July 4 is the goal, Biden says, for when “small groups will be able to get together” after “long hard year”
“That will make this independence day something truly special, where we not only mark our independence as a nation, but we begin to mark our independence from this virus.” pic.twitter.com/6efjJnX49c
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) March 12, 2021
NEWS: In his speech tonight, President Biden will announce he is directing all states, tribes, & territories to make all adult Americans eligible for the vaccine NO LATER THAN May 1st.
Senior officials say the President has the authority to do so “via HHS.” @CBSNews
— Sara Cook (@saraecook) March 11, 2021
1 in 4 American adults has been vaccinated! https://t.co/xS9ImfzkD5
— Sarah Kaplan (@sarahkaplan48) March 11, 2021
We will hit 100 million shots tonight https://t.co/ipsoWm7hOl
— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) March 11, 2021
It was discussed and was something Trump didn’t want to do https://t.co/WDxpD6SsBI
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 11, 2021
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PHOTOS: India’s elderly are standing in long lines at vaccination sites, then rolling up their sleeves to get shots protecting them against the coronavirus. https://t.co/mmvxxaOJgo
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 12, 2021
Nagpur becomes first Indian city to return to lockdown https://t.co/JS3tuUE24p
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 12, 2021
For years, North Korean defectors have resorted to an underground network of brokers to call and send money to their families in North Korea. But they are increasingly out of touch with their loved ones in North Korea amid the coronavirus pandemic. https://t.co/UESLvl1rik
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 12, 2021
Russia on Friday confirmed 9,794 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total caseload to 4,370,617https://t.co/omThKs7KIp
— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) March 12, 2021
All coronavirus restrictions lifted from New Zealand's largest city https://t.co/iKessojEXj pic.twitter.com/0pbmhaAI5h
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 12, 2021
??Vaccine update! (Global)??
Vaccines now starting to roll out across Africa. New to the Bloomberg World Map of Vaccinations this in the last couple days include:
???? Kenya
???? Uganda
???? Angola
???? Rwanda
???? Ghana
???? Ivory Coast
(Much of this is joint vaxx procurement like Covax)— Derek Wallbank (@dwallbank) March 11, 2021
We’re no longer No. 1 https://t.co/haGIs1VOzv
— Carlos Tejada (@CRTejada) March 12, 2021
"Brazil is becoming a threat to global public health."
Brazil has exceeded 2,000 Covid-related deaths in a single day for the first time and infection rates are still soaring. One epidemiologist shares his fears.
Find out more: https://t.co/zMJzXLBeeQ pic.twitter.com/palxo36GzE
— BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) March 11, 2021
Covid vaccines to top the agenda at 'Quad' meeting https://t.co/F2ytCQdv49
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 11, 2021
The U.S. is sitting on tens of millions of vaccine doses the world needs. Those tens of millions of doses from AstraZeneca are awaiting clinical trial results, while countries that authorized the vaccine beg to have them https://t.co/ldfPK5t0mi
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 12, 2021
I understand the folks who want the FDA to approve the AstraZeneca as soon as possible but this seems like an important sticking point. https://t.co/9LtBJoY6xN pic.twitter.com/W9xxSiTigX
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) March 12, 2021
Some European countries are suspending AstraZeneca vaccinations over worries about blood clots. Denmark, Iceland & Norway announced suspensions. Denmark said vaccinations would be halted for at least 14 days after cases of severe clots were reported https://t.co/WBlCRJVecM
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 11, 2021
AstraZeneca vaccine delays are "enormous problem", Ireland's deputy prime minister Leo Varadkar says https://t.co/7yWxVqaGe8
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 11, 2021
Canada says AstraZeneca vaccine is safe after Norway and Denmark suspend use https://t.co/tDDQpqHwlu pic.twitter.com/A2RYndE2G4
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 12, 2021
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Dr. Fauci told me that high school students were "very likely" to be vaccinated by the fall semester. On Sunday he also predicted that based on age de-escalation studies that are underway now, elementary students are "likely" to get vaccinated by the Q1 of 2022. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/D3DvicQ3rV
