Slightly more than two years after recording its first Covid-19 death, the U.S. is about to cross a once-unthinkable threshold: one million deaths attributed to the disease, according to the CDC.https://t.co/GkZA0PVA9S
— Dustin Volz (@dnvolz) April 25, 2022
White House officials say they're worried that the U.S. is losing out on critical opportunities to secure coronavirus vaccines and new antiviral pills that could help the country maintain its reemerging sense of normalcy two years into the pandemic. https://t.co/5Tw1DWLUJx
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 25, 2022
President Joe Biden's administration is aiming to expand access to COVID oral antiviral treatments like Pfizer’s Paxlovid by doubling the number of locations at which they are available, the White House said https://t.co/0LgNA6geSJ
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 26, 2022
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Beijing is enforcing mass testing and closing down access to neighborhoods as it seeks to contain a new COVID-19 outbreak. Despite the mandate, public transport is largely keeping to normal schedules and roads are packed with commuters in China's capital. https://t.co/1fLJbWrUir
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 26, 2022
In Beijing, residents have been clearing supermarket shelves as mass COVID testing began in the Chinese city's biggest district, prompting fears of a Shanghai-style lockdown https://t.co/WqxND1MtcR pic.twitter.com/6LvzTZHfyE
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 25, 2022
There are no plans to further relax any Covid-19 border controls and flight suspensions measures, Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said. #hongkong #covid19 pic.twitter.com/JjaeITnSLZ
— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) April 26, 2022
Thread, from a biostatistics professor at KU Leuven:
The BA.4 & BA.5 Omicron subvariant-driven increase of new confirmed Covid cases in South Africa gives a good idea of what the endemic equilibrium will look like: a significant wave every 6 months with significant mortality & morbidity. ? pic.twitter.com/I9jd5gMIPG
— Tom Wenseleers (@TWenseleers) April 25, 2022
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#LongCovid: New worldwide data published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases suggest ~200 million people currently or previously experienced long-term health effects from Covid⬇️ https://t.co/qaOabGjlVE
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) April 25, 2022
"We found that the choices made by people who forgo vaccination contribute disproportionately to risk among those who do get vaccinated."https://t.co/gi7caDYnQ5
by @DFisman @AshTuite @AfiaAdofo @CMAJ— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) April 26, 2022
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A federal judge in Louisiana said on Monday that he intends to rule that U.S. authorities cannot immediately proceed with plans to lift pandemic restrictions that empowered U.S. agents at the Mexico border to turn back migrants without giving them a chance to seek asylum…
The ruling would upend a decision by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to terminate the so-called Title 42 border order by May 23. Title 42 allows U.S. authorities to rapidly expel migrants, including asylum seekers, to Mexico and other countries to avoid overcrowding in border stations that could exacerbate the spread of COVID-19.
Biden, a Democrat, has struggled to implement what he describes as a more humane and orderly system at the U.S.-Mexico border amid record numbers of migrants arrested while crossing illegally, unfavorable court rulings, and political opposition from Republicans and some in his own party.
The judge’s statement is a victory for Republicans who said ending the order would have increased illegal immigration and what they characterized as meritless asylum claims.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry praised the decision on Twitter, writing that the judge had granted the states’ request to “halt this enormous threat to our national security.” The Department of Justice declined to comment.
The CDC said in early April that Title 42 was no longer needed to fight COVID-19 due to the increased availability of vaccines, therapeutics and other tools to counter the disease.
Without this successful vaccination program, at least another 100,000 nursing home residents who are alive today would be dead. https://t.co/iAcaMDE6DD pic.twitter.com/cT5bH9z3lF
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) April 25, 2022
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
479 new cases yesterday, this should be PCR and home tests.
The death count only went up by 1 last week, to 1830.
Reported vaccinations are still at 72%
New Deal democrat
Nationwide, cases stand at 49,700, up 50% from one week ago. Hospital admissions continue to rise at 12,272, but are still at historically low levels. Deaths are flat at 374, and may be bottoming.
Cases are flat in the South and West, up 45% in the Midwest from one week ago, but only 20% in the Northeast. Within the Northeast, cases are rising in CT, PA, NH, and VT, flat in RI and MA, and declining in ME. Cases are now only up 4% in the last week in NJ, and up 8% in NY.
In the West, cases are rising slightly in CA, and also rising in HI, WA, NM, and AK. Cases are rising sharply in OR.
Elsewhere, cases are rising in every State in the Midwest, and especially IL and WI. In the South, cases are rising in the Delmarva States, TX, and FL. Many States in the South have not reported.
