 new clusters were reported yesterday, for a cumulative total of 6,746 clusters. 506 clusters are currently active; 6,240 clusters are now inactive.
31,080 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. 119 new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 143,749 doses of vaccine on 23rd February: 47,876 first doses, 493 second doses, and 95,380 booster doses. The cumulative total is 66,589,636 doses administered: 26,776,288 first doses, 25,745,542 second doses, and 14,274,843 booster doses. 82.0% of the population have received their first dose, 78.8% their second dose, and 43.7% their booster dose.
germy
An eye doctor in Saratoga Springs is suing a butcher shop for asking him to wear a mask in the store:
https://wnyt.com/saratoga-county-ny-news/doctor-sues-saratoga-springs-butcher-shop-over-mask-mandate/6402919/?cat=10114
https://dailygazette.com/2022/02/24/mask-less-amsterdam-doctor-sues-wilton-butcher-for-refusing-to-sell-him-a-steak/
The “doctor” walked out in the middle of interviews with both news outlets. The first link (wnyt) has video of an interview he consented to (he runs a lasik eye surgery business in a strip mall).
The lawsuit claims the butcher conspired with the state of NY. The “doctor” also claims masks are harmful.
YY_Sima Qian
On 2/23 Mainland China reported 85 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 24 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangdong Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. As the province does not breakdown recoveries between domestic & imported cases, I cannot track the count of active cases in parts of the province.
Guangxi “Autonomous” Region reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases, all at Fangchenggang, all found via regular mass screening of all residents in villages on the border w/ Vietnam. 10 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 214 active domestic confirmed cases in the province (210 at Baise, 3 at Fangchenggang & 1 at Nanning). The High Risk village in Baise has been re-designated to Low Risk, as have 4 villages, 1 residential compound, & a hotel that were at Medium Risk. 2 villages, 1 residential compound & 1 business at Baise remain at Medium Risk.
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 40 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 282 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
At Tianjin Municipality there currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases remaining.
Liaoning Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed cases. There currently are 168 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Shandong Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the province (1 each at Jinan & Qingdao).
Shanxi Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases, 1 at Jinzhong (a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine) & Xizhou (a person recently returned from Hohhot in Inner Mongolia). There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed case remaining in the province (6 at Jinzhong & 1 at Xizhou), part of the transmission chain spreading from Hohhot in Inner Mongolia.
At Hebei Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Shijiazhuang, a traced close contact of domestic positive case reported by Wuhan in Hubei. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed (all at Hengshui) & 1 active asymptomatic (at Shijiazhuang) cases remaining in the province.
Heilongjiang Province reported 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 4 at Heihe (all from regular screening of persons in high risk occupations) & 1 at Jixi (a traced close contact already under centralized quarantine). 7 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed (6 at Mudanjiang & 3 at Jixi) & 31 active domestic asymptomatic (11 at Heihe, 14 at Mudanjiang, 3 at Qiqihar & 3 at Jixi) cases in the province. 2 residential compounds & a hospital at Jixi are currently at Medium Risk. 2 residential buildings at Heihe remain at Medium Risk.
Chengmai County in Hainan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic case there, a person recently arriving from Jixi in Heilongjiang.
At Shanghai Municipality there currently are 3 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Hubei Province reported 10 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Wuhan, all are participants in the super spreading business meeting/training event or their close contacts, all already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 19 active domestic confirmed (14 mild & 5 moderate, all at Wuhan) & 7 active domestic asymptomatic (6 at Wuhan & 1 at Huanggang) cases in the province. 3 residential buildings have been elevated to Medium Risk (1 is ~ 500 m from where I live). 4 residential buildings & 1 hotel at Wuhan are currently at Medium Risk.
Beijing Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both mild), both are persons who traveled to Wuhan in Hubei for business meeting/training between 2/17 – 2/20 & returned on 2/20.
Jiangsu Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed & 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently is 110 active domestic confirmed & 42 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city.
Sichuan Province reported 6 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases There currently are 21 active domestic confirmed & 9 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
At Henan Province 2 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 17 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Yunnan Province reported 3 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 7 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 28 active domestic confirmed & 31 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the province.
The Beijing Para-Olympic “Closed Loop” did not reported any new positive cases.