— Margaret Brennan (@margbrennan) March 11, 2021
10 days after receiving a 2nd dose of a messenger RNA vaccine, people who are asymptomatic are far less likely to test positive & unknowingly spread SARSCoV2. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna manufacture the two mRNA vaccines https://t.co/THbTVtOReD pic.twitter.com/Y65WQJ6cHu
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 12, 2021
Vaccinating kids against Covid: Indiana scientists are working on a vax for children by reverse-engineering the rotavirus genome to serve as a vector for a snippet of SARSCoV2's spike protein. Together they could vaccinate against both infections. Preprint https://t.co/kIJunxeUPT
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 12, 2021
New findings on 2 ways children become seriously ill from #coronavirus infection https://t.co/3JlBe4Y2yn
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 12, 2021
RT @OECD: The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the complexity of the journey from R&D to a jab in the arm ?➡️?#SupplyChains for developing & producing #vaccines involve many steps and multiple countries. Learn more ? https://t.co/gjir5PgYFk pic.twitter.com/Xw10z2DnVy
— Equity & Health (@equitylist) March 11, 2021
The next time you read an credible-looking article about the horrible side-effects of the Pfizer vaccine, you may be reading something written in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Putin is engaging in a full-throated disinformation campaign against Western vaccines. https://t.co/FQleGwSpoD— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) March 11, 2021
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Despite the #COVID19 #vaccines there are places in the USA where new cases are soaring.https://t.co/HPycVNPnXS pic.twitter.com/OGmNEO9uMW
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) March 11, 2021
And how many would be pleased by the resemblance
— Adam Weinstein (@AdamWeinstein) March 12, 2021
NBC News: States with Republican governors had highest Covid incidence and death rates, study finds.https://t.co/6W8MdouqT0
via @GoogleNews
— brian o (@proudCanadavet) March 12, 2021
Or, Texas already really fucked up its #COVID19 response. https://t.co/e0R7mAQNTk
— Harry Turtledove (@HNTurtledove) March 12, 2021
Texas Atty General threatens to sue the city of Austin unless it rescinds its mask mandate https://t.co/j3M2l5Y6Br
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 11, 2021
How it started How it’s going pic.twitter.com/ZvYAnRWRFq
— Roy Edroso (@edroso) March 11, 2021
I would like to apologize to the makers of Jurassic World for ever doubting the premise that they would re-open the park. https://t.co/T7zEWcTw74
— Matthew Federman (@matthewfederman) March 12, 2021
The Bucks County PA GOP called elderly residents with "Johnson & Johnson" on the caller ID …to get them to show up at a petition signing event. https://t.co/FrNXG8gPPv
— Will Jordan (@williamjordann) March 11, 2021
YY_Sima Qian
On 3/11 China reported 0 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Imported Cases
On 3/11 China reported 9 new imported confirmed cases, 10 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 suspect case:
Overall in China, 8 confirmed cases recovered, 10 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 3 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 435 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 182 active confirmed cases in the country (177 imported), none in critical/serious condition, 244 asymptomatic cases (all imported), 1 suspect cases (imported). 4,594 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
On 3/12 Hong Kong reported 60 new cases, 6 imported (from Indonesia & Belgium) & 54 domestic (5 of whom do not yet have source of infection identified). There is an outbreak associated with a fitness club, with 50+ cases over the past several days.
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY yesterday:
New cases = 151. Now at 1173 deaths.
Positivity at 1.6%
155 cases in the hospital, 41 in the ICU
42% hospital beds available, 37% ICU beds available.
p.a.
Who was the poor schmuck tasked w contacting tRump Org about attending the vaccination…
Mary G
I haven’t been posting in these threads because for some reason, don’t know what it could be, I am sleeping at 3:12 a.m. instead of wide awake and thanking AL for articles to read. I had to do it tonight because this is my immuniversary (two weeks from second Moderna shot) and I wanted to once again thank AL for producing these amazing threads and keeping me informed on especially the world situation, along with YY_Sima Qian, Amir, Sloan Ranger and the Aussies.
