Fauci: "My message, and maybe the final message I give you from this podium, is that please, for your own safety, for that of you family, get your updated Covid-19 shot as soon as you're eligible." pic.twitter.com/I2dfcvL1Lx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 22, 2022
Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert, who has served under seven presidents, used his valedictory at the White House podium on Tuesday to urge Americans to get updated coronavirus booster shots.
Fauci, 81, has announced he will leave government service next month, stepping down as President Biden’s top medical adviser and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which he has led for 38 years…
“When I see people in this country — because of the divisiveness in our country — not getting vaccinated for reasons that have nothing to do with public health, but have to do because of divisiveness and ideological differences, as a physician, it pains me, because I don’t want to see anybody get infected,” he said Tuesday. “I don’t want to see anybody hospitalized, and I don’t want to see anybody die from covid. Whether you’re a far-right Republican or a far-left Democrat, it doesn’t make any difference to me.”
At one point, Fauci acknowledged how those who wear masks are often singled out, joking with a reporter: “I mean, you’re absolutely right. I mean, I know sometimes when you walk in and you have a mask and nobody has a mask, you kind of feel guilty. You shouldn’t feel guilty. You look terrific, right?”…
Fauci previously told The Post he is not exiting the public square but hopes to teach, lecture and write while inspiring and teaching a younger generation of scientists. He initially planned to retire at the end of Trump’s presidency but remained in place when Biden asked him to join his administration. Fauci spoke with pride and a sense of accomplishment about his more than two years overseeing the White House’s response to the pandemic.
“What I would like people to remember about what I’ve done is that every day for all of those years, I’ve given it everything I have and I’ve never left anything on the field,” he said Tuesday.
"NIH establishes website for self-reporting COVID-19 test results" ??https://t.co/ZapOAFhPOE
— Myra Batchelder #VaccinesPlus #WearAMask (@myrabatchelder) November 22, 2022
The Biden administration on Wednesday said it would extend tariff exclusions on 81 COVID 19-related medical products from China for another 90 days, avoiding a scheduled expiration on Nov. 30.
“In light of the continuing efforts to combat COVID, the exclusions have been extended for an additional 90 days, through February 28, 2023,” USTR said in a statement.
The exclusions from tariffs of up to 25% imposed by former President Donald Trump’s administration were granted in 2020 and were previously extended multiple times. Products affected by the extension include face masks, surgical gloves, hospital gowns, and other related products and devices.
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China Covid cases soar to new record https://t.co/DojFDJextp
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 24, 2022
Beijing residents were emptying supermarket shelves as the city government ordered accelerated construction of quarantine centers. There are reports of lockdowns for some Beijing districts as daily cases of COVID-19 are hitting records across China. https://t.co/e7oyytvByC
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 25, 2022
#Beijing officials aren’t calling it a lockdown (likely never will) but the city in many ways has an early 2020 feel to it. Schools, stores, parks closed; most told to work from home. This is the lower 3rd Ring Road during what should be a chaotic 6pm rush hour. @NBCNews pic.twitter.com/UwQNlTXHvR
— Janis Mackey Frayer (@janisfrayer) November 24, 2022
In Zhengzhou, home to Apple's largest iPhone manufacturing site, 6.6 million people have been asked to stay home for the next four days.#China #Coronavirus #COVID19 https://t.co/BOxYbeRSZf
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) November 25, 2022
This is one of those very rare situations where foreigners really can make a difference in China. Tag @Apple, they can fix this with a phone call to Foxconn. Make them know their customers will hold them accountable for the outcome if they don't🙏
— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) November 24, 2022
China did vaccine drive after Shanghai wave. Local govt. finally increased 60yr+ rate from ~60% to ~90%, after many soft and hard sticks!
80yr+ rate of ~65% is as much as it could get without vaccine mandate. It did try a few times to do vaccine mandate but got pushed back /2
The ONLY way people are going to get vaccinated now is let cases slowly roll over the country, forcing people to make a hard choice.
It is RATIONAL for old people not to get vaccinated when there is almost no cases. /3
So don’t expect another govt. vaccine drive. I’ve tweeted many local govt. tactics, even threatening old age benefits, still most people don’t bulge to get vaccinated.
What’s going on NOW of rising cases is the only feasible “vaccine drive”! /4
Case details of 1 death: 87yr old, major surgery of heart, final cause of death is existing condition, mentioning Covid light symptom tagged on disease.