Imported Cases
On 2/23, Mainland China reported 101 new imported confirmed cases (9 previously asymptomatic), 88 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 48 confirmed cases recovered (35 imported), 28 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (21 imported) & 13 were reclassified as confirmed cases (9 imported), & 1,263 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 2,098 active confirmed cases in the country (1,086 imported), 18 in serious condition (2 imported), 744 active asymptomatic cases (633 imported), 0 suspect cases. 49,711 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 2/23, 3,101.76M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 5.993M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 2/24, Hong Kong reported 8,798 new positive cases (3 imported & 8,795 domestic), 50 deaths (8 fully vaccinated).
On 2/24, Taiwan reported 80 new positive cases, 73 imported & 7 domestic.
lowtechcyclist
Tired of what?? Tired of people telling them they should get vaccinated? Oh dearie me, the poor snowflakes. Since they live in red areas, it’s not like they have to contend with any actual restrictions.
Fuck ’em. Just fuck ’em. Worthless shits.
dr. bloor
@germy:
That should do wonders for his online patient reviews.
germy
@dr. bloor:
Out of curiosity I checked his most recent google reviews. Some of them are hilarious.
Baud
@germy:
Someone wants to move to Florida.
germy
@Baud:
Upstate NY is Florida. The weather’s just colder.
Baud
@germy:
Businesses also have more freedom in NY.
p.a.
Denmark drops restrictions, infections ^^^. But that’s one policy American RedStaters are in agreement from ‘S○cialist?’ Danes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Found out one of my fellow photographers that I shot with quite a bit last year has the ‘rona. He’s vaxed but not boosted. Said he was coughing a lot causing sore ribs, general body aches and fatigue.
Matt McIrvin
In the simplest, most naive sense, we’re probably at “herd immunity” now in much of the US–so many people have gotten Omicron that they have short-term antibody resistance and the average infected person infects fewer than 1 person, so the wave is receding.
But it won’t last. Those antibodies will wane, new variants will arise and there will be other waves. And anyone who isn’t vaccinated will be at risk of getting very, very sick.
On the bright side, as Eric Topol said, it probably takes fewer shots for a person who has gotten infected to have strong long-term protection against severe disease. So that does make the job of vaccination programs a bit easier.
New Deal democrat
Problems continue with 91-Divoc, so the following data is from the NYT.
Cases in the US declined to 78,400, a drop of over 90% from peak, but about 5,000 above the post-Delta trough. Deaths declined very slightly to 1900 (previous several days were revised upward), a 25% decline from their peak. The peaking process in deaths was more extended on the upside as well as the downside, probably due to the gradual tailing off of deaths from Delta until several weeks ago. In any event, deaths appear to be lagging cases by 3.5 weeks as of now. *If* they decline 90% from peak, that would mean only about 250 deaths a day by the start of spring.
Cases continued to decline in all 50 States plus DC and PR, with the exceptions of SD and ME. ME may have hit its peak about 3 days ago. The rate of decline in a number of States has decelerated to 10% to 20% in the last week.
A very few States – IL, OH, MD, DE, and NY – have broken through their entire Delta and Omicron ranges and are back down to their summer and autumn 2020 and spring and summer 2021 ranges. But no jurisdiction is anywhere near their June 2021 lows. It would take at minimum three more weeks of 40% declines for that to happen, even in the best jurisdictions.
New Deal democrat
@Matt McIrvin: I agree with your take. I would only add that future waves are likely to be progressively less lethal, as an increasing % of humanity develops resistance or immunity to infection.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: Large parts of Massachusetts are now at the level of early August 2021, when Delta was just starting to pop up here–but on the way down rather than up.
The main exceptions are Boston, where case rates are just a bit higher, and the less urban areas of western MA, which seem to be coming down slower.
For some reason the decline has been particularly pronounced here in Essex County, which was hit very hard by the Omicron wave though not as hard as Boston. We now have one of the lowest case rate and wastewater virus levels in the state. I’m not sure exactly why that is but it’s welcome.
It’s particularly striking given that all of New Hampshire, including the bit that is right next door, seems to be more on the western MA schedule (I’d say it was characteristic of somewhat lower vaccination rates, but the difference from here just isn’t that large).
