In an @AP interview, COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said Americans’ immune protection from the virus is waning, warning that booster doses for most people will be necessary — with the potential for enhanced protection from a new generation of shots. https://t.co/OAueYrSXO6 pic.twitter.com/YSCNCfUFZM
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 12, 2022
Biden may need to 'claw back' funding for COVID, Jha says https://t.co/QbNqvLi7P7 pic.twitter.com/AVpdVn3OzZ
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 13, 2022
Senate Republicans looking to save pennies on vaccines is the most insane application of fiscal conservatism i have ever seen https://t.co/4FEth93nsq
— Jonathan Chait (@jonathanchait) May 12, 2022
… [Axios reporter Caitlin] Owens’s reporting gets into the Republican view in more detail than any previous report. One Republican concern is that the current funding strategy prioritizes access over efficiency. The vaccines are distributed in multidose vials that, once opened, must be used or thrown away, leading to some spoilage. “Republicans say the current strategy is wasteful,” Owens reports, “and it would be better to rein in accessibility so that more doses are likely to be used.”
A second concern is that the vaccines, while highly effective against hospitalization and death, are proving less effective against transmission. Therefore, Republicans don’t want to spend too much on them.
“Republicans are skeptical of using federal money to buy more vaccines that are proving not to last very long and questions remain if they will work against future variants,” a senior GOP Senate aide told Owens. “We’re saying that the current shot and boosters are reducing in effectiveness. New vaxx isn’t ready and it’s unclear where they are in the plan,” the aide added. “Since there is no plan, we don’t want to give them [a] blank check.”
The shortsightedness of this position is almost unfathomable. It is difficult to conceive of a less intelligent way to save the government money than to skimp on vaccines and therapeutics. The scale of the savings in vaccine subsidies is in the billions, and the cost of the pandemic is measured in trillions. The vaccines have probably averted more than a million deaths already. Even putting humanitarian concerns to the side, as a Brookings study notes, the economic case for funding vaccines and therapeutics remains extremely strong.
Even if vaccines can’t stop transmission, their ability to avert hospitalization, not to mention death, is an enormous cost saving. If we want to prevent continued waves of shutdowns, the vaccines and therapeutics offer the most cost-effective remedies by orders of magnitude…
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U.S. will share COVID-19 vaccine technology, Biden tells global summit https://t.co/EPHtZW8fyS pic.twitter.com/4RpQfEU4bf
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 13, 2022
Beijing works from home, Shanghai says victory against COVID getting closer https://t.co/PGDOWF6XWM pic.twitter.com/4HgdrHdk4a
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 13, 2022
A confrontation btwn workers and a negative-tested couple under the whole-compound removal policy.
Police: "If you don't come with us, you will be punished. This will affect you for three generations."
Husband: "We're the last generation, thank you"
*shuts door" ???? pic.twitter.com/kgNpkSpacu— Chang Che (@Changxche) May 11, 2022
We seem to have formed some kind of cargo-cult folk religion around pandemic mitigation via what must be some spectacular transcription error.
“Aerosols cure COVID- got it boss”
“Cause Mongo, cause”
“I don’t need to know the because boss, I just spray the fog and cure the COVID” pic.twitter.com/VATxr6KM6b— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) May 12, 2022
North Korea's admission that it is battling an 'explosive' COVID outbreak has raised concerns that the virus could devastate the country. Here's what you need to know https://t.co/rdbrJicTeU pic.twitter.com/4ddju9MpGl
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 13, 2022
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55% of people hospitalized for #Covid still had symptoms 2 years later. Study is from Wuhan China, initial pandemic epicenter. Most frequent symptoms were fatigue & muscle weakness, say doctors from China-Japan Friendship Hospital in Beijing https://t.co/M0aB0kJU3o #LongCovid pic.twitter.com/sqFB3EsDVi
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) May 12, 2022
#Coronavirus ‘ghosts’ have been found lingering in the gut. Scientists are studying whether #LongCovid could be linked to viral fragments found in the body months after initial infection https://t.co/baW2lU25Z2
— delthia ricks ?? (@DelthiaRicks) May 12, 2022
======
New Yorker:
lowtechcyclist
Missouri, now the “you can show me over and over again, but la la la la la, I can’t hear anything” state
ETA: Also, isn’t this a direct government restriction of freedom of speech?
YY_Sima Qian
On 5/12 Mainland China reported 312 new domestic confirmed (176 previously asymptomatic), 2,140 new domestic asymptomatic cases, 0 domestic suspect cases, & 2 new deaths.
