Joe Biden calls for nationwide mask mandate.
"Let's institute a mask mandate, nationwide, starting immediately—and we will save lives." https://t.co/hECiEtQ31u pic.twitter.com/6lF7LzCFT8
— ABC News (@ABC) August 13, 2020
"If everyone contracted it, even with the relatively high percentage of people without symptoms … a lot of people are going to die."
Any attempt to get coronavirus herd immunity would lead to massive death tolls, Fauci warns. https://t.co/03kAPcYhP7 pic.twitter.com/l47TZJvVnh
— CNN (@CNN) August 14, 2020
He keeps saying children with serious cases of COVID "often have underlying conditions." Explain to me how that makes things any better. Explain it to the millions of parents whose kids have "underlying conditions". Tell us how this isn't eugenics.pic.twitter.com/mmKuBO3K8P
— Ed Overbeek (@EdOverbeek) August 13, 2020
US reported >1,470 #COVID19 deaths on Wednesday, the highest single-day total yet in August & reflection of continued toll of early-summer case surge in southern states.
Even as new cases have fallen from late July peak, deaths remain persistently high.https://t.co/JTxYtLDlja pic.twitter.com/W4ITZce3SY
— Microbes&Infection (@MicrobesInfect) August 13, 2020
Public release of hospital data about the coronavirus pandemic has slowed to a crawl, 1 month after the Trump administration ordered states to bypass the CDC and report stats directly to HHS https://t.co/goFhBukun1 via @WSJ
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 13, 2020
Perspective: The US has more Covid cases every 8 hours than South Korea has had in 8 months.
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) August 14, 2020
Just 7 months after the first #Covid19 case arrived in the US, 166,000 Americans have already died from the virus. US deaths make up about 22% of global fatalities attributed to the virus.
>5M Americans have contracted the virus (confirmed cases). Source: https://t.co/yaCps7tqSR pic.twitter.com/KYZIOCEjyA— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) August 13, 2020
Herd immunity means 1 million dead Americans. That's what it would take to get to herd immunity. That's not a plan—that's a catastrophe.
— Dr. Tom Frieden (@DrTomFrieden) August 13, 2020
this impressive journalism underscores truth of something ?@ZekeEmanuel? told me early in the pandemic:
Southern states that boasted of low coronavirus counts were just sitting on dry kindling – which now has been lit
https://t.co/86BhuGry9Y— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 13, 2020
The Trump admin’s haphazard mask give away, from @HelenBranswell and team.
A 140-student charter school got 37,500 masks. Few poultry producers got any. “If you can’t find a method to the madness a few months later, it may mean it’s all madness.” https://t.co/zEwm4rVI0p
— Matthew Herper (@matthewherper) August 13, 2020
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WHO is asking people worldwide not to despair as #coronavirus cases surpass the 20mln mark. ~733,842 people have died. "Behind these statistics is a great deal of pain … But I want to be clear: there are green shoots of hope," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. pic.twitter.com/8URyylSuY4
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 13, 2020
New Zealand racing to track down the original source of the new coronavirus outbreak https://t.co/G9WLSXv6Ty
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 13, 2020
Australia encouraged by drop in new Covid-19 cases https://t.co/yVG2v6EWxZ
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 13, 2020
Africa’s #COVID19 mystery: Antibody surveys across Africa show a large proportion of people has been infected — but the continent has been spared the worst ravages. 1 in 20 Kenyan adults have been exposed. Yet Kenya’s COVID death toll is under 500 https://t.co/Aw7iUqOUoL
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 13, 2020
Researchers in Rwanda have created a new mathematical approach that could make pooled testing a more efficient way to screen for COVID-19. That would be a big advantage in developing countries that have limited testing resources.
