What is the state of COVID-19 in America? @DrLaPook speaks with scientists to learn where we stand in containing the coronavirus and if the country can start finding a new sense of normal, Sunday. https://t.co/QZZ5KWwP8R pic.twitter.com/GK2IAC5RFk
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) March 5, 2022
In early May 2020 I was asked by neighbors who knew I was an epidemiologist what I thought was going to happen. I said this would probably last years and would change the world as we knew it. They never asked me again. They wanted it over in weeks. That’s how denial works.
— Diego Bassani, PhD (@DGBassani) March 6, 2022
It's too early to declare SARSCoV2 an endemic virus. We are still deeply in the pandemic phase no matter how many governments tell people to ditch their masks. Now is the time to build better public health infrastructure ↓ https://t.co/r32lypFfL1
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 6, 2022
The lessons learned from 1918 flu fatigue, according to historianshttps://t.co/fI0V11MSW6
— Global Health Observ (@GlobalPHObserv) March 5, 2022
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It has happened before with TB, malaria and AIDS
The Global North will 'move on' and the Global South will be left to deal with an 'endemic' killer infection@NASAdoc @Boghuma @Fredros_Inc & I wrote our first piece @TheAtlantic https://t.co/KkPDF85RfL pic.twitter.com/AZFlqM1S5s
— Madhu Pai, MD, PhD (@paimadhu) March 4, 2022
Chinese city of Qingdao reports Omicron outbreak among students https://t.co/2i3V56RhG4 pic.twitter.com/lJk0z2jqtk
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 6, 2022
Hong Kong residents urged not to panic ahead of COVID mass testing https://t.co/3UReTZwv1U pic.twitter.com/2DNqZnj43b
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 6, 2022
Hong Kong reported 31,008 new COVID-19 cases and 153 deaths on Sunday as the city’s chief secretary said residents should not worry about a looming mass testing scheme, with details to be announced and authorities ensuring a steady supply of food.
The global financial hub is clinging to a “dynamic zero” coronavirus strategy as a massive spike in infections pushed hospitals, isolation centres and funeral parlours beyond capacity. Health experts said around 15% of the city’s 7.4 million residents are already infected…
As infections and deaths hit record highs, Hong Kong has implemented its most draconian restrictions, with restrictions on public gatherings of more than two people, most venues closed and flights banned into the city from countries including the United States and Britain…
The former British colony has had more than 470,000 COVID infections. Most of the roughly 1,800 deaths have been in the past two weeks, many of them unvaccinated elderly residents as infections have spread in hundreds of nursing homes.
The surge in infections has crippled manpower in the healthcare system, for public transport, mall operators as well as postal services, supermarkets and pharmacies…
Hong Kong reported 37,529 new coronavirus infections on Saturday and 150 deaths, as the city clings to a "zero-COVID" strategy despite spiralling cases that have spread through care homes and overwhelmed healthcare facilities. https://t.co/dnEotv2P5p
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) March 5, 2022
HK’s Covid death rate is among the world’s highest
Over half (>680 out of 1341) of the recent deaths are elderly in care homes, many unvaccinated, fuelled by fear of side effects, objection by family members & mistrust in govt @primroseriordan @imandylin2 https://t.co/qTMF2jcaAN
— Chan Ho-him (@ThomasHHChan) March 5, 2022
… After two years of keeping coronavirus at bay, some Hong Kong residents were lulled into complacency, many were suspicious of government vaccination campaigns after pro-democracy protests were crushed while others were confused by conflicting advice.
But the Omicron variant has ripped through the Asian financial hub and the elderly are at the highest risk of death.
Infectious disease experts have criticised the government and parts of the media for spooking Hong Kong’s elderly with scare stories but have warned that even if pensioners get inoculated immediately, it may be too late to slow the number of deaths…
“The Hong Kong government probably made a mistake in its early vaccination strategy . . . officials at that time suggested [elderly people] who suffered from chronic illnesses to consult a doctor first and wait till their illnesses stabilised before they get the shot,” David Hui, a respiratory disease expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a government adviser, told the Financial Times.