I keep getting asked whether I believe 1 death. First, I am NOBODY so my opinion/belief matters 0. What matters is /5
How many and how Govt. is reporting the deaths matters. Last 10 days, China’s reported ~250k cases, 6 deaths.
Even w. Singapore’s 0.02% death rate, it’s expected to report 50 deaths, w. 1-2wk lag. Govt. reported currently ~100 reported very severe cases.
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Japan's 2nd BA.5 wave reaches case peak level of Omicron BA.1 (>133,000 cases 23 Nov) but far lower hospitalizations and deaths
Low levels of XBB and BQ.1.1 variants https://t.co/QK1Bf5Sn16 pic.twitter.com/VuiFpoecqc— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) November 23, 2022
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The first ever voluntary “mass testing” pilot for people without COVID symptoms was associated with an overall 25% reduction in COVID-19 related hospital admissions, including an initial 43% reduction with military assistance, finds a study published by The BMJ today.
Assuming this effect was causal, the researchers say the pilot prevented 6,829 infections and led to 239 fewer hospital admissions across the city of Liverpool, before being rolled out to the rest of the UK.
Transmission of the COVID-19 virus by people without symptoms has been a major challenge in controlling the pandemic. These latest findings show that large scale voluntary community testing for COVID-19 can potentially reduce virus transmission and prevent hospital admissions.
The pilot, known as COVID-SMART, offered supervised voluntary lateral flow testing to all people over the age of 5 years without symptoms who were living or working in Liverpool from November 6, 2020 to January 2, 2021. The aim was to identify infectious people sooner and disrupt transmission.
COVID-SMART coincided with the start of the second national UK lockdown (November 5 to December 2, 2020). At the time, the unvaccinated population of Liverpool had the highest COVID-19 case rate in the country…
However, the researchers stress that this was a time of intensive testing with military assistance when Liverpool was under higher (tier 3) lockdown restrictions than many other areas of the country.
When analysis was extended across the full intervention period (November 6, 2020 to January 2, 2021), and regional differences in lockdown restrictions were taken into account, a 25% reduction in COVID-19 related hospital admissions was seen (equivalent to 239 fewer admissions) compared with the control population…
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In our new reality, where #Covid, #flu & #RSV compete to infect us, it sure would be useful to have home tests that can detect & differentiate between them. But we don't even have home tests for flu. Why? @brittanytrang explores. https://t.co/ZsJROR2DsV
— Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 (@HelenBranswell) November 22, 2022
The growing body of evidence that the 3 respiratory viruses (Covid, flu, RSV) interfere with each other’s spread, limiting a tripledemic's threat https://t.co/auPadYfbsa @ScienceMagazine by @sciencecohen pic.twitter.com/yUKqrZyNUW
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) November 24, 2022
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This all alone should be grounds for The Traitor Ted Cruz’s removal from office. Jesus Christ. pic.twitter.com/eLQOWbc29F
— The Fig Economy (@figgityfigs) November 25, 2022
(Explainer from the Washington Post: The more people vaccinated, the fewer unvaccinated there are to be infected)
Reader Interactions
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Baud
Oooh, the base rate fallacy. Matt will be all over that.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY:
48 new cases on 11/22/22.
93 new cases on 11/23/22.
78 new cases on 11/24/22.
We seem to have stabilized at under 100 cases. Of course, that was before the holidays. I expect it to be over 100 a day again any time now.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health reported 2,877 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, for a cumulative reported total of 4,978,350 cases. It also reported eight deaths, for an adjusted cumulative total of 36,636 deaths – 0.74% of the cumulative reported total, 0.74% of resolved cases.
49,253 Covid-19 tests were conducted on 23rd November, with a positivity rate of 7.7%.
There were 26,856 active cases yesterday, 357 fewer than the day before. 2,016 were in hospital. 98 confirmed cases were in ICU; of these patients, 62 confirmed cases were on ventilators. Meanwhile, 3,226 more patients recovered, for a cumulative total of 4,914,858 patients recovered – 98.7% of the cumulative reported total.
2,874 new cases reported yesterday were local infections. Three new cases were imported.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 3,814 doses of vaccine on 24th November: 121 first doses, 200 second doses, 556 first booster doses, and 2,937 second booster doses. The cumulative total is 72,476,974 doses administered: 28,113,890 first doses, 27,524,600 second doses, 16,262,805 first booster doses, and 575,679 second booster doses. 86.1% of the population have received their first dose, 84.3% their second dose, 49.8% their first booster dose, and 1.8% their second booster dose.