https://t.co/GvWvrDIctx— The Associated Press (@AP) August 13, 2020
Tougher fines for coronavirus rule-breakers announced, as UK Prime Minister gives go ahead for next stage of lockdown easing in Englandhttps://t.co/EWBY4bCMs0
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) August 13, 2020
Spain's Aragon region grapples with #coronavirus 'fire.' As one of Europe's worst-affected areas, clinics are packed & a field hospital is being set up as doctors scramble to control a surge in infections. Spike started w/ outbreaks in a working-class area https://t.co/LtX7OgcVcu pic.twitter.com/T7bSyoklbz
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 14, 2020
The French government declared Paris and Marseille and its surrounding area high-risk zones for the coronavirus, granting authorities there powers to impose localized curbs to contain the spread of the disease https://t.co/fa4LhvMDQE
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 14, 2020
ASIA TODAY: South Korea reports 103 new virus cases, one of its biggest daily jumps in months, as officials express concerned that infections are getting out of control in cities as people increasingly venture out in public. https://t.co/2OLm0MNgjr
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 14, 2020
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un lifted a lockdown in a major city near the border with South Korea where thousands had been quarantined for weeks over coronavirus worries, state media say. https://t.co/KDbJBQTdIA
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 14, 2020
Coronavirus jolts Malaysia's economy into first contraction since global financial crisis https://t.co/1Qkh2otFIp pic.twitter.com/IvtnbynoTW
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 14, 2020
Indonesia’s president calls on all citizens to turn the COVID-19 crisis into an advancement opportunity and pledged health care reforms in an national address ahead of the country’s 75th anniversary of independence. https://t.co/j5QlXYA1cg
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 14, 2020
Indonesia's only vaccine production company recruits 1,620 volunteers to test a potential coronavirus vaccine developed by a Chinese company in so-called phase 3 clinical trials. https://t.co/4q8jqBLNCM
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 14, 2020
Madagascar president's herbal tonic fails to halt Covid-19 spike https://t.co/HAUkUFGFn4
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 13, 2020
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#COVID19 clinical trials lack diversity, accoding to a new study. Despite disproportionately higher COVID rates of infection, hospitalization & death among people of color, minority groups are significantly underrepresented in vaccine & drug trials https://t.co/X9yO6YPvlb
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 14, 2020
via @NYTimes #Covid19 characteristics of an uncontrolled cytokines as the dominant driver of mortality is not without precedent. We knew this was also the cause of the lethality of the 1918 influenza. We are just slow learners & implementors. https://t.co/bxbrIg6p3O
— Dr. Mark JS Miller (@docmmiller) August 13, 2020
29 #Covid19 vaccines are in clinical trials (ie being tested in people), @WHO's latest vaccine tracker update says. Vaccines from 6 companies are in Phase 3, the large scale trials meant to show if a vaccine works. https://t.co/Tcff0xs20T
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) August 13, 2020
Face masks with valves or vents do not prevent spread of the coronavirus, according to the CDC https://t.co/fICM9zPF6u
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 13, 2020
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A White House Coronavirus Task Force report leaked to the @ajc said Georgia isn't doing enough to curb COVID-19. It "strongly recommends" a mask mandate, and closing bars and nightclubs in high-risk counties. My latest w/ @bluestein https://t.co/7DJPR7ZYZh
— Scott Trubey (@FitzTrubey) August 13, 2020
Other states should follow suit: It's now a felony in Illinois to assault a retail worker who is enforcing face mask rules https://t.co/warumGYj4C via @usatoday
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 13, 2020
We've updated our COVID stats page: New York State reported 10 new deaths today. There were 87,900 test results, a record high, of which 0.84% came back positive. In NYC, the positivity rate increased to 1.03%. https://t.co/qUCtbPTWpc pic.twitter.com/VdibI5x0J1
— Gothamist (@Gothamist) August 13, 2020
YY_Sima Qian
Yesterday, China reported 8 new domestic confirmed cases and 4 new domestic asymptomatic cases, all of them at Ürumqi in Xinjiang “Autonomous” Region. This is the 3rd consecutive day since the start of the outbreak that the city has reported single digit new confirmed cases. 14 cases are currently in critical condition, and 23 in serious condition. There are currently 464 confirmed cases (462 in Ürumqi, 1 each at Kashgar, Changji Prefecture and Xinjiang Construction Corps), and 130 asymptomatic cases (129 in Ürumqi, 1 in Changji Prefecture), plus 1 asymptomatic case exported to Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province. 49 confirmed cases recovered yesterday and were released from hospitals, 5 asymptomatic cases were released from medical quarantine, 2 serious cases have improved to moderate conditions, 1 critical case improved to moderate. There are 12,501 close contacts remain under quarantine and medical observation.
