Visit https://t.co/ddwWZdNCgg or text your zip code to 438829 to find a location near you. #WeCanDoThis pic.twitter.com/ukXycdWN0y
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) May 21, 2021
60.8% of all American adults have received at least one vaccine shot; 48.8% are now fully vaccinated.
85.1% of Americans age 65 or older have received at least one shot; 73.5% of them are now fully vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/PrD2M9lU5Y
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) May 22, 2021
In 120 days, we've gone from 6% to 61% of adults with at least one shot. The benefits of this vast acceleration are clear (??).
Now: 43 days to get 23m more US adults their first shot. Let's get to 70% of adults w/ at least one vaccination by July 4!https://t.co/8D5BKLr7dc
— Ronald Klain (@WHCOS) May 21, 2021
The US had +29,014 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 today, bringing the total closer to 33.9 million. The 7-day moving average declined to 27,400 new cases per day, its lowest level since last June 19. pic.twitter.com/ZHIwFg5qgZ
— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec) May 22, 2021
When was the last time there were less patients hospitalized for covid in the US than today (27,185)?
—April 3, 2020
The last time the test positivity was 2.0%?
—Not since the pandemic beganhttps://t.co/xStmHRzwg2 pic.twitter.com/cueVCITYpq— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) May 22, 2021
======
. @WHO :
• As of 31 Dec2020, total number of deaths attributable to the #COVID19 #pandemic is at least 3 million — 1.2M >officially reported.
• Excess mortality for 2020: the 3.4M deaths reported to WHO = undercount: Actual, at least 2-3 times higher.https://t.co/hMQsrgXS4N— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) May 21, 2021
Vaccines stop variants but the WHO still cautions that overseas travel isn't safe https://t.co/FbWcrZvR8H
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) May 22, 2021
India reports daily rise in coronavirus cases of 257,299 https://t.co/lGhBX60RVu pic.twitter.com/I8Qom8odf2
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 22, 2021
EXPLAINER: Why India, the world’s largest maker of vaccines, is struggling to meet its own domestic needs for the shots amid a startling surge of infections. https://t.co/vRcsRLOwam
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 22, 2021
Coronavirus: How Covid-19 crushed India's healthcare systems https://t.co/EOIL3ImTNa
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 22, 2021
More details: 550,000 South Korean troops engaging with US forces will get vaccines from the US, Biden says. That is both for the South Koreans sake as well as for the sake of the US forces, Biden adds. https://t.co/uZAwZF7Vb3
— Kylie Atwood (@kylieatwood) May 21, 2021
Taiwan is in the grip of its first major COVID-19 surge. Total cases, which had been below 1,300 through the entire pandemic, have surged to more than 3,100 in the span of a week https://t.co/kK9upjxKnX
— TIME (@TIME) May 22, 2021
Taiwan orders toughest restrictions so far as Covid infections spike https://t.co/vV2DOvVB7P
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) May 16, 2021
Taiwan is pressing the U.S. for help with COVID-19 vaccines as it struggles to contain a worrying new outbreak https://t.co/tH8TgFLSJm pic.twitter.com/K27iO9DEst
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 22, 2021
The share of Moscow residents who have been vaccinated against coronavirus is lower than that of any other European city, the Russian capital’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has said https://t.co/cnQ5peGsON
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) May 21, 2021
Argentina ordered a nine-day lockdown in the worst-affected parts of the country to help curb the spread of the coronavirus as the nation struggled to contain a second wave of the outbreak. https://t.co/3SrodKKQyt
— COVID19 (@V2019N) May 21, 2021
Brazil working to contain Indian coronavirus variant in northern state https://t.co/VUoFXXQlfa pic.twitter.com/QIJRDU9rxB
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 22, 2021
COVID-19 deaths in Latin America surpass 1 mln as outbreak worsens https://t.co/nOLZP6d10I pic.twitter.com/wzH2Pd4CLe
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 22, 2021
The New England Patriots’ team plane has delivered 500,000 Chinese-made COVID vaccines to El Salvador and in the process inadvertently inserted itself into a testy, geopolitical fight for influence in Latin America.
