Perspective: Stunning photos of a year of coronavirus from a world-famous cooperative of photographers https://t.co/YemyD1ZYbg
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 27, 2021
… A new book, “Magnum 2020” (Magnum Photos, 2021) brings together the work of the cooperative’s photographers over the past year. As you’ll see in its pages, some of them covered the pandemic and some of them stayed home. They all pulled up their cameras to document it. For a lot of them, being constrained by the pandemic put a damper on their usual routine of constant travel. It made for a more reflective year, not just photographically.
Magnum’s current president, Olivia Arthur, writes in the foreword to the book:
“We don’t yet have enough distance from 2020 to know how the year will go down in history. Was it the end of something? The start of something else? Or merely a blip in an increasingly chaotic and fast-changing world? Something happened in 2020 that felt different from other periods of change and crises that we have experienced in our lifetimes, but then the drama is always more acute when you are living it. Let’s give it some time.”…
U.S. administers 367.9 mln doses of COVID-19 vaccines – CDC https://t.co/XpZeZODzsL pic.twitter.com/eUW39aovI8
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 29, 2021
Aug 28 (Reuters) – The United States has administered 367,911,870 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Saturday morning and distributed 439,428,235 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said…
The agency said 203,992,008 people had received at least one dose while 173,101,292 people are fully vaccinated as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Saturday…
About 820,000 people received an additional dose of either Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccine since August 13, when the U.S. authorized a third dose of the vaccines for people with compromised immune systems who are likely to have weaker protection from the two-dose regimens.
======
India has given at least one #COVID19 vaccine shot to more than half of the eligible population, a milestone in a country that initially struggled to roll out enough doses for its 1.4 billion peoplehttps://t.co/7GChKqjrDz
— MicrobesInfect (@MicrobesInfect) August 28, 2021
India's new COVID-19 cases rise by 45,083 https://t.co/QiEzf0hzUh pic.twitter.com/sic3tyB2iV
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 29, 2021
Japan eyes mixed use of COVID-19 shots to speed vaccine rollout https://t.co/gTeN0fqVfR pic.twitter.com/wgOZZJXJME
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 29, 2021
Singapore is the first country in the world (of more than 1 million people) to fully vaccinate 80% of its population against Covid-19. This is the key threshold the government set for opening up. https://t.co/gCFw6TpxKl via @business
— Derek Wallbank (@dwallbank) August 29, 2021
Australia's COVID-19 cases hit new record as 'reopening' debate heats up https://t.co/x0wDVxRHGM pic.twitter.com/NS9lTIGbXt
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 29, 2021
New Zealand reports 83 local COVID-19 cases as Delta outbreak grows https://t.co/Aq40zfbFSc pic.twitter.com/rTKDwNbD1N
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 29, 2021
Russia's state statistics agency indicated a record 50,421 deaths related to the coronavirus in July. That’s about 6,000 higher than the one-month record in December. https://t.co/kxsz1S4i4v
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 28, 2021
Great Britain:
So many festivals have returned – but what do people think about the Covid risk?
For Jay, people catching the virus is “inevitable” & a risk worth taking – but people like McKenzie have changed plans & aren’t going anymore.
My latest for @BBCNewsbeat ?https://t.co/h1tiVmMWtS
— Manish Pandey (@_ManishPandey) August 28, 2021
Thousands in Berlin are protesting coronavirus measures, despite bans against several planned gatherings. More than 2,000 police officers are stationed around the city. A counter-protest, called the “Love Train,” supports efforts to slow the virus. https://t.co/8x1iiUWyWB
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 28, 2021
Most everyone gets the coronavirus vaccine in the arm. Butt this Brazilian city is shooting lower. https://t.co/5CAai3Xbtk
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) August 27, 2021
Canada election: Justin Trudeau rally cancelled after angry protests https://t.co/iY7jc8yeno
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) August 28, 2021
… Dozens of protesters gathered at the rally and shouted obscenities before Mr Trudeau could speak.
The Liberal prime minister is hoping to secure a majority in a snap general election he called earlier this month.
But in recent days his canvassing efforts have been dogged by protests against Covid-19 vaccines and government restrictions.
At Friday’s rally, his campaign bus had to be escorted away by police after the event was cancelled following a two-hour delay.
The 49-year-old said the protests showed how the pandemic had been hard on everyone…
======
Health investigators in the U.S. are finding it nearly impossible to keep up with the deluge of new COVID-19 infections and carry out contact tracing efforts. States are hiring new staff and seeking out volunteers to bolster the ranks of contact tracers. https://t.co/V2SWRVR55G
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 28, 2021
The mutation rate of SARSCoV2 is at least 50% higher than previously thought. The virus mutates about once a week—significantly higher than the rate estimated previously. UK findings suggest new variants could emerge sooner than earlier estimated https://t.co/JtANxkMkk1 pic.twitter.com/SxxSv6Nlwh
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) August 28, 2021
New: the unclassified summary of Biden's Covid-19 origins report is out.