For the 5th consecutive day, Dalian in Liaoning Province did not report any new cases, confirmed or asymptomatic. 5 confirmed cases has recovered and was released from hospital, and 2 asymptomatic cases were also released from medical quarantine. 1 serious cases, 37 moderate cases, and 8 mild cases are currently in the hospital, and 6 asymptomatic cases remain under medical quarantine.
Yesterday, China reported 22 new imported confirmed cases, 24 imported asymptomatic cases, and 2 suspect cases:
* Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 5 confirmed cases, 3 are Chinese national returning from Kazakhstan, 1 each from Pakistan and Singapore; 1 asymptomatic cases, a Chinese national returning from Singapore
* Shanghai Municipality – 16 confirmed cases, 8 Chinese nationals returning from the the Philippines, 4 Chinese nationals returning from Côte d’Ivoire, 1 Chinese National returning from the United Arab Emirates, 2 Filipino crew members off cargo ships, 1 Russia national coming from Moscow, via Schipol; 2 suspect cases, no information released
* Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Qatar; 3 asymptomatic cases, 2 are Chinese nationals returning from Qatar and 1 from Singapore
* Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 9 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from the Philippines
* Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 3 asymptomatic cases, all are Chinese nationals returning from the United Arab Emirates
* Yangjiang in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines
* Foshan in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Singapore
* Xiamen in Fujian Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Singapore and the Philippines
* Fuzhou in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Indonesia
* Jinan in Shandong Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Kazakhstan
* Jiangsu Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
Today, Hong Kong reported 48 new cases, 46 from local transmission.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily numbers. 20 new cases reported. 13 cases from local infection: 11 from the new Tawar memorial-service cluster in Kedah, including one patient who had returned to Penang; one from the Muda cluster in Kedah, and one detected upon screening after presenting with severe acute respiratory infection. Seven imported cases: six Malaysians, returning from Lebanon (three), Taiwan, Indonesia, and Yemen; one non-Malaysian arriving from France. Cumulative reported total 9,149 cases.
Seven more patients recovered and were discharged, total 8,828 patients recovered, 96.5% of the cumulative reported total. Active and contagious cases being isolated/treated in hospital are up again to 196 patients; four are in ICU, one is on a respirator.
No new deaths since 31st July. The total remains at 125 deaths, 1.37% of the cumulative reported total and 1.40% of resolved cases.
rikyrah
Thank you for the information??
gkoutnik
When I heard that Biden had called for a national mask mandate, the thought came, unbidden: so now Trump will never do it. Not if Biden thinks he should.
I fantasize about hearing “If the Biden administration were in the WH right now, this is what we would do,” followed by a detailed, effective, science-driven plan. Daily or weekly.
We live in a small city and our mayor died tragically a few years ago, in December. Election was the following Nov; well-liked, unopposed Dem candidate ran a laid-back campaign through the spring. By summer the City Council had asked him to take on the job, he accepted. He’s been the (very successful) mayor since.
Talk about fantasy, but I can’t help thinking that this is an emergency, we have no President, and we’ve got a whole administration ready to go and take on these crises.
Amir Khalid
The Government here is not playing nice with people who break quarantine. A woman in Ipoh who was seen in public with her pink quarantine bracelet on was jailed one day and fined RM8,000 under the Prevention an Control of Infectious Diseases Act of 1988. Nur Emah Mohamad Hashim, 72, was just two days into a home surveillance order after returning from the UK. She was outed on social media, which is pretty much inevitable here these days; there is no public sympathy for people who violate Covid-19 restrictions.
raven
I went to the pharmacy yesterday and was told (by a pharmacist I really like) that flu shots were in and ,according to the CDC, it’s not to early to get one. So I went ahead and now I read the director of the CDC’s statement that you should wait until September or October
raven
OzarkHillbilly
US hospitals pressure healthcare staff to work even if they have Covid symptoms
But “Heroes Work Here,” another hollow slogan. We’re all just cogs in the big machine, of limited value, and eminently replaceable.