by @APjoshgoodman
https://t.co/G5h5VWA1dn— AP NFL (@AP_NFL) May 21, 2021
======
.@PHE_uk estimates #Covid19 vaccination has averted 13,000 deaths in people 60 & older in England, & prevented 39,100 hospitalizations in people 65 & up. It estimates 2 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine is 85% – 90% protective against symptomatic Covid. https://t.co/WTCLN4iH5d
— Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) May 21, 2021
My comments on an excellent new study on delaying the 2nd dose of Pfizer COVID vaccine to 3 months, in people over 80. ?
A well done story by local journalist @DerekStaahl.https://t.co/RoBHcFKv0W
— Shane Crotty (@profshanecrotty) May 20, 2021
? But, if you have enough doses, getting the 2nd dose on the recommended schedule is still probably better.
— Shane Crotty (@profshanecrotty) May 20, 2021
? Also, if you are in America and you miss your scheduled 2nd dose, don't worry! Your opportunity has not expired! Just get that 2nd vaccine dose when you can! Whether it is at 6, 8, or 12 weeks you will still get the benefit of that second dose. But please get the 2nd dose!
— Shane Crotty (@profshanecrotty) May 20, 2021
This is an outstanding interview w @michaelmina_lab. Clearly explains why ‘breakthrough’ infections are not really ‘breakthrough’, how we’ve been getting it wrong all along in interpreting PCR tests, and a whole host of useful insights. Stellar.https://t.co/OpUelQ3mdA
— Joseph Allen (@j_g_allen) May 20, 2021
======
California’s top health official says the state no longer will require social distancing and will allow full capacity for businesses when the state reopens on June 15. https://t.co/xuTCUFFosj
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 21, 2021
Store mask policies are a mess and nearly impossible to enforcehttps://t.co/PDQQDTIWhl
— Nathaniel Meyersohn (@nmeyersohn) May 21, 2021
This is completely nuts, but at least the people burning piles of bodies in India will be relieved to know it was all a hoax https://t.co/J1Nr1WDX55
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) May 21, 2021
NotMax
Nepal and Malaysia on the cusp of becoming countries #42 and #43 to surpass 500k cumulative cases reported.
Meanwhile, locally,
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY stats:
155 new cases – 61% were people under 40, including 42 children between 0 and 19. People in their 20s are still leading the pack in infections.
1267 COVID deaths since March 2020
2.8% test positivity
181 people hospitalized, 33 in the ICU
55% with at least 1 jab
48% fully vaccinated
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
As of today, Malaysia has already passed 500,000 total cases: We’re at 505,116 cases. More numbers to come, as soon as the DG of Health’s daily statement is posted.
YY_Sima Qian
On 5/21 China reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic & 1 new domestic suspect cases.
Guangdong Province reported 1 new domestic confirmed & 1 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Anhui Province report 1 domestic suspect case. There are 4 domestic confirmed & 11 domestic asymptomatic & 1 domestic suspect cases in the province.
Liaoning Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. There are 14 domestic confirmed & 6 domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
In Yunnan Province, 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 10 domestic confirmed & 3 domestic asymptomatic cases.
Imported Cases
On 5/21 China reported 9 new imported confirmed cases, 22 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:
Overall in China, 12 confirmed cases recovered, 16 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 1 was reclassified as confirmed case, and 408 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 301 active confirmed cases in the country (270 imported), 4 in serious condition (all imported), 370 asymptomatic cases (349 imported), 2 suspect case (1 imported). 7,360 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 5/21, 483.343M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 16.645M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 5/22, Hong Kong reported 1 new case, an Indonesian domestic worker, unclear whether the case is imported or domestic at this point.