Four elements of the IC think the virus spread first through animals, while one thinks it came from the lab. (It had been 2 and 1, respectively, back in May.) None are particularly confident.
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) August 27, 2021
Topline: they basically don't know. China is stonewalling, they're pretty sure it wasn't a bioweapon. They've vaguely sure it wasn't genetically created. It hit humans no later than Nov., 2019. Beyond that, there's too little info to know if it came via animals or the Wuhan lab.
— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) August 27, 2021
Intelligence agencies came to broad agreement that COVID-19 was not developed as a biological weapon, and that Chinese officials did not have foreknowledge of the virus before it emerged. They also agree it is unlikely the virus was genetically engineered. https://t.co/TyfqKB1yoq
— Michael Wilner (@mawilner) August 27, 2021
Statement by President Joe Biden on the Investigation into the Origins of COVID-19 | The White House https://t.co/NDtBI1E54p
— Laura Rosenberger (@rosenbergerlm) August 27, 2021
======
Rumbles from the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally have hardly cleared from the Black Hills of South Dakota, and the reports of COVID-19 infections are streaming in. Meade County, epicenter of the rally, now has a rate similar to the hardest-hit Southern states. https://t.co/AJlyO2R8kJ
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 28, 2021
Rumbles from the motorcycles and rock shows of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally have hardly cleared from the Black Hills of South Dakota, and the reports of COVID-19 infections among rallygoers are already streaming in — 178 cases across five states, according to contact tracers.
In the three weeks since the rally kicked off, coronavirus cases in South Dakota have shot up at a startling pace — sixfold from the early days of August. While it is not clear how much rallygoers spread the virus through secondary infections, state health officials have so far reported 63 cases among South Dakota residents who attended the event…
The aftermath of this year’s rally looks eerily similar to last year — when the event heralded a wave that did not subside until the winter.
But the pandemic fallout from the rally won’t be seen for weeks and an exact case count will likely remain unknown, Osterholm said.
Daniel Bucheli, a spokesman for the state Department of Health, said the virus spike is following “a national trend being experienced in every state, not just South Dakota.”
He also pointed out that Meade County’s vaccination rate of 45% lags behind the statewide rate of 56% eligible people vaccinated.
The city of Sturgis also downplayed the virus numbers, issuing a statement that blamed the increase in positivity rate on a “significant increase in testing performed to proactively reduce the spread of COVID-19” and accusing “individuals in the national media” of mischaracterizing the event.
Despite the more contagious delta variant, this year’s motorcycle rally was even bigger than last year. More than 500,000 people showed up during the 10-day rally…
Two bands that performed at the rally have canceled shows after musicians came down with the virus. Corey Taylor, the lead singer of Slipknot who had embarked on a solo tour, told fans he was “very, very sick” from COVID-19, though he did not say where he contracted it.
“This is the worst I’ve ever been sick in my life,” Taylor said in a Facebook video this week. “Had I not been vaccinated, I shudder to think how bad it would have been.”
Louisiana hospitals brimming with patients from the latest coronavirus surge are bracing for the added woe of a powerful, oncoming hurricane. Ida is expected to slam ashore as a fierce Category 4 hurricane Sunday with winds of up to 130 mph. https://t.co/nzyVJYUzgV
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 29, 2021
With Miss. hospitals at crisis levels, and a likely CAT4 hurricane bearing down, Gov Tate Reeves says that people in the Deep South are “less scared” of covid because, “When you believe in eternal life, then you don’t have to be so scared of things.”https://t.co/9rqDifF0yN
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) August 28, 2021
[Florida has mediocre COVID outcomes] “America’s Beloved COVID Governor Ron DeSantis Has Won the Pandemic!”
[Florida has unimaginably horrifying COVID outcomes] “This is a mystery that can never be explained and is certainly nobody’s fault” https://t.co/m4AnzUEXkJ— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) August 28, 2021
The NYT article quietly defending DeSantis should be read in its proper context: as an apologia for the news media's heralding of DeSantis over the last year, and why they actually weren't that wrong because DeSantis did everything fine actually.
— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) August 28, 2021
Florida didn't make a strong push to "vaccinate people," it made a strong push to vaccinate rich white people. When the federal government opened up mass vaccination centers to serve everyone else, DeSantis derisively called them "FEMA camps." https://t.co/Dw4Ac5MO5s
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) August 28, 2021
People really are underestimating the vaccine tourism effect skewing Florida's numbers. It's why Miami's are other worldly. A lot more of the upper class of Latin America flew to Miami to get jabbed than you think. https://t.co/2QEKxEIbKl
— What Biden Has Done (@What46HasDone) August 28, 2021
An unvaccinated teacher who worked despite symptoms (while waiting for test results) and took their mask off to read to students infected 55% of the class -> Outbreak Associated with SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 (Delta)… https://t.co/GUadQgmuxj via @CDCgov
— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) August 27, 2021
A mask mandate for 10 days after 10% of the student body is already quarantined. This won't be enough. Why we insist on prolonging spread is beyond me. https://t.co/AuoVZRNMOk
— Dr. Tara C. Smith (@aetiology) August 27, 2021
NeenerNeener
Monroe County, NY: 254 new cases according to the NYS Dept of Health.
And school hasn’t even started around here yet.
Edmund Dantes
FTFNYT extra hard.
What a trash article
edit – the coveted second comment. I don’t even know what to say or who to thank… my mom of course, the Almighty Flying Spaghetti Monster, my agent, the casting agent for taking a chance on me…
Chris T.
I’d ask Tate Reeves if he’s not scared, then, that I’d just released some sarin nerve gas and everyone at his press conference was going to die now.
lowtechcyclist
@Edmund Dantes:
Seconded, and with rusty farm implements.
I’ve totally had enough of reporting that’s as much about which politicians’ prospects have been helped or hurt by the news, as it is about the news itself.
That may make some sense when their next election is a month or two away, but it’s just constant.
And of course it’s their choice of how to cover the news that is a major input into which politicians’ prospects are helped or hurt, which makes the whole thing so incredibly disingenuous.
And their disparate treatments of DeSantis and the plague v. Biden and Afghanistan are a perfect example of the extent to which the nature of the coverage is purely their choice, and not remotely driven by the facts on the ground, let alone the history behind them.
YY_Sima Qian
On 8/28 China reported 0 new domestic confirmed cases (0 previously asymptomatic) & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.
Yunnan Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 2 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 22 active domestic confirmed cases there. The High Risk community at Ruili has been re-designated as Medium Risk. 1 community & 2 villages at Ruili remain at Medium Risk.
Jiangsu Province did not report any new positive confirmed cases. 58 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently 307 active domestic confirmed cases in the province.
Hunan Province did not reported any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed case recovered & 1 domestic asymptomatic case was released from isolation. There are currently are 93 active domestic confirmed (including 1 serious) & 12 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Henan Province did not report any new domestic positive case. 7 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There are currently 89 active domestic confirmed & 1 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Hubei Province did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 domestic confirmed cases recovered. There currently are 77 active domestic confirmed (34 mild & 43 moderate) & 50 active domestic asymptomatic cases in the province.
Shanghai Municipality did not report any new domestic positive cases. There currently are 9 active domestic confirmed cases in the city, 7 from the airport cluster & 2 from the hospital cluster. 5 residential compounds remain at Medium Risk.
Imported Cases
On 8/28, China reported 33 new imported confirmed cases (4 previously asymptomatic), 20 imported asymptomatic cases, 1 imported suspect case:
Overall in China, 119 confirmed cases recovered (49 imported), 23 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation (22 imported) & 4 were reclassified as confirmed cases (all imported), & 1,962 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 1,259 active confirmed cases in the country (641 imported), 9 in serious condition (8 imported), 446 active asymptomatic cases (374 imported), 1 suspect case (imported). 24,381 traced contacts are currently under centralized quarantine.
As of 8/28, 2,032.934M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 13.385M doses in the past 24 hrs.
On 8/29, Hong Kong reported 7 new positive cases, all imported (from the Philippines, Turkey & the UK, all of whom had been double vaccinated).
Tony Jay
“Some say the Red Tie Taliban are bad for America, others hail them as the Thin Red Line protecting America’s Faith Factories from a Godless Culture. We say the answer is somewhere in Idaho, probably in a diner, and it likes its coffee like it likes its country, strong, white and clogged thick with sugar.”
Chris T.
@YY_Sima Qian: Non-snark (for once): it’s really impressive that China has been able to squash Covid outbreaks lately, with the delta variant being so prevalent. Auckland let just one case in and now there are 80+ there and one in Wellington…
Brachiator
So I guess we can just shut down all the hospitals in this state. They clearly are not needed.
Also, I would expect that every Republican legislator in the state will reject health insurance.