There is also a major outbreak in PR, that may be plateauing.
The CDC nowcast for variant proportions should be updated later this morning, and should show a major increase of BA.2.12.1, supplanting the original BA.2.
Raven
Birx is on Joe and I don’t care what you think of Joe.
YY_Sima Qian
On 4/25 Mainland China reported 1,908 new domestic confirmed (995 previously asymptomatic), 15,816 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 0 domestic suspect cases, & 52 new deaths.
Guangdong Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) cases, both at Guangzhou, the new positive case is a traced close contact under centralized quarantine. 24 domestic confirmed & 12 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 213 active domestic confirmed & 100 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Guangxi “Autonomous” Region reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic (both at Fangchenggang) cases, both traced close contacts under centralized quarantine. 30 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed (all at Baise) & 259 active domestic asymptomatic cases (198 at Fangchenggang, 25 at Baise, 6 at Qinzhou, & 1 each at Chongzuo & Nanning) in the province.
Hunan Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed cases, both at Shaoyang, both traced close contacts under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered. There currently are 41 active domestic confirmed cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks. 4 sites at Shaoyang are currently at Medium Risk.
Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region reported 6 new domestic confirmed cases, 3 each at Manzhouli in Hulun Buir & Baotou. The cases at Manzhouli in Hulun Buir are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine, the outbreak there is centered around a school. 1 of the cases at Baotou is truck driver coming from elsewhere, & 2 traced close contacts. 1 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 25 active domestic confirmed (18 at Hulun Buir, 3 at Baotou, 2 at Chifeng, & 1 each at Bayan Nur & Hinggan League) & 2 active domestic asymptomatic (both at Hinggan League) cases in the province. 4 sub-districts in Manzhouli are currently at Medium Risk.
Tianjin Municipality reported 2 new domestic asymptomatic cases, a construction worker returning from building temporary hospitals in Shanghai & under centralized quarantine since arrival & a person coming from Tangshan in Hebei & under centralized quarantine since arrival. 1 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 2 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining.
Shandong Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 62 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 7 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 58 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 60 active domestic confirmed cases & 593 active asymptomatic cases in the province. As not all of the administrative divisions in the province provide data on recoveries, I cannot track the count of active cases in all of the administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Shanxi Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic, both mild) cases, both at Taiyuan, the new positive case is a traced close contacts under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic confirmed & 7 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 62 active domestic confirmed (48 at Taiyuan, 12 at Shuozhou, & 1 each at Xinzhou & Yangquan) & 230 active domestic asymptomatic (223 at Taiyuan & 7 at Shuozhou) cases remaining. 1 site at Taiyuan is currently at Medium Risk.
Hebei Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 49 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 3 domestic confirmed & 57 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 18 active domestic confirmed & 1,112 active asymptomatic case in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Liaoning Province reported 25 new domestic confirmed & 39 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic confirmed & 33 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 35 active domestic confirmed & 156 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Heilongjiang Province reported 18 new domestic confirmed & 18 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 6 domestic confirmed & 1 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 391 active domestic confirmed & 277 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jilin Province reported 44 new domestic confirmed (19 previously asymptomatic, 42 mild & 2 moderate) & 101 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 276 domestic confirmed & 745 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. As the province does not consistently break down recoveries by confirmed & asymptomatic cases or by jurisdictions, I can no longer track the count of active case counts in the different jurisdictions.
Beijing Municipality reported 32 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic, 19 mild & 3 moderate) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 27 of the new positive cases are traced close tacts (12 under centralized quarantine) & 5 via community screening. As the city does not break down recoveries by imported vs. domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there. 1 site is current at High Risk. 6 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Shanghai Municipality reported 1,661 new domestic confirmed (968 previously asymptomatic) & 15,319 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 15,895 of the new domestic positive cases were already under quarantine, & 117 via screening of persons deemed at risk of exposure (effectively meaning from the community). There were 52 deaths (avg. 83.1 y.o., youngest at 33 y.o. & oldest at 100 y.o., all w/ a range of underlying conditions, 4 partially/fully vaccinated). 1,941 domestic confirmed cases recovered & 12,871 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 23,770 active domestic confirmed (259 serious & 28 critical) & 204,742 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 13 sites are currently at Medium Risk. Out of 190 deaths from the currently wave, 86% are > 70 y.o. Only 12 out of 190 had received any shots of vaccination.
At Shaanxi Province 2 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 14 active domestic confirmed & 10 active asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks. 1 site at Xi’an is currently at Medium Risk.