Guangdong Province reported 11 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 9 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 192 active domestic confirmed & 53 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 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, at Fangchenggang. 4 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 58 active domestic asymptomatic cases (51 at Fangchenggang & 7 at Baise) in the province.
At Hunan Province there currently are 10 active domestic confirmed & 1 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 Inner Mongolia “Autonomous” Region 4 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed (6 at Manzhouli in Hulun Buir & 1 at Chifeng) cases in the province.
Tianjin Municipality reported 1 new domestic asymptomatic case, a traced close contact of domestic positive cases reported by Beijing.
Shandong Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 2 domestic confirmed & 22 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 44 active domestic confirmed cases & 312 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.
At Shanxi Province 5 domestic asymptomatic case recovered. There currently are 6 active domestic confirmed (all at Taiyuan) & 10 active domestic asymptomatic (9 at Taiyuan & 1 at Linfen) cases remaining.
Ankang in Shaanxi Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed (mild) case, a person coming from elsewhere & under centralized quarantine since arrival.
Hebei Province reported 5 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Chengde, all traced close contacts under centralized quarantine. 1 domestic confirmed & 33 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 7 active domestic confirmed & 196 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. 1 village at Chengde is currently at Medium Risk.
Liaoning Province reported 58 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 3 domestic confirmed & 113 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 18 active domestic confirmed & 753 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 Heilongjiang Province 6 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 35 active domestic confirmed & 38 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Jilin Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 36 domestic confirmed & 67 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 42 new domestic confirmed (3 previously asymptomatic) & 8 new domestic asymptomatic cases. Of the 36 domestic positive cases reported between 3 PM on 5/10 & 3 PM on 5/11, 32 are traced close contacts under centralized quarantine or residents under movement control, & 4 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. 14 sites are currently at High Risk. 34 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
Shanghai Municipality reported 227 new domestic confirmed (167 previously asymptomatic) & 1,869 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 1,925 of the new domestic positive cases were already under quarantine & 4 via screening of persons deemed at risk of exposure (from the community). There were 2 deaths (88 y.o. & 89 y.o., respectably, both w/ a range of underlying conditions). 414 domestic confirmed & 6,360 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 5,144 active domestic confirmed (298 serious & 66 critical) & 39,361 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the city. 13 sites are currently at Medium Risk.
At Hubei Province 4 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 1 active domestic confirmed (mild, at Wuhan) & 10 active domestic asymptomatic (4 at Wuhan, 2 each Enshi Prefecture & Xiangyang, & 1 each at Qianjiang & Huanggang) cases in the province.
Jiangsu Province reported 35 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Jiangyin in Wuxi, 29 traced close contacts under centralized quarantine & 6 via screening of residents under lockdown. 2 domestic confirmed & 25 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. The currently are 8 active domestic confirmed & 529 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.
At Anhui Province 1 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 3 active confirmed & 16 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Zhejiang Province reported 4 new domestic asymptomatic (2 each at Hangzhou & Jiaxing) cases, 3 are persons under centralized quarantine & a person coming from elsewhere & tested positive upon arrival. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported versus domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
At Fujian Province 3 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 4 active domestic confirmed & 5 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 Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region the remaining asymptomatic cases recovered.
Guizhou Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed (1 each at Qiandongnan Prefecture & Zunyi) & 6 active domestic asymptomatic (2 at Qiandongnan Prefecture & Zunyi, & 1 each at Guiyang & Tongren) cases remaining.
Jiangxi Province reported 10 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 7 domestic confirmed & 15 asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 21 active domestic confirmed & 308 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 15 new domestic confirmed (1 previously asymptomatic) & 29 new domestic asymptomatic cases. 9 domestic confirmed & 14 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 201 active domestic confirmed & 573 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.
Sichuan Province reported 6 new domestic confirmed (4 previously asymptomatic) & 94 new domestic asymptomatic cases. As the province does not break down recoveries by imported vs. domestic cases, I cannot track the count of active domestic cases there.
Chongqing Municipality reported 2 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all persons under centralized quarantine. There currently are 8 active domestic confirmed & 4 active domestic asymptomatic cases remaining in the city.
