Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

No one could have predicted…

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: April 17, 2024

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: April 17, 2024

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22Comments

  1. 1.

    raven

    I have an academic friend who is absolutely freaked out about covid. She excoriated the AERA. She carries a portable air purifier to indoor meetings and promotes all kinds of preventative products. We were in grad school during Y2K and she was nuts about that.

    AERA is over on Twitter telling folks to get tested for COVID-19 now that the conference is over and folks have flown to all corners of the earth. Who could ever have predicted that an indoors event with 15,000 people, 99% of whom were unmasked, could possibly have become a superspreader event? It’s pretty disgusting to me that an organization that claims to be so social justice-oriented can’t even bother to require masks to protect the community.

  3. 3.

    lowtechcyclist

    BNO:

    So far this year, nearly 3 million cases of COVID have been reported in the U.S., causing 259,346 hospitalizations and 26,079 deaths.

    CDC has 20,008.

    That may go up by maybe another thousand since the data from the last few weeks is still coming in. Meanwhile, if BNO shows where it’s getting its numbers from, I can’t find it. I remain skeptical of their accuracy and factual foundation.

  4. 4.

    eclare

    The threat of long covid is so scary.  I wish the govt would open up additional boosters for those of us under 65.

  5. 5.

    Ramalama

    I had a bit of long Covid, but nothing compared to two very fit friends (they [used to] ride horses competitively) who had the sickbook thrown at them. And I’m not fit, though I am indeed working on it, currently while extending my first ever Lenten resolution to stop eating chocolate.

    Anyway, I’m just here for the Shedders comment.

    I’d also really like to wear a quality cotton T-shirt that says something about the Shedders.

    Also also one T with “Gettysburg wow” on it.

  6. 6.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Somebody a couple of weeks ago told us he’d just lost his sister in law, who went to Florida and got Covid. She suffered from COPD.I don’t know her vaccination status.

    It’s still out there, people.

    We just got our latest booster.

  11. 11.

    New Deal democrat

    Per last Friday’s update, variant JN.1 and its subvariants continue to be over 95% of all infections, with no new variant on the rise. Wastewater particles as measured by both the CDC and Biobot continue to show slow declines, down roughly 85% from the Holiday peak. Neither is as slow as last summer. The two measures show regional variations, with the West being very low and the Midwest relatively higher. The other two regions differ between the two surveys.

    As noted in the post, at 7318 hospitalizations during the week of April 6 were lower than at any time during the pandemic except for 6 weeks last June and July, when the all time low was 6325. If current trends continue, we will break that record by the end of this month.

    Deaths also continued to decline through the week of March 16, to 961. Only mid-May through mid-August last year were lower, with a record low of 490. If present trends continue, we will also break that record by Memorial Day.

    Deaths for the fourth full year of the pandemic, April 1 through March 31, look set to be 65,000, only about half of last year’s total. If this trend continues, next year will truly be equivalent to a normal flu season. The elderly and the unvaccinated continue to be particularly vulnerable.

  12. 12.

    Lapassionara

    @NotMax: that so many people have evidently forgotten the Trump administration’s mishandling of the pandemic is mind boggling. He should be no where near the White House again.

    and this shedders nonsense.

  13. 13.

    New Deal democrat

    Per last Friday’s update, variant JN.1 and its subvariants continue to be over 95% of all infections, with no new variant on the rise. Wastewater particles as measured by both the CDC and Biobot continue to show slow declines, down roughly 85% from the Holiday peak. Neither is as slow as last summer. The two measures show regional variations, with the West being very low and the Midwest relatively higher. The other two regions differ between the two surveys.

    As noted in the post, at 7318 hospitalizations during the week of April 6 were lower than at any time during the pandemic except for 6 weeks last June and July, when the all time low was 6325. If current trends continue, we will break that record by the end of this month.

    Deaths also continued to decline through the week of March 16, to 961. Only mid-May through mid-August last year were lower, with a record low of 490. If present trends continue, we will also break that record by Memorial Day.

    Deaths for the fourth full year of the pandemic, April 1 through March 31, look set to be 65,000, only about half of last year’s total. If this trend continues, next year will truly be equivalent to a normal flu season. The elderly and the unvaccinated continue to be particularly vulnerablE.

  14. 14.

    New Deal democrat

     

    @lowtechcyclist:

    FWIW, I agree with your skepticism about BNO.

    Note their DOOOMish framing of last week’s death count, which was one of the lowest of the entire pandemic.

  16. 16.

    SomeRandomGuy

    Thinking back to four years ago, what do we know now that we didn’t know then?

    1) mRNA vaccines are so good, they even made TFG seem to have a major accomplishment.
    2) Republicans really will kill their fellow Americans with disinformation, both directly, and indirectly. They just need to not know the *specific* people dying. Note their horror in saying they killed Herman Cain, when they likely caused thousands of other deaths, which they didn’t care about
    3) infection with Covid might not provide meaningful protection against reinfection
    Whoops, everyone knew that.
    4) Infection with Covid might not be a “die, or don’t die” issue; there might be post-infection issues, as with, e.g., polio
    Damn, everyone knew that, too. Both of these go back to point 2, Republicans really will kill their fellow Americans with disinformation, both directly, and indirectly.

  17. 17.

    Soprano2

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I need to take hubby to get his latest booster, since his doctor’s office doesn’t do that. I’m going to try to get them to give me one too, even though I’m under 65. Because I have asthma I can usually get the pharmacist to give it to me.

  18. 18.

    narya

    @Soprano2: Good luck! I got one last week (I’m having surgery next month and I’ve noticed there are SICK PEOPLE in hospitals . . .). I would think that the asthma PLUS being his caregiver would get you a shot.

  19. 19.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    @Soprano2: Good luck. (Spoken as someone who got the XBB 1.5 last Tuesday. My arm hurt for a day, and my brain was foggy on Wednesday, but nothing more beyond that, and hopefully I’m somewhat protected against the recent variants.)

  21. 21.

    MobiusKlein

    We got COVID in the Mobius household, and it still sucks.

    3 or so days of bed rest, on the mend now. Slowly

  22. 22.

    StringOnAStick

    So, when the numbers are quoted for Long Covid, do they include people who had just a few months of issues with those for whom it’s now their lives?  Because I was in the former group and an fully recovered now, but I wonder if that lingers on in the data set.

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