Mousebumples
Going to celebrate my mom’s birthday this weekend! Other than the grandkids (2 y/o, 21 mo, and 3 mo), we’re all fully vaccinated, including being 2 weeks post shot #2. I hope the weather’s nice to be outside, but it’ll be great to have some family time together!
eclare
@Mousebumples: Great news!
Barbara
Everyone should read the NYMag interview. It is illuminating on so many levels.
WereBear
I’m staggered that people can believe this is a hoax and nothing is happening in the rest of the world. I never thought I’d see a mass delusion in person but here we are.
Elizabelle
@Barbara: Here’s the NY Mag article link.
David Wallace-Wells: What really happened with that weird Yankees COVID outbreak? [Interview with Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina]
eclare
@WereBear: And he was a general! I wonder if taking hydroxy for so long has impacted his thinking. I took it for six weeks years ago, and I definitely had wild and vivid dreams.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 6,320 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 505,116 cases. He also reports 50 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 2,199 deaths — 0.44% of the cumulative reported total, 0.49% of resolved cases.
There are currently 53,682 active and contagious cases; 662 are in ICU, 370 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 4,694 patients recovered and were discharged, for a cumulative total of 449,234 patients recovered – 88.93% of the cumulative reported total.
17 new clusters were reported today: Jalan Cemerlang Empat and Taman Sungai Jelok in Selangor; Jalan Laman Setia Tujuh and Redong Satu in Johor; Jalan Pantai Port Dickson in Negeri Sembilan; Industri Nibong Tebal in Penang; Sungai Batu, Jalan Bypass Kuantan, and Kampung Gau in Pahang; Industri Batu Berendam in Melaka; Taman Kesang Indah in Melaka and Johor; Kepulauan Tumpat and Kampung Bakong Kecil in Kelantan; Abaka and Indani in Sabah; Melikai in Sabah and Labuan; and Lembah Keramat in Kuala Lumpur.
Taman Kesang Indah, Kepulauan Tumpat, Kampung Bakong Kecil, Redong Satu, Abaka, Indani, and Melikai are community clusters. Lembah Keramat and Kampung Gau are religious clusters. Taman Sungai Jelok is a high-risk group cluster. The rest are workplace clusters.
6,317 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 1,646 local cases: 85 in clusters, 1,152 close-contact screenings, and 409 other screenings. Sarawak reports 749 cases: 41 in clusters, 494 close-contact screenings, and 214 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 652 local cases cases: 105 in clusters, 334 close-contact screenings, and 213 other screenings. Kelantan reports 613 cases: 72 in clusters, 429 close-contact screenings, and 112 other screenings.
Johor reports 477 cases: 105 in clusters, 276 close-contact screenings, and x96 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 396 cases: 53 in clusters, 266 close-contact screenings, and 77 other screenings. Penang reports 359 cases: 21 in clusters, 180 close-contact screenings, and 158 other screenings. Kedah reports 301 cases: 72 in clusters, 93 close-contact screenings, and 136 other screenings.
Perak reports 276 cases: 22 in clusters, 141 close-contact screenings, and 113 other screenings. Pahang reports 227 cases: 89 in clusters, 96 close-contact screenings, and 42 other screenings.
Sabah reports 189 cases: 77 in clusters, 71 close-contact screenings, and 41 other screenings. Terengganu reports 185 cases: 88 in clusters, 80 close-contact screenings, and 17 other screenings. Melaka reports 175 cases: 38 in clusters, 95 close-contact screenings, and 42 other screenings.
Labuan reports 36 cases: 30 in clusters, five close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Putrajaya reports 18 cases: 17 close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Perlis also reports 18 cases: 14 close-contact screenings, and four other screenings.
Three new cases today are imported: two in Kuala Lumpur, one in Selangor.
Cermet
@WereBear: Nothing about the deplorables surprises me; they are purposely ignorant, proud of said stupidity and determined to drag all intelligent people down like crabs. Deplorables is an accurate description of these entitled people who purposely cause themselves and others harm. Look no further than cheney/bush and the Iraqi war.
mrmoshpotato
Happy we have a President again.
debbie
@eclare:
Jeez, I hope not. I’ve been on it for more than 40 years. Still won’t stop masking up, though.