Qinghai Province reported 8 new domestic confirmed & 22 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all at Xining, all are persons under centralized quarantine or residents under movement control. 3 domestic confirmed & 2 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 48 active domestic confirmed & 88 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
At Yunnan Province 4 domestic asymptomatic cases recovered. There currently are 2 active domestic confirmed & 23 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 5/12, Mainland China reported 19 new imported confirmed cases (0 previously asymptomatic), 61 imported asymptomatic cases, 0 imported suspect cases:
Overall in Mainland China, 614 confirmed cases recovered (6 imported), 6,787 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (48 imported) & 176 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all domestic), & 30,726 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 6,944 active confirmed cases in the country (184 imported), 397 in serious/critical condition (all domestic), 70,770 active asymptomatic cases (447 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 358,536 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 5/12, 3,358.576M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 1.456M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 5/13 Hong Kong reported 298 new positive cases, 21 imported & 277 domestic (105 via RT-PCR & 172 from rapid antigen tests), 2 deaths (neither fully vaccinated) + 1 backlogged death.
On 5/13, Taiwan reported 65,011 new positive cases, 39 imported & 64,972 domestic (including 217 moderate & serious). There were 41 new deaths (ages ranging from 50+ to 90+, actual dates of death between 5/2 – 5/10, 40 having a range of underlying conditions, 20 partially/fully vaccinated).
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Those liberals and their cancel culture…. When will it end?
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
693 new cases reported yesterday. Still no bueno.
Bring on the next generation of shots!
New Deal democrat
Let me start with the (relatively) good news this morning. In bellwether NYS, the two Upstate regions – Buffalo and Albany – that have not peaked yet, are only up 5% week over week, and flat for the past 5 days. Central NY, where BA.2.12.1 was first spotted, continues to decline, now down 30% from peak. In NYS as a whole, cases are still up 25% from week ago. In NJ, that number is over 30%. In PR, it is down to 12%.
Nationwide cases are up over 25% from one week ago, to 88,500. Hospital admissions are up over 20% from one week ago to 19,731. Deaths declined to 305, which is a new post-Omicron low. I suspect that last number will be revised.
Hospitalizations are likely to rise to 30,000 in the next couple of weeks, and deaths to close to 1,000 in about a month.
Before BA.2.12.1 made its appearance, the numbers we are seeing now were my anticipated peak numbers from BA.2. Obviously that is out the window.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 3,410 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, for a cumulative reported total of 4,470,471 cases. It also reported four deaths for an adjusted cumulative total of 35,602 deaths – 0.80% of the cumulative reported total, 0.80% of resolved cases.
There were 26,826 active cases yesterday, 1,976 more than the day before. 1,328 are in hospital. 51 confirmed cases are in ICU; of these patients, 34 confirmed cases cases are on ventilators. Meanwhile, 1,430 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 4,408,043 patients recovered – 98.6% of the cumulative reported total.
3,405 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. Five new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 37,536 doses of vaccine on 12th May: 16,994 first doses, 16,459 second doses, and 4,083 booster doses. The cumulative total is 70,551,572 doses administered: 27,841,579 first doses, 26,865,801 second doses, and 16,057,632 booster doses. 85.3% of the population have received their first dose, 82.3% their second dose, and 49.2% their booster dose.
Jinchi
The BBC News headline with the picture of Kim Jong-Un seems a little bit like wishful thinking.
Baud
@Jinchi:
PeakVT
Kim and his toadies are running a horrible experiment on the North Korean people. I can’t see it ending well for anyone but Kim.
Sloane Ranger
Northern Ireland hasn’t been able to upload their numbers to the UK wide database due to a technical issue, so headline figures for cases, deaths and testing are not available.
Figures for the remaining home nations for yesterday are as follows:
Cases
England – 10,874
Scotland – 3589
Wales – 101.
Deaths – Yesterday there were 128 deaths within 28 days of a positive test in England; 53 in Scotland and 5 in Wales.
That’s all folks!
SFAW
OK, libtard, let me XX-splain* it to yez:
You missed the asterisk in the First Amendment, which leads to the following footnote: “Speech shall not be restricted, unless said speech is against the wishes of the Tories.” Most people miss that footnote.
* – I haven’t decided if the “XX” should be “man,” “Real ‘Murican,” “cleek,” or what.
germy
Ladies and gentlemen, the New York Times:
lowtechcyclist
@SFAW: Also, so much for their “freedom of conscience for pharmacists” bullshit. Guess it applies to contraception but not to Covid.
Brachiator
Seniors and vulnerable people should consider a second booster, four months after initial shot or booster. From CNN:
lowtechcyclist
@germy: The NYT, paper of record for the rich and powerful.
