Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

This fight is for everything.

Come on, man.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

“Alexa, change the president.”

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

This blog will pay for itself.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: November 29, 2023

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: November 29, 2023

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: November 29, 2023

(Doonesbury via GoComics.com)


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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: November 29, 2023 1

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: November 29, 2023 3
(link)

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: November 29, 2023 4
(link)

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: November 29, 2023 5
(link)

I haven’t seen anything about Russia on my usual tweet-trawls for many weeks, but suddenly:

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: November 29, 2023 6
(link)

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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: November 29, 2023 7
(link)

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Reader Interactions

47Comments

  4. 4.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @satby:

    It’s a terrific cartoon, and I love it. But I’m sadly aware that my inner, OCD-afflicted, nit-picking pedant is irritated that the committee chairman is a Republican and the ranking member is a Democrat. Surely Garry Trudeau knows that we are the majority party in the Senate!

    But it is a splendid cartoon.

  7. 7.

    VeniceRilet

    I wish I could buy a booster here. Under 65 they’re just letting the stock expire and be thrown out. Madness!

  8. 8.

    lowtechcyclist

    Variants circulating [in Russia] are Arcturus, Kraken and Eris.

    The Kraken has released itself!

  10. 10.

    Scout211

    We had 15 people here for Thanksgiving and Monday one of the family members tested positive for COVID so we are all checking off the days and keeping our fingers crossed.

    Two things:  First, her other two family members who drove 2 1/2 hours both ways with her have tested negative (so far).  They both got the updated COVID vaccination and the infected family member did not. Second, I realized that we haven’t heard of any “super spreader” events in a long, long time due to vaccinations and immunities from COVID infections. I guess that is a double-edged sword, though. It’s good to have those events in the rear view mirror but it also makes people less aware and less cautious because “COVID is over.”

    Narrator: COVID is not over.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Washington Co had 180 new hospital admissions this past week. We only have 1 hospital (not a very big one) and it’s down in Potosi. Lots of ambulance miles.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @VeniceRilet: @eclare:

    When I got my booster, they told me the govt was no longer involved with the vaccines (beyond approving them). You don’t need a vaccine card to show your record of vaccinations to get a new one. I don’t know about age restrictions.

    My insurance is more than happy to pay for all my vaccines.

  14. 14.

    New Deal democrat

    It’s pretty clear that the winter wave has started, right on schedule. The post includes the new CDC wastewater graph, which is identical to the Biobot graph. Unsurprisingly, the biggest regional increase has been in the Midwest, which is back up to levels last seen in February, followed by the Northeast. Also unsurprisingly, the South has both the lowest rate and the smallest increase.

    Hospitalizations have also increased for the second week in a row from their low of 15,000 to 18,200. This is about 75% of their level exactly one year ago. Deaths as of the week of October 28 were just below 1,200, about 45% below their level of one year ago of 2,400.

    If the above pattern holds, by early January we should see hospitalizations of about 33,000 and deaths of about 2,000 per week.

    The latest variant update last Friday shows that, after almost a year of dominance, XBB has faded to about 10% of all cases, with newer variants HG.1 and EG.5 making up close to 50%. Most experts seem to think new variant JN.1, which has become dominant in some other countries, will become the dominant variant in the U.S. this winter. It is likely shown as its parent, BA.2.86, on the CDC graph with 9% of cases. So far the information I have seen is that it is more immune evasive, but not more virulent.

    Anecdotally, I have a nurse friend who was diagnosed simultaneously with COVID and the flu last week. Apparently mask wearing in hospitals has unbelievably become sporadic. For my part, for both infectious reasons, I am masking up in all indoor public spaces.

  15. 15.

    lowtechcyclist

    Birth records show COVID-19 caused spike in preterm births The study suggests the US vaccination campaign likely prevented thousands of preterm births

    And if Covid caused a spike in pre-term births, it surely did the same for pre-viability miscarriages.  You know, those “unborn baybeez” the pro-birthers are supposedly so concerned about.  And vaccinations therefore kept a whole bunch of those miscarriages from happening.

    Last I checked (2021) my fundie in-laws were mostly anti-vax.  I plan to mention this at Christmas.

    I don’t expect it to change any of their minds about vaccination, but the best defense is a good offense.

  16. 16.

    lowtechcyclist

    @New Deal democrat:

    It’s pretty clear that the winter wave has started, right on schedule.

    It has, but fortunately it’s looking to be a much smaller winter wave than the waves we had between the beginning of the pandemic and the first few months of 2022.

    Nonetheless, people should get vaxxed up if they haven’t already, and if they’ve stopped wearing their masks at the grocery, time to start doing so again.  Better to be safe than sorry.

  17. 17.

    Soprano2

    Covid is dropping at both of our wastewater treatment facilities. I saw something on the MO sewershed map I hadn’t seen before – a blue diamond, which designates that levels were undetectable for two weeks in a row. It was Warsaw, which is a small town population around 2,200, but still I had never seen that before!