OzarkHillbilly
@WereBear: I’ve been witnessing mass delusions ever since Reagan.
“Tax cuts raise revenue.”
mrmoshpotato
@OzarkHillbilly: We all know that the tax cuts will pay for themselves. That’s just logic.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
They paid for themselves for Republicans.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@mrmoshpotato: War too. Invade Iraq and the oil fields will pay for the war. Heck we’ll probably make a profit!
Test positivity rate in PA is at 4.5% but it was at 5 point something a week ago and over 6% the week before. I’m feeling good about the first tentative local vacation weekend we’re taking in June.
Robert Sneddon
@Elizabelle: The Haaavaaad guy sounds competent but… he’s promoting antigen tests over PCR for good logical reasons but a year ago all we had was PCR, the trustworthy antigen tests he’s recommending only became readily available a few months back. He’s also quite blase about “yeah, just pop a 30-buck antigen test twice a day and if it comes back negative go out and enjoy yourself.” Riiiight. He’s also assuming a lot of folks would actually self-isolate appropriately if they got a positive antigen result back rather than saying, “Hey it must have been defective and I’ve got a date to get coffee at Starbucks with a dozen friends. Where’s my coat?”
I recall a year back when cruiseliners were in the headlines, someone got a positive PCR reading off samples lifted from the carpets two weeks after a curiseliner had been emptied of passengers, many of them sick with COVID-19. That’s what PCR does, it magnifies parts of the unique proteins that make up the SARS-COV-2 virus. It didn’t mean that it was detecting viable virus particles, just residue which couldn’t infect anyone.
Elizabelle
@Robert Sneddon: Astute comment.
Another Scott
@Barbara: +1. It really is excellent.
Thanks for the pointer, AL!
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Robert Sneddon: Good points, but the thing that I took from the interview is that we’ve known for more than a year that PCR is not the right tool – it’s too sensitive and answers the wrong question. China did most of it’s diagnosis with lung imaging, IIRC.
Spending $100B to develop and rapidly manufacture cheap, accurate antigen/etc tests would save $trillions. And they’re still needed.
Messaging is hard, especially when we only have hammers to apply to the problem.
Cheers,
Scott.
Robert Sneddon
@Another Scott:
Cheap, rapid, accurate — pick any two out of three and there’s a 50% chance you’ll succeed.
The UK government offered very lucrative contracts to rapid-test companies back in March 2020 to get the sorts of antigen tests that are available today. They got a lot of prototype test kits but none that could pass quite lax positive/negative results reliably (something like 90% correct positives and 95% correct negatives). Antigen tests that can be trusted are available now but it’s taken most of a year to develop them and they’re still not cheap.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — 370 new cases of COVID-19 reported, still zero deaths. The test positivity rate is 1.8%.
Not much change from the last week’s trends. Vaccinations and testing are being pushed hard in Glasgow to try and damp down the outbreak of the 02-April variant (what used to be known as the Indian variant).
Sloane Ranger
Friday in the UK we had 2829 new cases. This is an increase of 6.1% in the rolling 7-day average. New cases by nation,
England – 2303 (down 4)
Northern Ireland – 84 (down 6)
Scotland – 414 (down 18)
Wales – 28 (down 17).
Deaths – There were 9 deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday. This is a decrease of 40% in the rolling 7-day average. Deaths by nation, England – 6 and Wales – 3.
Testing – 982,099 tests were administered on Thursday, 20 May. This is a decrease in the rolling 7-day average of 4.3%. The PCR testing capacity estimated by labs on that date was 645,811.
Hospitalisations – On Wednesday, 19 May, 913 people were in hospital and 123 people were on ventilators on Wednesday, 20th. As of 17 May, the rolling 7-day average for hospital admissions was down 9.2%.