This is atrocious even by their low standards, though.
germy
@lowtechcyclist:
Tyson must have friends in high places.
SFAW
@germy:
A bit OT, but relative to real/perceived shortages of food products:
Did I read that the current baby formula shortage is due to production at MAGAt-owned production being scaled back severely, in order to create a shortage that can be blamed on “Sleepy Joe”?
[Of course, the answer is “No, I didn’t read that” — well, other than what I just wrote — but I would like to see the Party of Traitors be put in the position where they have to spend time fighting against rumors which their base will believe, etc.]
germy
@SFAW:
SFAW
@germy:
How? I mean, he was never a particularly likeable guy. At least George Foreman seems to be a half-decent human. [Although naming all your kids “George” is a little weird.]
I’ll show myself out.
SFAW
@germy:
Killjoy.
I actually had seen that story, but forgot, because it was so long ago — yesterday, I think. [Where’s my Prevagen? It was around here somewhere, I wish I could remember where I left it!]
Now, if only Abbott were a family-owned biz, a la Purdue Pharma, and they were all MAGAts. Then my “rumor” might have some legs.
germy
@SFAW:
that was my tinfoil hat theory yesterday. I have learned more details since then, thanks to various jackals. Just make sure you don’t call it late stage capitalism! /
I still think the republicans and their friends in media are pushing the story to hurt Biden, without explaining the actual… reason… for the formula shortage. Instead, they’re turning it into “Joe is giving all our formula to illegal immigrants at the border!!”
gene108
@lowtechcyclist:
It doesn’t apply to anything outside of contraception and abortion medications.
I sometimes wonder what the result would be, if a burned out pharmacist would refuse to dispense antibiotics, or statins, or blood pressure medications because it violated their deeply held religious beliefs.
I doubt courts would find in the pharmacists favor.
SFAW
@germy:
Yeah, I’ve seen the “givin’ it to the coloreds before REAL MURICANS!!!” bullshit. My proposed rumor was to set those mofos back on their heels, for a change.
I hope I live long enough to see the Fox-built Empire of Stupidity/Evil/Ignorance destroyed. But I’m an old fart, and even if I were young, I doubt I’d see it.
Soprano2
Yes, my state, the leader in trying to gag pharmacists so they can’t tell people ivermectin can’t treat or cure Covid, all because conservatives are butthurt about it. Seems like a clear First Amendment violation to me.
mrmoshpotato
Throughout this damn pandemic (Fuck you, orange shitstain!), I’ve been in awe of the cartoonists who can bring themselves to document the horrible reality through drawing – even if it’s a single panel.
There go two miscreants
…but Republicans are working on it!
smith
OK, so most people dying are 65+ years old. If that 40% figure applies to those deaths, then the 5% of old people who have had no vaccination account for 60% of the deaths. Even if “unvaccinated” means fewer than 2 shots, then the 10% of old people who are unvaccinated by that measure account for 60% of the deaths. But of course putting it that way wouldn’t support the “vaccines are useless” narrative, and CNN can’t have that.
The Moar You Know
I’m on year 20 of working for a government contractor, and both the government and contracted services would cost less than half of what they do these days if not for the strenuous efforts of “Republican taxpayer advocates”, who, as we see here, are willing to spend thousands of dollars to save a penny.
smith
This is the tell. They’d be happy to fund a vaccine program that favored the people with health care access (AKA white people) and denied vaccines to people without (Those People). It’s sparrows and curtain rods all over again.
Matt McIrvin
@Brachiator: I appreciate the emphasis on getting boosters, but God, the sheer amount of base-rate fallacy in those paragraphs. Why are we even talking about the fraction of deaths that are of vaccinated people? The deaths are nearly all of seniors and they overwhelmingly are “fully vaccinated” by the CDC’s original definition (that is, got two shots of mRNA or one of J&J over a year ago), which immediately juices those numbers. It totally feeds into a “vaccine stopped working!” narrative.
LongHairedWeirdo
If I were to make a last comment here, this seems like a good one:
They may have found the cause for SIDS. (The tweet is more optimistically worded, and my skepticism may be unwarranted. I just refuse to say more than “may have” until I see a peer-reviewed journal article agreeing that *the* cause has been found, as nearly as we can tell.)
Chris T.
“What?! You want to buy a whole box of nails for $5 just to replace one roof shingle?! No way! We’ll wait a year until the rain has ruined everything so that we don’t waste any money on extra nails!”