  21. 21.

    Kay

    @lowtechcyclist:

    The Danish public health system told pregnant women NOT to get vaccinated. My DIL decided to follow the US guidance instead and got the vaccine while pregnant on a trip to Chicago.

    I bet she’s feeling pretty smart :)

  23. 23.

    Matt McIrvin

    Cases and wastewater levels are starting to tick up again in the Boston area after the decline of our modest fall wave.

    Here it now looks a lot like a repeat of last year, when we had a 2022-23 winter wave though it was nothing on the level of the giant surge when Omicron first hit in 2021-22. I actually got COVID for, so far, the only time in late January 2023. I would like to avoid a repeat of that but there’s likely going to be less accommodation for WFH this time around.

  25. 25.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Soprano2:

    Yeah, or instead of addressing him as “Senator,” he could have just used “Mr Chairman.”  I’m trying not to let this incredibly trivial and petty observation ruin for me what is otherwise a wonderful cartoon. Garry Trudeau — talk about a national treasure!

    (BTW, did you know his wife is Margaret Trudeau? It’s true. Jane Pauley’s actual name is Margaret Jane. Always thought it would be amusing if she interviewed the Canadian Margaret T. sometime. Maybe she has.)

  26. 26.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I would like to avoid a repeat of that but there’s likely going to be less accommodation for WFH this time around.

     
    Why do physicists have to go into the office?

  27. 27.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I don’t know why. It’s a very child/maternal health centered country so I was surprised. She was determined to get it – we had to look for a one dose shot in Chicago because they weren’t staying long enough for a two shot series. Easy to find at that time- it was during the initial vaxx push.

  29. 29.

    jonas

    It would be very useful to know what percentage of those being hospitalized with Covid now are up to date on their vaccinations. I suspect it’s a pretty small number.

  30. 30.

    New Deal democrat

    @lowtechcyclist: In re “it’s looking to be a much smaller winter wave,” I agree.

    Now that we are almost 4 years in, we can do some comparisons of 2023 since March vs. the previous 3 years. And in each year the death rate over the same time period has gone down.

  34. 34.

    Manyakitty

    That statistic about the mental health crisis is on point. Nobody is okay after the past 5+ years. Nobody. COVID drove all that home. We sustained generational trauma and I’m not sure how we come back from it.

  37. 37.

    Matt McIrvin

    @New Deal democrat: I should have mentioned that while wastewater virus counts look like a repeat of last year, the case, hospitalization and death counts are much, much lower even than last winter. I assume cases are massively undercounted, but it should probably be taken as a count of disease bad enough to get some medical attention. It all points to decreasing impacts as people develop resistance one way or another.

  38. 38.

    hrprogressive

    @Manyakitty: ​
     

    That’s the fun part – with a never-ending pandemic, the rise of global fascism, and the collapse of the planet – we don’t.

  43. 43.

    Pinkpuppy

    Can anyone explain the India numbers?  They have a population of 1.3 billion and they only have 79 new cases, while the US with ~300 million has 200,000 new cases???

  45. 45.

    NoOneOfConsequence

    Re:

    I never cease to be baffled by people who see Covid-19 as primarily a political issue. Covid was an act of nature, and the worldwide response to it – good and bad – was fairly similar.

    The political issue was, “will you risk your job, to do the right thing, or will you prefer the easier, more popular method, that will help you win re-election, at the cost of thousands of deaths?”

    We know the answer to that, now. A lot of people would rather see “a few” people die, so long as they don’t know them, so, politicians decided to kill people, to stay popular. DeSasterous actively tried to spread Covid-19, so he could make his buddies who manufactured monoclonal antibodies rich. When they stopped working (as predicted and expected…) his failure to plan caused massive deaths, but that only matters to people who care about their fellow Americans.

    Seeing Covid-19 “primarily as a political issue” is fair: we learned who wants to save lives, and who’d rather sacrifice them. Isn’t that important to know?

  46. 46.

    lee

    I did a bit of digging around after seeing a comment somewhere else and I found something interesting.

    It seems there are conflicting studies to whether or not lockdowns helped. In Australia and NZ there was obvious benefit. In other parts of the world it was not so clear cut.

    That got me thinking if it had to do with population density.

    @Pinkpuppy:

    The numbers out of India have always been a bit more undependable than those from the US.

  47. 47.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lee: I think a lot of public policy was ineffective simply because of low compliance. Omicron COVID is so contagious that you’re not really going to stop it with non-medical interventions unless people comply nearly 100%. In America that was impossible because the President when the pandemic began actively promoted noncompliance as an element of political identity. And maybe because Americans are just too contrary to live.

    A lot of the discourse seemed to be confused by the distinction between e.g. “do masks work?” and “does a public policy of masking work?” The policy is never going to work if people won’t wear the masks.

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