Vaccinations – On 20 May, a total of 37,518,614 people had received their 1st shot of a vaccine and 21,659,783 had received both. In percentage terms this means that 71.2% of all adults in the UK have had 1 shot and 41.1% were fully vaccinated.
General – Just been announced that Germany is stopping almost all travel between it and the UK. Those people who are still allowed to travel will have to quarantine for 10 days when they arrive. The German government are concerned about us bringing the Indian variant there.
Barbara
@Robert Sneddon: There is no question that some of his complaints ignore the fact that our knowledge started if not at zero, close to it. Timing matters. But we shouldn’t keep doing things the same way when we gain new information that would allow us to make better decisions.
Another Scott
@Robert Sneddon: $100B (or pick your number of choice) can buy a lot of tests.
Make it cheap for the people. Hand them out like candy. They will pay for themselves – easily.
They don’t have to be perfect. Nothing is. Make them as good as home pregnancy tests. That’s more than good enough.
Cheers,
Scott.
Robert Sneddon
@Another Scott: The UK government offered a lot of money for working quick-test products back in March/April 2020. What they got in the fast prototyping lane were tests that were at best the equivalent of flipping a coin in terms of accurate results. One set of submitted quick-test prototypes were wrong 80% of the time when evaluated, about as much diagnostic use as a chocolate teapot.
How good the current antigen tests will be with the assorted SARS-COV-2 virus variants now starting to dominate caseloads is another matter which is still to be determined by real-world results rather than manufacturer claims and PR writeups.
Catherine D.
Woo-hoo, my Excelsior vaccine pass finally showed up today, with a one year expiration date.
Another Scott
@Robert Sneddon: To be clear, I didn’t and don’t expect tests to come out and be available a month after cutting the check. But my view is that when contracts were let for vaccine development, similar contracts should have been written for, say, 10B rapid, accurate, cheap antigen/antibody tests. Quickly pay for the R&D and startup chemicals and production facilities and guarantee that the companies would be paid – just like we did with the vaccine development. Let the researchers go to town with no constraints and find the best things that work and get them in production. Refine the process over time.
Every day the economy was shut down cost the world billions of dollars and hundreds/thousands of lives. Any widely-deployed tests would save a lot of money no matter how much they cost.
We still should be doing that now. This virus is going to be with us a long time, and we know this isn’t the last pandemic. We need to be smarter about how we move forward.
Cheers,
Scott.
YY_Sima Qian
@Another Scott:
China only used CT scans to diagnose COVID-19 in early February last year, and only in Hubei Province. The reason was dearth of RT-PCR testing kits and reagents, and what kits were available were not that accurate, leading to long delays between infection/symptoms onset and confirmation/diagnoses.
China does distinguish between confirmed cases (with symptomatic COVID-19 disease) and asymptomatic cases (without disease), and was criticized for “fudging numbers” until the health authorities started publishing asymptomatic cases from Apr. 1, 2020. However, from TTI and epidemic response perspective, asymptomatic and confirmed cases are treated the same. Given the very low case counts in China, even the asymptomatic cases are sent to hospitals for isolation & monitoring. China also appears to have a much narrower definition of asymptomatic case. Asymptomatic cases alone typically do not trigger mass screening and localized lock downs, however.
Michael Mina has been promoting mass regular screening with antigen tests since early on in the pandemic. For a lot of countries that are only looking at suppression and keeping the medical system from being overwhelmed, that makes a lot of sense. For countries that successfully eradicated COVID-19, and continue to seek eradication when faced with each new outbreak, that may not be adequate. Countries that are pursuing the eradication strategy would not want to take even the slightest chance of missing a infectious case seeding another cluster, leading to another costly lock down to achieve eradication again. Chinese health authorities never publish CT count figures for positive cases, although I would be surprised if they do not have the data and do not take it into account in their response. However, for Chinese bureaucrats who are facing the prospect of career ending punishment whenever a cluster develops undetected under their jurisdiction, they will absolutely use the most sensitive tool available, and dial that sensitivity to 100. This often leads to overreaction, such as treating persons that are mostly likely recovered cases shedding dead viral particles as potentially infectious, keep them in isolation under medical observation until they test negative twice > 24 hrs apart, and tracing and quarantining their F1 & F2 close contacts for 14 days. It also is very effective at helping to achieve eradication. Detecting and isolating infected cases with RT-PCR, before they become infectious, prevent further transmission from occurring.