Princess
Honestly I’m having a hard time jibing the harsh action and conditions at Foxcomm and the severe and punitive lockdowns in Beijing with the idea that China can’t have a vaccine mandate because of fear of “pushback.” What do they think the 80year olds are going to do to them? Something smells off here.
Ken
I think our standards for “reassurance” have also been damaged by long covid.
sdhays
The Washington Post’s headline is pretty irresponsible. It highlights a piece of irrelevant information that will be abused by evil people. Ted Cruz is going to Ted Cruz, and yes he should be removed from office, but newspapers shouldn’t make it easy.
lowtechcyclist
And here I thought the whole point of a Communist government was to be on the side of the workers.
Silly me. ;-)
Another Scott
@Princess: Made me look… SCMP opinion piece from July:
Proof of negative test is a lot more than the USA requires, and is helpful, but it still obviously isn’t enough (because of the lags).
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Glidwrith
I really don’t get the mechanism of pushback against vaccination in China. In many countries, citizens can stage protests, sit-ins, vote, write letters or even riot. Any of these would make a politician think twice about a policy. But China appears to be a literal iron fist in a velvet glove, with little freedom to protest government.
What threat are citizens using that their government is unwilling to mandate vaccines?
RaflW
I strongly encourage James Woods to drive a 70s era car and forswear seat belts. People wearing seatbelts and driving air bag cars die! So he should avoid both those ‘fake’ ‘safety’ measures. Ted Cruz, too.
Another Scott
@Glidwrith: There are and have been protests in China – CCP control is not absolute. A Bloomberg Opinion piece from July 11 (cached):
China is a huge country, and the CCP can, ultimately, only rule with the consent of the governed…
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
“Why doesn’t the U.S. have in-home flu tests?”
IME, it hits you like a ton of bricks right off the bat, so (before Covid, anyway) there’d be no doubt of what you have. I’d have figured there was no need for an at-home flu test, other than to let you know that that 48-hour bug you had wasn’t actually influenza.
Maybe if a flu test could show positive earlier on than a Covid test, it might be useful in distinguishing between the two. But that doesn’t seem like a heavy-duty need.
Glidwrith
@Another Scott: Thanks, I can see how that works. Social media lets them determine how citizens feel and keep things from progressing to riots in the streets, which would be both disruptive and a loss of face.
Ohio Mom
I tested negative a week ago (happy anniversary to me) but I still sound like a TB patient. I can see that this is going to be a long taper back to normal.
Glad to see there is finally a place for we ordinary people to report our test results. I would have gladly reported mine as an expression of solidarity with all who take Covid seriously. Though I wonder if that effort will produce any useful data considering it’s hardly going to be a random sampling.
Johnny C. Lately
Here’s the link to Effectiveness of Bivalent mRNA Vaccines in Preventing Symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection — Increasing Community Access to Testing Program, United States, September–November 2022.
In short, it is probably doing you some good versus your chances of getting symptomatic disease, so go get it in time for the holidays.
Nothing on VE vs hospitalization or death. Perhaps too soon, or perhaps too few instances to draw conclusions (if it’s the latter, let’s hope it stays that way).
strangely, no direct comparison of primary series + bivalent booster vs completely unvaccinated is given
regarding China: My impression is that the Chinese are in a position where their most vulnerable (the elderly) are the least likely to get vaccinated… apparently there were some doctors saying for a while that covid was so rare in China, why risk the side effects of new vaccines. And while China has a lot of state power, going door to door to force shots on old people would be very labor intensive and very unpopular.
My wife has cousins on the mainland, and to some extent this is surfacing as a generational divide between the working-age thirty and forty somethings (who are tiring of quarantines and hazmat suits just to do their jobs, and pop-up lockdowns that mess up shopping and school) and the elder generation (who completely back the official CCTV line and view the sacrifices of the younger people as a necessary sacrifice to keep them safe).
Johnny C. Lately
okay, I was wrong about the CDC bivalent report not including a comparison against the completely unvaccinated…. that’s what going on in Table 2 which reports “Absolute Vaccine Efficacy”
from the their methods
Jackie
The link to report self test results doesn’t work/exist. Thought it would be worthwhile to bookmark…
Another Scott
@Jackie:
https://makemytestcount.org/ is working here.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
Jackie
@Another Scott: Thanks! Bookmarked, but hope to continue avoiding Covid!🤞🏻🤞🏻