“This created the misconception among many that, if they have [chronic illnesses], they should postpone getting vaccinated.”
Local media amplified the fears and as recently as last month were publishing sensationalist reports about people who had died from unrelated causes after taking the vaccine.
Many elderly people were initially advised by doctors to avoid getting the jab, according to Stephanie Law, a managing director of Culture Homes, a nursing home group. “The doctors were quite concerned they would be responsible for any consequences,” Law added.
An opt-in policy, that has since been reversed, for the vaccine in nursing homes made matters worse, while the requirement that family members consent to a jab accentuated the problem. “Their relatives also bear some responsibility,” said Ivan Hung, a government pandemic adviser and infectious disease professor at HKU.
More than 750 care homes are battling outbreaks but vaccine outreach programmes have been suspended because of strict protocols for medical staff administering the shots. Some nursing home staff are working while sick and many homes do not have the room to isolate sick residents, stoking the virus’s spread…
Another factor that health officials will struggle to overcome is a deep distrust of government, which has worsened since the introduction of a draconian national security law in 2020 to stifle dissent.
Sit Pui-yu, whose mother died during the Sars epidemic that claimed 299 lives in Hong Kong in 2003, lives alone in a public housing apartment in Kowloon. The 71-year-old fears catching the virus but believes officials are “whitewashing” concerns about the vaccine.
“Even if every single person in Hong Kong is vaccinated, I will not get jabbed,” he insisted. “Why should I kowtow to the government?”
Taiwan is easing mask mandates & lifting other Covid precautions on Monday https://t.co/MPbSjD2ulD pic.twitter.com/OvpLinpzj1
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 6, 2022
Long covid, but for geopolitics:
U.S. intelligence experts say Putin's 2 years of extreme pandemic isolation may be a factor in his wartime mindset. They're also debating whether his ambitions & appetite for risk have been altered by his extended time in a Covid bubble https://t.co/3fhNARym9q
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 5, 2022
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This *excellent* article came out at the beginning of February, but I never did find the right time & space to give it the post it deserved. Belatedly, “Meet the scientist at the center of the covid lab leak controversy”:
Shi Zhengli has spent years at the Wuhan Institute of Virology researching coronaviruses that live in bats. Her work has come under fire as the world tries to understand where covid-19 came from. https://t.co/g0CbIoQur8
— MIT Technology Review (@techreview) March 3, 2022
… The [Wuhan Institute of Virology] holds a critical place in the story of the covid-19 pandemic. A leading center for coronavirus research, it was the first facility to isolate the new virus, and the first to sequence its genome. One of its labs, led by virologist Shi Zhengli, focuses on coronaviruses that live in bats, and has spent years sequencing viral genomes, isolating live viruses, and—through genetic mixing and matching—trying to understand how they may evolve to gain the ability to infect humans. Over the past 18 years, her team has collected more than 20,000 samples from bat colonies across China.
Shi’s work, which has earned her the nickname China’s bat woman, has been at the center of controversy. Some have suggested that her bat samples could be the source of the covid-19 virus, which scientists call SARS-CoV-2. They have claimed that the virus could have hitched a ride to Wuhan by infecting one of her team members in their fieldwork collecting samples from bats. Or, some speculate, the live viruses her team cultured in the lab, including—more worryingly—the ones they created by genetic tinkering, could be the source of the pandemic…
As Shi showed me around her lab, she pointed to the deep freezers where the team kept tens of thousands of bat samples in chemical soups. She told me how virus-containing samples are kept frozen in the field, either on dry ice or in liquid nitrogen, before being transferred to dedicated, double-locked deep freezers in the Wuhan lab. Only designated personnel can access those samples; they need approval from two senior staff members, each of whom is in charge of a separate key to the two locks. All access to the samples is logged.
The core of her research over the past 18 years, she explained, has been to look for bat viruses that are closely related to SARS-CoV-1, and to understand how they could evolve new features that allow them to infect humans. She talked me through that process, which begins with testing each bat sample to see if it contains a coronavirus—using the same PCR-based technique as many covid-19 tests. All coronaviruses contain a gene that encodes an enzyme called RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, or RdRp, which helps viruses replicate by making more copies of their genomes. If the characteristic RdRp shows up in a bat sample, it’s a telltale sign that a coronavirus is present.