Hubei Province reported 3 new domestic asymptomatic (all at Wuhan) cases, all traced close contacts under centralized quarantine. 36 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 5 active domestic confirmed (all mild, 4 at Wuhan & 1 at Huanggang) & 153 active domestic asymptomatic (3 at Suizhou, 72 at Wuhan, 45 at Ezhou, 5 at Enshi Prefecture, 4 at Yichang, 23 at Huanggang, & 1 at Xiaogan) cases in the province.
Jiangsu Province reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 112 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 5 domestic confirmed & 48 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. The currently are 78 active domestic confirmed & 1,202 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in each administrative division, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Anhui Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (previously asymptomatic) & 10 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1 domestic confirmed & 24 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 12 active confirmed & 509 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Zhejiang Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 34 new domestic asymptomatic case. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported versus domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
Gansu Province there currently are 5 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province no longer breaks down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in the administrative divisions.
Fujian Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered & 15 domestic asymptomatic cases were released from isolation. There currently are 48 active domestic confirmed & 164 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
At Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region 3 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently is 1 active domestic asymptomatic (at Shuanghe) case in the region.
At Guizhou Province there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed (at Guiyang) cases remaining in the province.
Jiangxi Province reported 91 new domestic confirmed (all mild) & 46 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 4 domestic confirmed & 7 asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 208 active domestic confirmed & 371 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Henan Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed (3 each at Anyang & Puyang, & 1 each at Zhengzhou & Zhoukou) & 9 new domestic asymptomatic (2 at Puyang, 3 at Anyang, & 4 at Xinyang) cases. The cases at Puyang are all construction workers returning from building temporary hospitals in Shanghai & under centralized quarantine since arrival. 1 domestic confirmed & 25 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 42 active domestic confirmed & 236 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks. 1 site at Luohe is currently at Medium Risk.
Sichuan Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (at Chengdu) & 2 new domestic asymptomatic (1 each at Chengdu & Bazhong) case, all persons coming from area w/ active outbreak & under centralized quarantine since arrival. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported vs. domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
At Chongqing Municipality there currently is 1 active domestic confirmed case remaining in the city.
Qinghai Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (mild) & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, both at Xining, all traced close contacts under centralized quarantine. 2 domestic confirmed & 6 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 42 active domestic confirmed & 31 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Yunnan Province reported 6 new domestic asymptomatic cases (1 at Maguan County in Wenshan Prefecture & 5 at Jinping County in Honghe Prefecture). 1 domestic confirmed & 6 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 16 active domestic confirmed & 228 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the province. As the province does not break down recoveries by administrative divisions, I cannot track the count of active cases in administrative divisions, given the multiple simultaneous outbreaks.
Imported Cases
On 4/24, Mainland China reported 15 new imported confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 73 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 2,323 confirmed cases recovered (22 imported), 14,097 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (88 imported) & 991 were reclassified as confirmed cases (1 imported), & 46,493 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 28,726 active confirmed cases in the country (203 imported), 341 in serious/critical condition (all domestic), 246,139 active asymptomatic cases (596 imported), 2 suspect cases (both imported). 426,511 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 4/25, 3,334.018M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 2.247M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 4/26, Hong Kong reported 347 new positive cases, 12 imported & 335 domestic (193 via RT-PCR & 142 from rapid antigen tests), 6 deaths (1 fully vaccinated & boosted) + 1 backlogged deaths.
On 4/26, Taiwan reported 6,339 new positive cases, 44 imported & 6,295 domestic (3,104 asymptomatic, 4 moderate). Symptom onset for the domestic cases range from 4/1 – 4/25.
Shalimar
@Raven: Has Birx redeemed herself in any way from her “lying for Trump” period? IIRC, she has been a religious nut for a lot longer than just the last 2 years.
Raven
@Shalimar: I’m in the middle of the interview and it seems pretty straight up to me.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 2,478 new Covid-19 cases yesterday in its media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 4,433,551 cases. It also reported eight deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 35,507 deaths – 0.80% of the cumulative reported total, 0.81% of resolved cases.
Malaysia’s nationwide Rt stands at 0.73.
54 confirmed cases and 44 suspected cases are in ICU; of these patients, 36 confirmed cases and 27 suspected cases are on ventilators. Meanwhile, 9,215 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 4,330,037 patients recovered – 97.7% of the cumulative reported total.
Information about new and active clusters was inadvertently omitted from today’s statement.