There are also practical concerns with Mina’s proposal. Even if the rapid antigen tests are cheap and readily available, testing every individual daily/semi-daily will still be very expensive. Who will shoulder the cost? People will also forget, do not want to bother, or buy into conspiracyg theories. See experience in western countries WRT masking. If implemented, daily antigen screening at population scale will be politicized and become fodder for conspiracy spinning.
Subsole
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah. Turns out you get a lot of those when you decide to mothball your critical thinking skills…
Subsole
@Another Scott: All very good points.
We will be fighting this virus for a long time yet, due almost entirely to conservative intransigence. That’s here, England, India, Brazil, everywhere…it really just staggers me.
No one with a microphone is going to say as much, but Covid really is conservatism’s Great Chinese Famine.
Subsole
I am curious what sort of conspiracy theories are floating around in other countries about this…
Most of the ones over here in the Anglophone countries seem to be alt-right retreads of the Protocols, cheerfully disseminated by the Murdochs.
Is it pretty well universal, or are people seeing regional variation? Does it all feed back to one or two nodes? Who’s fanning it and why? Which countries had the best luck fighting it? Curious what it looks like outside the American Bubble.
Anyone with connections abroad want to weigh in?
Another Scott
@YY_Sima Qian: Good points.
I think he’s arguing for more nuance, and I think we all agree that that’s important as we learn more and as we in the US and elsewhere start to get better control over the pandemic. Community spread numbers are vitally important and should inform the response – if they’re rising then much more testing is needed than if they’re low and stable. If they’re low and stable, then testing can be concentrated at places where new carriers might enter the “bubble” – airports, transportation hubs, large venues, etc.
Once community spread numbers are down, then one can think about eradication. Otherwise, IMHO, hypersensitive PCR tests are giving answers to questions that aren’t relevant to reducing community spread. Especially if the PCR tests take more than a couple of days.
(Of course, it can take 2 weeks for antibodies to show up after infection and be reliably detected, so that’s a big issue if one hopes to use it for spread-control. :-/)
Labcorp offers home PCR test kits for people as young as 2 years old and in-office antibody tests. So things are available, but not as available as they ideally would-be.
No silver bullets yet. :-(
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sloane Ranger
@Subsole: Here in the UK, we have the usual COVID deniers and Q Anon based conspiracies but these are very much a minority and, at least since Boris got it badly, most Conservatives are taking it seriously. There was push back among the pro-business/libertarian Right against restrictions after the 1st surge and a demand that everything open up again, which Boris tried. But those people seem to be keeping quiet since opening up led to the 2nd surge, which caused BoJo to cancel Christmas at very short notice.
The main conspiracy over here, led by the Brexiteers, is that the Europeans are using COVID as an excuse to punish us for leaving the EU.
Origuy
JaneE
My anxiety level dropped significantly when my husband and I became fully vaccinated. Even more so now that the case rate in the county has dropped to 1 a week, with only one active case.
Now if we can just get the rest of the world, we can call this done. Actually we still need to get all the people in this country who want to be vaccinated, including the kids, but those people are still safer with the lower transmission levels from vaccinated/immune folks around them. And they are still working on that.
I won’t worry about the ones who refuse to be vaccinated. Like the lady said, they are the ones who have the higher risk of hospitalization and dying if they catch the disease. If they are fine with the risk, so be it. Again, lower transmission rates will help protect them, regardless. If Covid is still a problem for the unvaccinated populations in parts of the country they can always get the vaccination.