At first glance I was concerned by the sheer size of Shi’s collection of more than 20,000 bat samples. But she explained that on average only 10% contain coronaviruses, and only 10% of those are closely related to SARS-CoV-1: in all its years, the team has identified approximately 220 such viruses. The findings, say virologists such as Edward Holmes of the University of Sydney, have provided valuable insight into the evolutionary history of coronaviruses and the way they generate genetic variants.
Whenever the team found a bat relative of SARS-CoV-1, Shi says, she asked the same questions: How threatening is it to other animal species, including humans? What would it take for the virus to become one that, like SARS-CoV-1, can cause major epidemics?…
And the team keeps doing that work. The pandemic has lent extra urgency to one aspect of its research: determining the exposure risks that rural people face. In previous studies, Shi and her colleagues found that up to 4% of people living close to bats and working closely with wildlife in southern China were infected with dangerous animal-borne viruses, including coronaviruses; the infection rate was 9% among butchers. The Laotian and French team that discovered close relatives of SARS-CoV-2 found that one in five people who’d had direct contact with bats and other wildlife had coronavirus antibodies.
Such findings suggest that viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 might be spreading over a massive geographic range, stretching at least 3,000 miles from Japan to Cambodia. A combination of population growth, wildlife trade, rampant deforestation, and improved transportation in those places has made it increasingly easily for animal pathogens to cross over to humans.
Robertson, the University of Glasgow virologist, says this is a clear and immediate threat: “It’s quite terrifying, really, to think how we can fuck this up by not finding out where [those viruses] are and risk more spillover.”…
Grantee @janeqiuchina was interviewed by @bbcworldservice for her recent story on Shi Zhengli, China's "bat woman" who studies coronaviruses at Wuhan Institute of Technology. Listen to the conversation on Science in Action: https://t.co/DPTF3YWwYN
— Pulitzer Center (@pulitzercenter) March 5, 2022
This is a classical example of how ignorant and toxic the lab leak discussion is online.
Act 1:
You have a renowned science journalist doing all the hard work to investigate, research, track down scientists to interview and then writes her own independent article. https://t.co/ui5VBl8crw— Philipp Markolin, PhD (@PhilippMarkolin) February 12, 2022
Act 3:
Lab leak LARPers swarm in and baselessly insinuate that it is a 'puff piece' because the author is 'bought off by the CCP' and her article is truly a conspiracy and its message were dictated by the CCP. These trolls just make nonsense up on the fly. Influencer buys it. pic.twitter.com/nGc2sGsGSj— Philipp Markolin, PhD (@PhilippMarkolin) February 12, 2022
to debunk conspiracies about her article and ad hominems directed at her for the foreseeable future.
This is not only unnecessary but also emotionally draining and serves as a deterrent for others who want to 'stick with the science' and not strategically navigate online hate
— Philipp Markolin, PhD (@PhilippMarkolin) February 12, 2022
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Blood type & other blood proteins implicated in Covid severity. Genomic analysis produces a "shortlist" of causative factors involving who gets severe disease https://t.co/QdkJVoiqoW pic.twitter.com/rI01QU8qUG
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) March 3, 2022
Eleven blood markers, including the ABO protein that determines blood group, were implicated in severe COVID outcomes in a genomic analysis of clinical data.
After examining more than 3,000 blood proteins against those found in hospitalized and severe COVID cases, six proteins had a causal link with increased risk of hospitalization and five proteins were linked to COVID-related need for respiratory support, death, or both, with odds ratios ranging from 1.12 to 1.35.
Another 17 blood proteins had a causal association with reduced risk of severe COVID, reported Alish Palmos, PhD, of King’s College London, and colleagues in PLoS Genetics…
Specifically, they highlighted that the ABO protein was implicated in severe COVID, which suggests that blood groups play a key role in people developing severe disease.