Also, too, the OC has executed an amazing turnaround from our hideous numbers of a week or two ago. We only had 56 new cases yesterday and 139 today. Adjusted daily cases per 100,000 is down to 6 (100+) at the peak. Test positivity 3.2%, and health equity Quartile Positivity Rate 4.1%. One puts us into the red tier range and the other two put us in the orange tier range, but we are in the purple/worst tier until we can keep it up for 3 weeks. Let us pray the reopening of the theme parks and spring breakers’ partying keep us there.
gkoutnik
My wife and I got our first Moderna jab on Wednesday. We live in upstate NY but were spending time at and working on our rental house out toward the end of Cape Cod. I had been monitoring nine vaccination appointment sites (we were eligible for jabs in both states) and finally found one with two app’ts at the same time, within walking distance… from our NY home. Seven hour drive, jab the next day, seven hours back yesterday. I felt slightly nauseous for over 24 hours, and we both had pain in the injection site.
We were jabbed by two different nurses. “My” nurse told me to use Tylenol, not Ibuprofen, for any pain, and to exercise the arm. My wife’s nurse did not tell her that, and she took Ibuprofen and didn’t exercise and had a lot of pain (we’re both fine now). But “her” nurse told her more about scheduling the second shot than “mine” did. These were County Dep’t of Health employees and should have been more thorough and comprehensive.
On another note – the Laurie Garrett tweet about where new cases are “soaring,” Oneonta, our NY home is toward the top of the list. Interestingly, no real mention of this in local media. Small city of about 7,000, which doubles when students of two colleges (SUNY and Hartwick) are in town. They are almost entirely to blame for the “soaring” cases. That’s why we’re spending a lot of time on the Cape, where we can isolate very easily.
Don’t want to miss a chance to once again thank AL for her hard and excellent work.
Chyron HR
Joe, please don’t set symbolic re-opening dates, that’s a Former Guy thing.
rikyrah
Bucks County GOP should be shot?
satby
@Chyron HR: The difference is TFG was blowing smoke and setting arbitrary dates, and Joe is proposing a goal date, giving us the means to get to it with expanded vaccine access, and giving people a realistic hope of getting there. Night and day difference.
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 numbers. Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 1,575 new cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 320,939 cases. He also reports three new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 1,203 deaths — 0.37% of the cumulative reported total, 0.40% of resolved cases.
There are currently 17,074 active and contagious cases; 147 are in ICU, 67 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 2,042 patients recovered and were discharged, for a cumulative total of 302,662 patients recovered – 94.3% of the cumulative reported total.
10 new clusters were reported today: Jalan Industri Dua, Jalan Tempua, and Jalan Kunci Air in Selangor; Jalan Pelepas Dua in Johor; Lintang Bayan Lepas in Penang; Ladang Bukit in Terengganu; and Jalan Main Bazaar, Sena, and Buloh Pasi in Sarawak.
Jalan Tempua, Jalan Kunci Air, Jalan Main Bazaar, Sena, and Buloh Pasi are community clusters. The rest are workplace clusters.
1,568 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 751 cases: 111 in older clusters; 23 in Jalan Industri Dua, Jalan Tempua, and Jalan Kunci Air clusters; 560 close-contact screenings; and 57 other screenings.
Sarawak reports 173 cases: 22 in older clusters; 11 in Jalan Main Bazaar, Sena, and Buloh Pasi clusters; 106 close-contact screenings; and 34 other screenings. Johor reports 134 local cases: 23 in older clusters, 10 in Jalan Pelepas Dua cluster, 52 close-contact screenings, and 49 other screenings. Penang reports 132 cases: two in older clusters, 26 in Lintang Bayan Lepas cluster, 53 close-contact screenings, and 51 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 103 local cases: 14 in older clusters, one in Jalan Laksamana cluster, 38 close-contact screenings, and 50 other screenings.
Sabah reports 56 local cases: four in existing clusters, 42 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings. Perak reports 44 cases: 36 in older clusters, one in Jalan Laksamana cluster, four close-contact screenings, and three other screenings. Kelantan reports 43 cases: nine in existing clusters, 24 close-contact screenings, and 10 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 32 cases: 17 in existing clusters, 10 close-contact screenings, and five other screenings. Melaka reports 25 cases: 19 in existing clusters, and six close-contact screenings. Perlis also reports 25 cases, all in an existing cluster. Kedsh reports 23 cases: one in an existing cluster, 13 close-contact screenings, and nine other screenings.