JPL
The local fire chief is in the ICU on a vent and I wish him well. I hope he returns to work and promotes wearing masks. The first thing I thought of was whether or not he had tried hydroxychloroquine .
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I guess I’ll wait until October. Thanx, cause I was gonna get it as soon as they showed up.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: I get one every year through work. They always do it at the beginning of October.
Amir Khalid
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s horrific.
debbie
@raven:
“Marketing scheme.” What a shock. //
Ken
Now I’m wondering what Dr. Fauci will say at his first press conference under the Biden administration.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid:
Sounds good to me. Fourteen days isn’t that long.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Appalling that employers don’t insist their sick employees stay home when they’re sick, especially now. How’s she gonna help out when she’s dead? //
raven
I’m going to say something to the pharmacist.
Amir Khalid
@gkoutnik:
America may need, if it doesn’t have already, a federal law that can be invoked to authorise centralised action to prevent and control infectious diseases, such asa mask mandate. Malaysia has such a law, and I believe so do many other countries.
NotMax
World reported cases total pass 21 million.
Countries with more than 500k reported cases:
U.S. – ~5338k
Brazil – ~3230k
India – ~2441k
Russia – ~913k
South Africa – ~573k
Peru – ~508k
Mexico – ~506k
.
raven
@Amir Khalid: That will start a shooting war here.
Amir Khalid
@raven:
I think you’re right, and that is unfortunate.
WereBear
They think there are always more cogs.
Fish rots from the head.
different-church-lady
Would have been something if our response to Polio had been, “Well, let’s just have everyone get Polio.”
WereBear
@different-church-lady: “Most people just walk it off! Go swimming!”
different-church-lady
@raven: That would HEIGHTEN THE CONTRADICTIONS!!1!
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — Again no deaths were registered in the last 24 hours of people who tested positive. 65 new confirmed cases have been reported, a test positivity rate of 1.6%. About half of the new cases are in the Grampian health board area but how many are linked to the Aberdeen outbreak cluster is unknown. This cluster is now up to 198 confirmed cases, Aberdeen remains locked down.
In other news from the UK 300 workers at a food processing plant in England have tested positive for COVID-19. The management of the facility are shocked! shocked! that people working on closely-packed food production lines indoors with limited ventilation might spread this disease easily. Fingers will be wagged most vigorously, I am certain.
Ohio Mom
Raven:
I wonder if you can get a second flu shot later in the season? I’d put in a call to your PCP for advice on that.
Another point to remember is that there is a stronger flu shot for the over-65 set. As we age, our immune systems weaken and so we can benefit from a stronger vaccine.
YY_Sima Qian
@Amir Khalid: Instances of similar breaches of quarantine in China caused similar popular reactions in China back in Mar. The infamous videos of local authorities locking people into their apartments actually only happened a few time, each time it was frustrated community workers taking matters into their own hands against repeated offenders. There is also a notorious case of a Chinese Australian (a high level manager working for Bayer China) going out jogging without mask while under 14 day home quarantine after entry into China, and was caught on video verbally abusing a security guard who was trying to convince her to go home. It caused such popular outrage that she was promptly fired by her employer and was expelled from China.
These cases helped convince the government to go for centralized quarantine of all infected cases, all close contacts, and all person entering the country from abroad. Surprisingly, there’s is no legal or administrative penalties in China for breaking self-quarantine, but there is for lying to, or withholding information from, contact tracers.
YY_Sima Qian
News hot off the presses in Guangdong Province in China:
1 new domestic confirmed and 3 new domestic asymptomatic cases reported by Lufeng County of Shanwei City. The confirmed case works at a supermarket in Shenzhen, and traveled to her home town at Lufeng with her three children on 8/6. She experienced throat discomfort on 8/7, fever and diarrhea on 8/8. She attempted to self-medicate, but was unsuccessful. She visited a fever clinic on the evening of 8/12, found to have pneumonia in the lungs. She tested positive on 8/13, and was confirmed on 8/14.