“Our study does not link precise blood group with risk of severe COVID-19 but since previous research has found that proportion of people who are group A is higher in COVID-19 positive individuals, this suggests that blood group A is a more likely candidate for follow-up studies,” said co-author Christopher Hübel, PhD, also of King’s College London, in a statement…
Palmos’ group identified six blood markers that were “significantly casually associated” with COVID-related hospitalization, with an increase in odds of hospitalization ranging from 7% to 19%, the authors wrote. Notably, fatty acid hydrolase 2 (FAAH2) had the strongest association (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.12-1.25).
Five proteins were linked to an increased need for respiratory support, death from COVID, or both, with an increase in odds of severe outcomes ranging from 12% to 35%. Glucosaminyl (N-Acetyl) transferase 4 (GCNT4) had the strongest association (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.26-1.44).
The authors also identified nine proteins linked to a relative 7% to 20% decreased risk of COVID-related hospitalization. Likewise, eight blood markers were associated with a lower risk of severe COVID, ranging from an 11% to 27% decrease. In both instances, the strongest association was for platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule (PECAM-1, OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.73-0.87 and OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.63-0.83, respectively)…
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We don’t need any more commentators agonizing over why people are still (!!) wearing masks.
It’s to avoid getting sick.
Even if I’m 99.9% sure I’ll survive (not everyone is!), maybe I don’t wanna get sick? Or make others sick?
Not wanting to get sick is actually very normal!
— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) March 5, 2022
I understand that some people will be very offended by my decision to withhold from them my wet exhalations and an unhindered view of my nostrils and mouth but as a personal preference I’d rather avoid respiratory infections than welcome every stranger to get all up in my airways
— Katie Mack (@AstroKatie) March 6, 2022
A new analysis by @nycHealthy & @Yale has produced a mind-blowing graph.
The green line is actual # of deaths from covid in NYC. Purple line is the # of deaths that would have occurred without vaccines.
Approx 48,000 lives saved in our city. Stunning. pic.twitter.com/LPF0YuR7Jx
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) March 4, 2022
I've been thinking a lot lately about what a difference it might have made if we'd had capable leaders tell the public the truth about pandemics from the beginning. Nothing gets to be normal, they average 2 years (so many are longer!), they are traumatic, & there's no going back.
— Laura Seay (@texasinafrica) February 12, 2022
At a pre-shutdown faculty meeting, I explained that at the then-current rate of spread, we could see 1.5-2 million people infected in a matter of weeks, & that 1% of those could die. I know most of the room thought I was exaggerating. Traumatic realities are hard to absorb.
Students brought up Covid in our current events time that whole semester. I tried to gently prepare them for how bad it could get. One complained to my chair after I told them that most of us would likely know someone who became seriously ill or died of covid before it ended.
(I was not reprimanded; my chair saw it as a matter of academic freedom. But he definitely didn’t believe me.)
Traumatic events produce a whole range of psychological responses. Denial is a big one. So are growing anxiety, depression, & fatalism. Hope is in short supply right now.
I think about my cousin who is afraid to vaccinate her family. They are watching her father-in-law choke to death from covid after 3 months in the hospital. They trust conservative media. It lied to them. Will this change their views? Not if the messages they hear don’t change.
I don’t know if preparing people for the worst would have worked at the time. Inconceivable future events are, well, inconceivable. But it wouldn’t likely have been as bad as the mess we’re in now, created by poor leadership & failures at every turn…
New Deal democrat
As usual, many States did not report yesterday. But nationwide, cases declined to 48,000. This is a decline of 94% from peak, and lower than 16 of the last 24 months.
Deaths declined to 1425. Deaths are now down 45% from peak, and over 33% in the last two weeks alone. This is mainly because the South has finally started to decline sharply. If this continues, and deaths also decline 94% from their Omicron peak, in a month we could be down to as few as 150 deaths – which would be the lowest since the pandemic began.
On a side note, this week the CDC vaccination site calculated that finally over 75% of all adults have had at least two doses of the vaccine. But children ages 5-17 lag far behind.