2471 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. Seven new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 38,691 doses of vaccine on 25th April: 7,678 first doses, 26,489 second doses, and 4,524 booster doses. The cumulative total is 70,118,091 doses administered: 27,726,986 first doses, 26,589,345 second doses, and 16,014,864 booster doses. 84.9% of the population have received their first dose, 81.4% their second dose, and 49.0% their booster dose.
Tony Jay
Are you still having issues with that old thing? You should follow Le Model Anglaise and just stop talking about it. Remove all protections, cancel free testing, hand the contract for For Profit testing to an old school chum of the Prime Minister, lean on the people who own the national media to ‘encourage’ a professional disinterest in boring old Covid and voila! No more pandemic. It’s so easy, you really ought to give it a try.
The 2297 people who died of Covid in the UK over the last few days aren’t complaining, are they?
YY_Sima Qian
Contra Eric Topol, ~ 70% of the elders in Taiwan (> 60 y.o.) are fully vaccinated, which is actually lower than Mainland China, not quite sure about the > 80 y.o. cohort. The island has used a lot of the mRNA vaccines, but also a lot of AZ-Oxford. It is far too early in its Omicron wave to assess mortality rates.
For weeks everyone (including myself) was wonder where were the serious/critical/mortal cases in Shanghai, when it was adding > 10K cases a day. 3 weeks later, the serious/critical cases are rising in hospitals, as are the deaths. We simply have to see what happens in Taiwan. I think it has somewhat higher vaccination rate for the > 80 y.o. than Mainland China, but also a lot fewer mitigation measures. I am certain it will outperform Hong Kong on deaths & loading of hospitals, & I sincerely hope it outperforms Shanghai (but unlikely).
lowtechcyclist
@Raven: I can’t get going in the morning without a cup or three of joe.
Jesse
@YY_Sima Qian: There was a discussion in yesterday’s COVID thread about something that Eric Topol got wrong. Possibly unintentionally; I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. That said, I wonder if there may a trend toward overstating things. These examples open my eyes to the possibility that Topol and others — despite their intention to be active members of the reality-based community, fighting the good fight against COVID nonsense and misinformation — might themselves be getting things wrong in their never-ending desire to bang the drum.
Matt McIrvin
“a once-unthinkable threshold”
I don’t remember it ever being unthinkable; I was thinking about it from day one. Especially when people said “why worry if it’s only 1% fatal”, because the math was not hard to do.
Soprano2
If I lived in Beijing you bet I’d be stocking up with at least 3 or 4 weeks worth of food if I could, because the Chinese government could announce a hard lockdown at any moment without warning. In fact, I’d anticipate that they were going to do just such a thing.
YY_Sima Qian
In this case, I think Eric Topol is understating the potential challenges coming down the road in Taiwan, in an attempt to draw a sharper contrast w/ Mainland China. Or rather, it is far too early to be making categorical statements about how Taiwan’s Omicron BA.2 will turn out in terms of hospitalizations, deaths & Long COVID. 2+ years in there is no excuse not to account for the fact that deaths lag infection by weeks.
Not that the Taiwanese government had any choice but to shift away from “Zero COVID”. Only hard lock downs & repeated mass screenings has any hope of containing Omicron BA.2 outbreaks, & neither are possible in Taiwan for any number of reasons. Therefore, the residents in Taiwan will avoid the tragedies & hardships imposed by the snap lockdowns (of which Shanghai is the extreme), but they will experience a very significant wave & significant deaths. The best case scenario for Taiwan will be a wave/tsunami comparable to what South Korea just experienced, but it does not have the latter’s vaccination rates (especially among the elderly). It very likely will not be the disaster like Hong Kong, because it has much better vaccination rate among the > 80 y.o. cohort than the latter. At this point, Mainland China is sui generis, & Shanghai is sui generis w/in China.
Soprano2
I worry about this, that they’re lighting their credibility on fire in a misguided attempt to make people go back to masks and distancing and cancelling events when that’s obviously not going to happen. I’ve thought for awhile that some of them were seizing on any little bit of bad news to emphasize it. Myself, I’ll continue to monitor wastewater testing in my city. So far it’s flatter than it has been since they began monitoring in July 2020. I don’t think the state is ever going to update our vaccination numbers, though; I e-mailed our Web site, and they said they would update it when they got numbers from the state. It hasn’t been updated since March 31st. Maybe they’ll do it once a month, but I’m not holding my breath for that. Evidently our state government doesn’t think knowing about vaccination percentages is that important, and the CDC Web site has a percentage for the whole population so it doesn’t match what our Web site has, which was percentage of the eligible population.