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat: Well, we keep making new people, so pediatric vaccination is always going to be important and the question of whether we can vaccinate the really little ones as part of the schedule of toddler vaccinations remains. On the bright side, after several years we will probably get to the point where almost no unvaccinated senior citizens are getting infected for the first time, which will bring the death rate down
Something that really doesn’t come across in news stories is that while younger people do get debilitated or die of this, the risk of the very worst outcomes is still really overwhelmingly concentrated among people who are both unvaccinated and old. The deaths are nearly all from that group. I know a lot of people who have gotten COVID, but the one I knew who died was very much in that group.
Matt McIrvin
@New Deal democrat:
It looks to me like the Portland, ME area is coming down off a relatively typical Omicron wave (for the Northeast, at least, where Omicron followed closely on Delta and there was no real lull in between), but the more rural areas of Maine are having a more drawn-out, jagged wave and some areas are still on the way up. Lower population density has a curve-flattening effect but it still comes through eventually, and vaccination is lower in these places. They also may not be done with Delta yet.
Ken
“I don’t care what the chief inspector says. There’s a definite pattern here.” — Inspector Trout in The Abominable Dr. Phibes, after four doctors have been killed in gruesomely bizarre ways
Soprano2
We’re down to a 7-day average of 64, which lower than it’s been since December, but we’re a long way from our historic low of 16 in May 2021. Hospitalizations are down to 111. I look at the 75 deaths from December, January and February and just shake my head, because most of those deaths were avoidable. We’re still pathetic on vaccination, at 53.51%. The only encouraging thing is that the number of people with at least one shot is still going up, but slowly. Maybe we’ll be at 60% with two shots by the summer.
Wvng
@lowtechcyclist: I talked to a respiratory therapist yesterday who works at the large hospital in Harrisonburg, VA. She’s been on the covid frontlines from the beginning. Their caseload is much smaller now, so they are getting a break, for how long no one knows. They just sent their last intubated patient, 70 years old two months in ICU, to the morgue. She has lost “friends” because they don’t believe her when she says how bad its been. She has lost friends when she pleaded with them to get vaccinated or, if vaccinated, boosted. I ache for all the health care workers who have been in these impossible situations.
Robert Sneddon
@Matt McIrvin:
National Records of Scotland publishes a report on Wednesdays about the COVID-19 recorded on death certificates over the previous week, Monday to Sunday. Here’s what they had to say yesterday (23rd Feb):
It’s clear from the death certificate data that older people are the ones who are most at risk of dying from (or with) this disease. This isn’t surprising, really.
Ohio Mom
Our numbers here in southwest Ohio are still on a downward trend, though the rate is beginning to slow down. Still not where we were in the halcyon days of early last summer.
But knowing I am fully vaccinated is very freeing. I didn’t know how anxious I was every time I left the house until I wasn’t.
In other news, saw my first robin of the spring when I went down the driveway for the paper. Woot!
Matt McIrvin
@Robert Sneddon: Since many old people took this to heart and they are also overwhelmingly the most likely to be vaccinated, this also means that any field data on vaccine effectiveness needs to be age-adjusted to say anything useful about how much a vaccine will help you.
I recall that Israeli study from, I think, the Delta era that came up with shockingly low VE numbers over the whole population, but within every single age group it was much higher–the low overall VE was a statistical illusion caused by vaccinated people being older on average.
Fair Economist
@Matt McIrvin: Not my experience. I know 2 who died; one was late 60’s with heart disease but the other was early 50’s with no significant medical conditions.
VOR
@Fair Economist: A second cousin died last fall from COVID. Her husband and young adult daughter were also seriously ill. The cousin’s Facebook page was full of anti-vax, anti-mask memes. Two days after her mom dies, the adult daughter posted anti-mask stuff. So no lesson learned.
J R in WV
@VOR:
Having spent most of a week in and around the hospital with Wife, I can tell you even people with a family member in the hospital have distorted and wrong ideas about Covid, masks, vaccinations, etc.
But the vast majority of workers were well informed, vaccinated, mask wearers, in order to stay alive.
I did work with a well driller pump installer unmasked to pull the dead pump and install a new one, but we were outdoors in the high winds, and so far no sign of illness. Plus we have running water again, hurray !!! One of those things you take for granted until you don’t have it for a week!