NeenerNeener
I had a 4th Funky Cold Moderna shot yesterday, booster strength. It was a rough night, with a headache and dizziness every time I got up. I should be feeling normal again by tomorrow, just like the last 3 shots. I don’t know if it will help ward off Omicron, but it’s worth a try.
Baud
@New Deal democrat:
Oh wow. Glad to see that creeping up.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 33,406 new Covid-19 cases yesterday in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 3,595,172 cases. It also reported 67 deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 33,173 deaths – 0.92% of the cumulative reported total, 1.01% of resolved cases.
Malaysia’s nationwide Rt stands at 1.05.
131 confirmed cases are in ICU, 74 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 27,143 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 3,250,793 patients recovered – 90.4% of the cumulative reported total.
11 new clusters were reported yesterday, for a cumulative total of 6,837 clusters. 474 clusters are currently active; 6,363 clusters are now inactive.
33,064 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. 342 new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 68,081 doses of vaccine on 5th March: 29,714 first doses, 903 second doses, and 37,464 booster doses. The cumulative total is 67,672,349 doses administered: 27,137,958 first doses, 25,757,844 second doses, and 14,984,241 booster doses. 83.1% of the population have received their first dose, 78.9% their second dose, and 45.9% their booster dose.
YY_Sima Qian
On 3/5 Mainland China reported 175 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic), 127 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Guangdong Province reported 20 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 33 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 5 new domestic confirmed (all at Baise, all mild) & 7 new domestic asymptomatic (6 at Fangchenggang & 1 at Baise) cases. The new domestic positive cases at Fangchenggang are all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine, & the new domestic positive cases at Baise are all found via regular screening of residents in border villages. 8 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 147 active domestic confirmed (96 at Baise, 50 at Fangchenggang & 1 at Nanning) & 23 active domestic asymptomatic cases (21 at Fangchenggang & 2 at Baise) in the province. 1 zone at Fangchenggang has been elevated to Medium Risk. 2 zones at Fangchenggang are currently at Medium Risk.
Hunan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (mild), at Huaihua, a passenger on a train to Guangzhou in Guangdong. The case had been tested elsewhere as part of mass screening campaign, when the case’s batch of 10 tested positive the case was traced to the train & was taken off at the nearest stop (which is Huaihua) for testing. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the province (1 each at Huaihua & Shaoyang).
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 8 new domestic confirmed cases. 33 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 284 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Tianjin Municipality reported 3 new domestic confirmed cases (all mild), all traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 24 active domestic confirmed cases (18 mild & 7 moderate) in the city. 1 massage parlor is currently at High Risk.
Shandong Province reported 5 new domestic confirmed cases (all mild), all at Qingdao, 2 are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine & 3 found at fever clinics (all students at a middle school). There currently are 11 active domestic confirmed cases (all at Qingdao) & 1 active asymptomatic (at Yantai) cases in the province. 1 middle school at Qingdao has been elevated to High Risk. 1 residential compound at Qingdao is currently Medium Risk.
Shanxi Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (previously asymptomatic). There currently are 19 active domestic confirmed cases in the province, all part of the transmission chain spreading from Hohhot in Inner Mongolia.
Hebei Province reported 6 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases. (all mild), 4 at Xingtai & 1 at Shijiazhuang. There currently are 12 active domestic confirmed & 2 active asymptomatic case (at Shijiazhuang) in the province.
At Huludao in Liaoning Province 16 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 174 active domestic confirmed cases in the city (all presumed Delta). 1 village at Suizhong County is currently at High Risk.
Heilongjiang Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There currently are 24 active domestic confirmed& 46 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jilin Province reported 19 new domestic confirmed (all mild) & 24 new domestic asymptomatic cases. There currently are 31 active domestic confirmed & 46 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Hainan Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases (both mild), both at Sanya, both guests at the hotel w/ previously reported domestic confirmed case, which is already in lock down. There currently are 3 active confirmed (all at Sanya) & 2 active domestic asymptomatic (1 each at Sanya & Chengmai County) cases in the province.
Shanghai Municipality reported 28 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 22 are traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine & 6 are quarantine hotel workers found via daily screening. There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed & 73 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 1 residential building has been elevated to Medium Risk. An activity center, a residential building & a supermarket are currently at Medium Risk.