SP123
That’s… not how positivity rates work. If you do more testing and nothing has changed in the underlying infection rate the positivity rate will drop.
JPL
Ozark, If you are lurking, I just want you to know that I’m thinking of you and your family.
p.a.
@Brachiator: My H.S. Latin teacher had a sign on the wall: “Flunk Now, Avoid the Rush!”
Tate & his ilk are also obviously gun humpers as well, so why wait for covid? They should go meet god today!
Ken
Overcount vaccinations by counting people from out-of-state, undercount deaths by not counting people from out-of-state. At least they’re consistent, if only in lying to make the state look better.
Brachiator
I would like to know what the hell this teacher was thinking. Could the parents sue the teacher should their kids require hospitalization?
This also reminds me of the recent story about Liberty University which reported 159 active COVID-19 cases with 500 students and staff members instructed to quarantine.
Some students appear to have accepted initiation into the Death Cult.
So do these students simply expect classes to continue as always because they “know” the risks? What do they expect the school to do when a student or teacher gets the virus?
The students seem to welcome sickness and death, for themselves and everyone else.
Cermet
All those packed ICU wards in Louisiana/New Orleans and no where to go (locally – the Northeast had room.) The storm is drifting some what eastwards and further strengthening; one would think that the sky god of the strange gun cult wasn’t exactly favoring them. Must be all that winning (or whining) they got under the orange AO still rubbing off. Glad I’m where their are no hurricanes, fires, earthquakes, zero flood risk (all about location, location) or blizzards (well, extremely rare.) Even winters have become wimpy and often have no snow, now. Better still, we have high vaccination rates and people that follow instructions from the Government. Blue States (and good location) rules!
Ken
@Brachiator: “I chose Liberty because they give you the freedom to not have masks or vaccines. Also they give you absolutely no freedom when it comes to drinking, drugs, sex, speech, and how you dress.”
YY_Sima Qian
@Chris T.: IMO, the difference with the Delta is that it is so infectious transmission chains are unlikely to die out in their own, any unidentified case (even asymptomatic) is likely to seed a cluster sooner or later, starts exponential growth again, especially in a population under loose restrictions & low vaccination rate.
The key difference between Chinese & New Zealand responses is the former’s mass screening strategy, repeated over & over. That is really the only way to identify all possible carriers. However, NZ has responded to the Delta outbreak so vigorously so quickly, I think there is still an excellent chance for suppression & reasonable chance for elimination .
The worst case scenario is a kind of purgatory w/ Delta, where there is severe NPI measures causing significant economic social consequences, but the Rt remaining at ~ 1 & daily incidence remaining at a high level (see Vietnam, Malaysia, NSW in Australia).
Anne Laurie
Well, no; the Liberty kids are convinced that they’re not gonna get sick or die. Bad things only happen to other people, who are not ‘saved’ and who feel immortal!
Let’s be honest, they’re not the only under-25s who haven’t quite figured out that Coyote the Trickster God is no respecter of age or person. Especially since so many of these kids have been raised in extreme right-wing bubbles, often home-schooled (like former LU student Madison Cawthorn). They’ve been decanted into the world without vaccines or most other safeguards…
Amir Khalid
Malaysia’s Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 20,579 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 1,706,089 cases. He also reports 285 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 16,087 deaths — 0.94% of the cumulative reported total, 1.12% of resolved cases.
There are currently 267,997 active and contagious cases; 1,009 are in ICU, 477 of them on ventilators. Meanwhile, 20,845 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 1,422,005 patients recovered – 83.35% of the cumulative reported total.
26 new clusters were reported today, for a cumulative total of 4,673 clusters. 1,470 clusters are currently active; 3,203 clusters are now inactive.
20,572 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 4,591 cases: 259 in clusters, 2,442 close-contact screenings, and 1,890 other screenings.
Sabah reports 2,577 local cases: 30 in clusters, 1,605 close-contact screenings, and 942 other screenings. Sarawak reports 2,522 cases: 241 in clusters, 1,769 close-contact screenings, and 512 other screenings.
Johor reports 1,852 cases: 322 in clusters, 933 close-contact screenings, and 597 other screenings. Kedah reports 1,755 cases: 42 in clusters, 1,089 close-contact screenings, and 624 other screenings.
Penang reports 1,378 cases: 117 in clusters, 440 close-contact screenings, and 821 other screenings. Kelantan reports 1,316 cases: 41 in clusters, 915 close-contact screenings, and 360 other screenings. Perak reports 1,208 cases: 297 in clusters, 377 close-contact screenings, and 534 other screenings.
Pahang reports 839 cases: 147 in clusters, 567 close-contact screenings, and 125 other screenings.