Terengganu reports 16 cases: one in an older cluster, 11 in Ladang Bukit dan Jalan Laksamana clusters, three close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Pahang reports four cases: one in an existing cluster, two close-contact screenings, and one other screening. Putrajaya also reports four cases: one in an existing cluster, two close-contact screenings, and one other screening. And Labuan rep[orts three cases: one close-contact screening, and two other screenings.
Seven new cases today are imported: five in Kuala Lumpur, one in Johor, and one in Sabah.
The deaths reported today are a 69-year-old man in Sabah with diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease; a 69-year-old woman in Sabah with diabetes, hypertension, and obesity; and a 59-year-old man in Kuala Lumpur, DOA with diabetes.
debbie
@rikyrah:
The Bucks County GOP head: An “unintended technological error.” These kind of tactics have to be prosecuted.
satby
And because it’s just so freaking ironic, at the doctor’s office I may be laying off a bunch of them for 6-8 weeks anyway (anti-vaxxers first). The primary doctor suffered a retinal detachment yesterday and is on bed rest pending surgery, and out for 6-8 weeks recovery after that. If I can’t arrange substitute doctors to cover we will be unable to be open all the days we normally are. There are two other part time doctors, but they also work at other offices. So I now have a way to ease the antivaxxers out.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: The difference is, Joe means it.
Sloane Ranger
Sorry but probably won’t be able to post yesterday’s figures from the UK today.
I am off to have my 1st shot of a vaccine. As the centre nearest me is still mopping up the 60-64’s with underlying conditions I am having to travel to a centre about 8 miles away. Unfortunately, as I don’t drive it’s going to involve catching 2 buses to get there and a journey time of about 1 and a half hours with the same to get back.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: You are always so much more precise than me ?
Baud
@satby:
Not sure when the Morning Thread will be up, but Pete will be on MJ this morning.
Robert Sneddon
An interesting report from Scotland, a study of healthcare workers and their families shows a 30% drop in familial COVID-19 infections after the healthcare workers in question were immunised.
Scotland like the rest of the UK prioritised healthcare workers for vaccination against COVID-19 so the study had a deep-time spread back to December 2020 as well as over 140,000 sample cases to work with. This indicates that vaccinating people seriously reduces the spread of the disease even if it’s only one person in a household that’s covered as that’s one less vector within a given family ‘bubble’.
prostratedragon
@debbie: Wire fraud, eh?
satby
@Baud: jeezus, don’t tell lowtechcyclist.
Betty Cracker
Heard something that somewhat restored my faith in humanity yesterday — a story that took place at a Tampa Bay area FEMA vaccination site. It was told to me by my friend — I’ll call her M — who is a 50-something engineer and immigrant from South America. M now takes care of her 40-something sister, who has Down’s syndrome, full time since they lost their mom to COVID last year.
M is a U.S. citizen, but her sister is undocumented, which makes getting paperwork for pretty much anything dicey as hell. They lived in terror that she would be found and deported to an almost certain death during the Trump era. Anyhoo, M was determined to get her sister vaccinated because the sister is at high risk, and when M heard the FEMA site was taking people of all ages with qualifying medical conditions, she drove to the site, and they waited in line in their car.
Soon, a National Guard soldier approached the window to do intake and asked M if she had a doctor’s note documenting that her sister has Down’s. M said no, but hey, it’s self-evident, right? The soldier said documentation was required, but he’d see what he could do. He walked back to the tent and came back a minute later, leaned toward the window and dropped a form into M’s car, and said, “Ma’am, when you get to the vaccination point ahead, just give them this form that is filled out with your sister’s name, and you’ll be all set,” indicating to M where to write in her sister’s name.
It worked, and when the sister was getting vaccinated, the nurse asked M if her sister lived with her. M said yes, and the nurse said, “That makes you a caregiver, so you can also get a vaccination if you want one right now.” So, both got their vaccinations, thanks to the kindness and humanity of the National Guard and FEMA crew.
Amir Khalid
@Sloane Ranger:
No apology needed. Go get vaccinated, that’s the most important thing, and post when you can.
satby
@Betty Cracker: Beautiful story to start the day with, thanks Betty!