Hubei Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (moderate) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both at Wuhan, both traced close contacts already under centralized quarantine. There currently are 37 active domestic confirmed (28 mild & 9 moderate, all at Wuhan) & 9 active domestic asymptomatic (8 at Wuhan & 1 at Huanggang) cases in the province. 4 residential buildings & 1 hotel at Wuhan are currently at Medium Risk.
Jiangsu Province reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case. 6 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 57 active domestic confirmed & 24 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed cases in the city, both at Cangnan County.
Sichuan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed case (previously asymptomatic). There currently are 37 active domestic confirmed & 12 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
At Xiamen in Fujian Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case in the city, a person who entered centralized quarantine to care for in under aged child arriving from overseas.
At Henan Province the last 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered.
Yunnan Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 8 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 52 active domestic confirmed & 127 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the province.
Imported Cases
On 3/5, Mainland China reported 154 new imported confirmed cases (15 previously asymptomatic, 8 in Guangdong), 82 imported asymptomatic cases, 2 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 103 confirmed cases recovered (39 imported), 28 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (25 imported) & 25 were reclassified as confirmed cases (16 imported), & 5,496 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 3,691 active confirmed cases in the country (2,281 imported), 14 in serious condition (3 imported), 1,500 active asymptomatic cases (1,049 imported), 9 suspect cases (all imported). 97,387 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 3/5, 3,156.899M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 4.48M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 3/6, Hong Kong reported 31,008 new positive cases (2 imported & 31,006 domestic), 153 deaths.
On 3/6, Taiwan reported 43 new positive cases, 40 imported & 3 domestic.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: All the way to 34% here in Washington County.
ETA: The winner is Pulaski Co. home of Fort LostInTheWoods w/21%,
Peale
There wasn’t COVID when he bombed Grozny. Wasn’t COVID when he bombed Aleppo. So…COVID isolation made him do it this time. Sure. Sure.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
The people there must own a lot of libs.
germy
YY_Sima Qian
The Qingdao municipal authorities believe that the new middle schools outbreak is caused by fomite transmission via parcels shipped from other areas in China w/ active Omicron BA.2 outbreaks, although phylogenetic analysis does not yet show a high degree of matching w/ sequences form other recent or ongoing Omicron outbreaks in China. I never believed that Chinese regional authorities are just blaming the foreigners when they have been assigning causes to some of the domestic outbreaks to fomite transmission via parcels or frozen foods from overseas. Authorities have only done so when mass screenings & extensive contact tracing failed to uncover transmission chains that could have seeded new outbreaks, phylogenetic analysis does not show sufficient similarity w/ genetic sequences of other recent/ongoing domestic outbreaks in China, & that there are at least some circumstantial evidence of contaminated surfaces (such as packages testing positive). The causes of the majority of the domestic outbreaks remain unresolved, so fomite transmission from overseas is not a default crutch for Chinese regional authorities. Assigning cause to packages from another region in China, one recent/ongoing outbreak, is a very sensitive course of actions for any regional authority. That implies people should avoid purchasing goods from regions w/ ongoing outbreaks, much as they have been advised to take caution when purchasing goods from overseas. Unless there is solid evidence, there will be huge push back from regions “stand accused”, & the central government may have to weigh in to settle the dispute.
A post that is trending on Sina Weibo (Chinese counterpart to Twitter) shows health workers entering a residence of someone in centralized quarantine in Huizhou, Guangdong, to decontaminate the place. The person owns a dog, & the workers were supposed to take the animal to a shelter for the duration of the owner’s quarantine. However, the workers beat the dog to death instead. Well, the owner had installed surveillance cameras in the residence, & the heinous act was caught on video. One can imagine the backlash. The Weibo post by the owner was quickly deleted by the censors, but it was already re-tweeted 100K times. This is the 2nd time I am aware of that pets were killed while the owner was in centralized quarantine. There is no reason for it, there has never been any case reported in or out of China of transmission from cats/dogs to humans. Mind you, such actions are very rare, but it points to authorities in lower tier cities not really in tune w/ the relative new pet owning culture in China.