Epidemiological investigations has already kicked into high gear at both Shanwei and Shenzhen. Shanwei has traced and tested 3,184 individuals who has had contact with the confirmed case: passengers on the same bus from Shenzhen, residents of the same compound at Lufeng, medical staff at the fever clinic, etc. Of the 1105 test results received so far, 3 are positive – all relatives of the confirmed case, all of whom are asymptomatic so far. Shanwei’s daily testing capacity has surged from 2.5K / day to 23.5K / day.
Meanwhile, Shenzhen has tested 1,730 individuals who are connected to the confirmed and asymptomatic cases, and collected 2,140 environmental samples from the cases’ living and work places.
Both cities have placed the residential compounds the cases lived at under lock down, and all connected individuals under home quarantine. The supermarket the confirmed worked at is closed and being disinfected.
I am sure more information will emerge in the coming days. Going by the prior experiences of Harbin, Mudanjiang, Jilin City, Beijing Xinfadi, Ürumqi and Dalian, 1 case showing up at a fever clinic probably means a cluster of dozens of cases may have already formed. I think Shenzhen is the more worrying location, being a dense metropolis of 20+M, one of high tech hubs of China and the world, lots of domestic travel, with huge number factories large and small both within the city and neighboring Dongguan and Huizhou that forms probably the biggest manufacturing cluster in the world. The company I work for has a big satellite office in the city. Shenzhen is not a major international travel hub, unlike nearby Hong Kong and Guangzhou. However, it is next to Hong Kong (where there is still a sizable outbreak that is not yet fully under control), and there are still thousands of people traveling across the border every day.
Another Scott
@raven: Relatedly…
(Points to a ScienceMag article.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Jager
My daughter is a school teacher in Santa Cruz, last month she flew to North Dakota to visit her mother at her lake cabin (my ex lives in Arizona in the winter). She masked up and went to the store for her mom. Some asshole in camo bibs and no shirt followed her around the grocery store making crude remarks and decided it would be clever to cough in her face. He got kneed in the nuts for his behavior.
She said, no one in the store wore masks and there was no protection for customers or workers. My kid said she was so nervous while she was there, she ran 3 times a day, wore her mother’s dog out.
Uncle Cosmo
Really??!?!??!
I’ve been over 65 for a few years now and I have never been informed of this by any medical professional – not in my four yearly visits with my PCP, not by any pharmacist who has offered me an injection.
Upon googling, I see that the higher-dose flu vaccine for geezers is trivalent (protects against 3 strains of Da Flew) whereas the normal version for the non-decrepit is quadrivalent (protects against 4 strains). So it appears that we Olds-sessile** who encounter that 4th not-included strain will likely be (I believe the technical term is) fucked.
** Opposite of Olds-mobile; for the amusement of those superannuated enough to remember discontinued auto models…
Mike in Pasadena
Thank you AL!
The Pale Scot
One way to to do it in the UK
People whose positive Covid-19 test was obtained more than 28 days prior to their death will now be excluded from the headline figure. This does not mean that any less or any more of them have died as a consequence of Covid-19
Coming to Florida real soon now
Sloane Ranger
@Robert Sneddon: The food processing plant in question is in Northampton, my county town. At least it goes some way to explain why cases have been steadily increasing locally.
As far as the UK generally is concerned, there were technical difficulties with the government coronavirus dashboard yesterday, preventing it from being updated. This is twice in a week.
They are still updating the data on deaths, using the new, UKwide agreed criteria of any death occurring within 28 days of a positive test so all I can report on that front is that there were 11 such cases today.
As far as cases are concerned, there were 1129 new cases in the UK on the 13th and 1441 reported today (as at 4pm local time). The trend remains upwards. England continues to have the bulk of the new cases with over 1000 on each day. The other Home Nations are in the teens.
The UK government has increased the fines for failing to wear a mask but that’s no use if the law isn’t enforced. There was a guy from the shopworkers union on the radio this morning with the same sort of horror stories about his members being insulted and threatened for trying to enforce the mandate I’ve heard here.
In good news, those of us over 50 will be eligible for a free flu shot this year but we will have to wait until after the over 65’s get theirs.
featheredsprite
Sturgis:
Several of the bikers are actively being infected. They’ll go home next week, exposing people on the way. Covid cases and deaths will increase and probably peak in October.
Is that the “October surprise” Team Trump is planning?