Matt McIrvin
Israel is about to hit # of shots administered = population. Of course, because they’re mostly using a two-shot vaccine, what this really means is that a little over half the population has gotten shots and 40-something percent are fully vaccinated.
And, yes, last I heard they’re not vaccinating the Palestinians in the occupied territories, which is a big problem. But it’s interesting to see how their numbers are affected by high vaccine coverage, as an indicator of where we could be going. They’re coming off a big COVID wave and their per-capita case numbers are actually twice as high as the US, but that could be largely because they’re also testing more. Their test positivity rate is lower than the US right now. And their death rates are WAY down, presumably because they’re vaccinating the most vulnerable people. Deaths per capita are half the US, time-lagged CFR is something like a quarter of the US.
Eyeballing it, I’d say they haven’t yet achieved anything like true herd immunity but they’re already keeping a lot of people from dying by vaccinating the highest-risk people.
NeenerNeener
@Sloane Ranger: good luck!
Matt McIrvin
…also, the UK seems to be doing pretty well with its gamble on the “delay the second shot for maximum coverage” strategy, though that could be in part the result of other variables. They seem to be really smashing this thing right now. They’ve also got a really massive testing program going on, in excess of either Israel or the US.
YY_Sima Qian
Mom in Upstate NY got her first shot this week, dad is already fully protected, more than 2 weeks after his second shot. Neither had much adverse reaction, other than soreness at the injection site and low grade fever for a day. A tremendous relief! I have been worried about them for the past year.
Robert Sneddon
@Matt McIrvin: There’s been a big uptick in test numbers in the UK but this is being driven by the partial return of schools to in-classroom teaching and testing of all pupils who are actually going to school now.
Generally the Test and Trace operation that was meant to try and reduce spread collapsed under the second wave of cases starting in the autumn — trying to trace the contacts of ten thousand new cases each day and get them to isolate just didn’t happen. When the numbers peaked at 80,000 new cases a day they basically gave up trying.
nevsky42
As of 7:45 this morning there were a LOT of Virginia CVSes marked as having appointments available in places I don’t normally see, like Richmond and Alexandria. More often than not the openings are along the VA/NC border…
Matt McIrvin
@Robert Sneddon: What the UK, the US and Israel all have in common is that they’re all countries that have had recent waves of massive community spread, so test-and-trace types of control just aren’t going to work under current conditions–they’re leaning on mass vaccination as the magic bullet. We’re undoubtedly going to be exploring the limits of that as well as what it can do.
Laura Too
@Betty Cracker: That is so beautiful! Tears of joy and relief!
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: So Ozark, did you get your shot?
Laura Too
@YY_Sima Qian: I am so happy for you and your parents! My parents are “only” 1500 miles away but I know the stress-my sister is in Australia and it has been so hard.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker: Aw, that’s awesome. That is a very nice story to start the day with, thanks Betty!
mrmoshpotato
A study was needed?
Rethuglican govs: Hoax virus!
Hooper: Ha, ha – they’re all gonna die.
Uncle Cosmo
GQP would say, Why are fraud? Why? What we do wrong? Bait and switch is name of our game!
TomatoQueen
Betty’s story made all the onions come out.
J R in WV
@YY_Sima Qian:
The best news we’ve had from you in months. So glad for you!! Hang in there YY Sima Q. Wife and I will get our second shot next week, public health clinic willing!
Searcher
How does the number of does of Sputnik V distributed compare to the number of doses of Pfizer/Moderna’s vaccines?
I’m curious because after we had good evidence that the vaccines were, in fact, safe and effective, the complaints of the “Everyone should listen to me, I would have done a much better job on this pandemic” commentariat took up the cry of “We should have been vaccinating before we got the results of the clinical trials!!!” (along with “We should have done challenge trials!!” and “Why are we bothering with two doses? I bet one is good enough.”).
And it occurs to me that we actually have a data point in Sputnik V, which was distributed before testing was finished.
So, were they able to distribute a significant number of doses? Did it make a notable difference anywhere it was distributed? Or did it turn out that the challenges of ramping up production were large enough that there was no point in distributing a million or two doses before testing was finished?