NorthLeft12
Thanks to Katie Mack and her tweets that simply lay out why she continues to mask.
I also don’t believe it is “inevitable” that “everyone” will get COVID at some point. That was the position of our local Public Health leader at the beginning of the Omicron wave.
I don’t want to catch it. I don’t want to spread it. I will do what I can within reason to stay COVID free. What is troubling to me is how desperate the pro-COVID crowd is to have their reckless views validated by everyone else. Deep down I think it drives them crazier to see people taking precautions that they don’t want to take, but know are effective.
BigHank53
They don’t care if the masks are effective or not. They just want the pandemic to GO AWAY, and not having to think about it is close enough for them.
Go back to the student who complained to her professor’s department chair about the professor’s expert opinion: it made her feel bad. Is there any right more important in the world than the right to not feel bad? It’s more important than free speech, or truth, or being informed, or democracy.
Your mask is a reminder that they might have to think about something, and they’re not willing to.
VOR
Back in early March 2020 a right wing relative was ranting about how remote learning was an overreaction. I did some basic math: assume 50% of the US gets infected, assume 5% of infected hospitalized and you need millions of beds. Assume 0.2% of infected die and you wind up at >300k dead. Which turns out to be way too low. Relative thought I was spreading fantasy but is total QAnon believer. Because that’s solidly grounded in the facts.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@NeenerNeener:
How long ago was your 3rd shot?
Mine was only 4 months ago, so I’m thinking it’s probably not time to get another booster yet. I’d prefer to wait until late summer or autumn, just so the booster is “fresh” for a late autumn/early winter holiday wave.
JMS
This NYT article takes a scolding “what’s wrong with you people” tone, but honestly, I had never heard of Evusheld. If it truly works as a 6 month preventative for immunocompromised people, would be a game changer for this population that otherwise is left behind as Covid restrictions go away. It’s understandable with so many vaccines and treatments out there that people can’t keep up, but I hope we hear more if it works, and it becomes easier to get!
I suppose it might shock and appall the regulars here, but we went to the supermarket yesterday and didn’t wear masks for the first time since last July. Our county is down to 30-40 cases a day (for a county of 830,000) and we are vaxxed and boosted. For someone like my daughter who is a supermarket cashier and sees customers for hours on end, masking still seems reasonable, but we felt no personal risk pushing a cart through the store for 30 minutes. Interestingly, about 2/3 of the other customers weren’t wearing masks, though the employees were about 2/3s masked. Our county is over 70% vaxxed and nearly everyone in my supermarket wore masks starting in March 2020 well before there were any mandates, so we’re talking about pretty cautious people. I think we’re good until there are signs of a new wave, which hopefully won’t be until next fall/winter.
New Deal democrat
Cases in the US declined to a new Omicron low of 30,400, a 15% decline from one week ago. Deaths declined to exactly 900. Aside from two days after Thanksgiving, this is the lowest since mid-July. Since cases are down 96%+ from peak, if deaths follow suit they will be down to about 100 in a month or so.
Watching the UK’s trajectory under BA.2, the weekly rate of increase decreased again, down to about 35%. I am expecting a peak there within about 2 weeks, now that BA.2 makes up nearly 100% of their cases.
Leaving aside NV’s data dump, the worst US State is ID at 32 cases per 100,000, followed by KY and AK at about 30, then VT, CO, and RI at about 20. All other States are below 20. The best State is KS at 2.5 cases per 100,000, followed by NE, SC, LA, SD, MS, and WY, all at 4 or less.
Jurisdictions with week over week increases increased to 11, and include NY, RI, MA, VT, NH, MI, HI, OK, and PR, as well as NV and KY with their data dump. CA and MD are flat.
The US is on the cusp of a temporary bottom. I expect it to occur in about a week. BA.2 probably accounts to 40% of all cases by now, the national rate of decline has slowed substantially, and the % of jurisdictions flat or increasing has increased to about 25%. At the same time, I only expect the BA.2 increase to last about a month and to be less severe than the UK’s.