YY_Sima Qian
@Soprano2: That is what I told my team members in Beijing, who needed no encouragement from me. Following Naomi Wu’s advise, I had to remind them to stock up on non-perishable canned food, no matter how poor tasting they are.
I have been stocking up here in Wuhan, too, just in case.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
If a year of normal automobile use was 1% fatal, you’d see way fewer people on the roads. Either that, or life expectancy would go way, way down.
YY_Sima Qian
@Matt McIrvin: A lot of us did the same math, but I thought the prospect of so many deaths to galvanize enough actions to prevent such an outcome, even though it was clear very early on (late Jan. 2020 for me) that Trump would f*ck this up. Then I expected things to be much better under Biden, & it has on some important fronts, but not nearly enough. In the main the Biden Administration has not been the problem, despite some fairly glaring missteps in policy & communication.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: For COVID, it seems to me that the baseline “business as usual” number would have been 2-3 million dead in the US (even neglecting reinfections), and anything lower than that is a sign that some mitigation measure worked.
Given that we’ve managed to get almost exactly 2/3 of the population “fully vaccinated” by CDC definitions, and allowing that people clearly can get COVID multiple times, 1 million dead sounds like about what we’d expect.
Matt McIrvin
@YY_Sima Qian: The Republican Party has leveraged negative partisanship to such a degree that the only political regime that could possibly do well would have been a magically sane Trump pushing sensible mitigation measures and aggressive vaccine distribution. That is a thing that cannot exist.
Biden gave nearly everyone who was willing the means to keep themselves alive, but the simple fact that he’s a Democrat, and regarded as an illegitimate usurper by Trump’s supporters, meant that a large fraction of the country would not be willing.
Betty
To be fair to Jonathan Karl, Fox’s vaccine “coverage” of its own employees was pretty responsible. Its news coverage, not so much.
Matt McIrvin
The severity of the BA.2 wave seems to dramatically vary from place to place in ways that are difficult to predict or understand. Going by wastewater numbers, it seems to have peaked already in Massachusetts and we may have gotten off relatively easily… but I’m suspicious of that because I don’t see the mechanism for us getting off easier than Britain or Puerto Rico.
YY_Sima Qian
@Matt McIrvin: You are right, but I am more aligned w/ New Deal Democrat & Adam L. Silverman on D’s needed course of action in face of the scorched earth obstruction/destruction from the Rs. There are a number of Executive tools that Biden could have used to undermine/circumvent/override the naked nihilism exhibited by Rs at all levels of government (& not just on COVID response). Such actions will likely send the collective commentariat into seizure, but the stakes are far too high.
Ohio Mom
@Raven: I don’t understand this comment, what did Biden have to do with Deborah Birx?
At any rate, I don’t demand perfection of Biden, he’s doing most things as right as they can be done in this imperfect world.
Fair Economist
@YY_Sima Qian: Agreed. Taiwan will follow South Korea’s path, probably with a worse death rate.
I wonder how much stress a neighboring country with a lot of travel to China will put on China’s Zero COVID strategy when it has a case tsunami, as seems likely.
Geo Wilcox
@Matt McIrvin: I’m honestly surprised it wasn’t a million dead by last Christmas. Without the vaccines it might even be closer to 2 million dead.
Matt McIrvin
@Geo Wilcox: It may HAVE been a million by Christmas, if the deaths were correctly counted.
YY_Sima Qian
@Fair Economist: Right now the far bigger issue is Shanghai, which presents a much bigger ongoing threat than any other place w/ a border control. Hong Kong’s tsunami did not end up overwhelm Mainland China’s containment measures, to my moderate surprise, but Shanghai still might (even though it is more of a wave than tsunami).
Old School
@Ohio Mom:
“Joe” is this case meant Morning Joe on MSNBC and not Joe Biden.
eachother
If this Covid thread was a chart suggesting a trend, I would say in terms of the near future, five months or so, the suggestion is we are f*cked. Again.
Those case peaks occurring about every six months is indicating another possible peak may already be raising its tendril.
Ruckus ??
@Betty:
Its news coverage, not so much.
faux news is not trying to cover the news, they are trying to set the direction a large portion of the population takes about any issue. IOW they are a misinformation station, not a news station.
Ohio Mom
@Old School: Oh. Thanks! I don’t have a TV anymore and even when I did, never, ever watched the morning shows. So that reference flew right by me. I don’t think in those terms.
different-church-lady
Unthinkable? I thought it was the end for the human race. 1 mil is way under for my guess at the beginning.
TonyG
@lowtechcyclist: Arithmetic is very difficult for very stupid people.