Terengganu reports 789 cases: 15 in clusters, 612 close-contact screenings, and 162 other screenings.
Kuala Lumpur reports 675 local cases: 13 in clusters, 285 close-contact screenings, and 377 other screenings. Melaka reports 636 cases: 302 in clusters, 228 close-contact screenings, and 106 other screenings.
Negeri Sembilan reports 329 cases: 115 in clusters, 136 close-contact screenings, and 78 other screenings.
Perlis reports 56 cases: 22 in clusters, eight close-contact screenings, and 26 other screenings. Putrajaya reports 48 cases: 31 close-contact screenings and 17 other screenings. Labuan reports one local case, found in other screening.
Seven new cases today are imported: five in Kuala Lumpur, one in Sabah, and one in Labuan.
The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) administered 336,642 doses of vaccine on 28h August. As of midnight yesterday, the cumulative total is 33,724,744 doses administered: 19.2 million first doses and 14.5 million second doses. 58.9% of the population have received their first dose, while 44.4% are now fully vaccinated.
New Deal democrat
Good news: the 4 biggest States – CA, NY, TX, and FL* – plus NJ and IL – all have flat to declining new cases week over week. As a result, today the US w/w increase is down to 6%.
Bad news: SD’s 7 day average is now reliable and it is bad. It went from best in the country 3 weeks ago, to bottom 10 a few days ago, to middle of the pack today. This cuts against the idea that SD may have stumbled close to herd immunity due to last autumn’s catastrophic outbreak. And if SD isn’t there, then neither are the best vaccinated States. It suggests a wave 5 of the pandemic could still hit the North hard this winter.
*no I don’t trust FL’s numbers either.
sab
@Brachiator: One of our hospitals in my city has finally mandated vaccines for staff. They had been at 70% vaxxed. So a protest of the mandate was held outside the main campus of the hospital with about 100 people.
Newspaper quoted two of the protesters. One was an unvaxxed operating room nurse. She’s just not ready yet. The other was a resident physician, who has no objection to vaxxing but doesn’t think it should be mandated. He does recommend it for those over 65. I googled the resident physician, and he is a graduate of Liberty College of Osteopathic Medicine.
I didn’t know Liberty has a med school. Also, I am wondering why my local hospital is hiring them if this is the caliber of graduates they are producing.
lowtechcyclist
@Brachiator:
To be fair to the students, yes, that was the implication of what they were told by ‘Liberty’ University. How does it make sense to say, no vaccines or masks required, and then turn around and force hundreds of students and faculty to quarantine when Covid makes its totally predictable appearance? Why this precaution, but not the others?
Those students should feel lied to. The college administration said a lot of things, but when push came to shove, they clearly didn’t mean them.
Ramiah Ariya
AL had shared a BBC article (a few days back) about the Southern Indian state of Kerala. This state is run by the Communist Party currently; and has been heavy with propaganda during the pandemic years, with a healthy assist from the international media such as BBC, Reuters.
In the article shared by AL, there was a report that was cited – this report (from an outlet named Indiaspend.com) claimed that the state of Kerala’s COVID death data contained the least amount of misreporting, compared to other states.
You will note in international reporting that whenever India’s death data for COVID are written about, there is always a caveat, that “these numbers are thought to be a vast undercount”. In reality, many nations have undercounted COVID deaths – but driven by political partisans in India, this discounting of Indian death data has been specific (to such an extent that even in Balloon Juice this so-called “disinformation” comes up).
The Indian COVID death data is very likely an undercount – but this was driven by the state governments. In the early pandemic days, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), an Indian Central Govt body recommended that states include deaths in which the patient had COVID symptoms, but had not been tested positive, in a separate category.
This guideline was ignored by all the states in India, thus leading to under-counting – something that the international media has deliberately muddied.
Now, I looked at the data that the BBC article was citing; and it led me back to The Newsminute, an online magazine that is notorious for lax editorial standards, and aligned with the ruling party in Kerala. I took a look at if it was really true that the undercounting by Kerala was the least; and found that there were major gaps in Kerala’s registered deaths themselves. These gaps are to such an extent that the state shows a substantial DROP in deaths during 2020 and 2021. My blog post on this is here.
The BBC seems to have given credence to these unreliable stats under what seem like ideological grounds.
Right now, it is this state that is driving most of the infections in India, and the state’s ruling Communists are mostly engaged in xenophobia and propaganda, assisted by such reports.
My suggestion for AL is to treat Indian newspapers, such as the Times of India or Indian Express, as adults instead of relying on the BBC. The BBC often gets stories about India wrong and misses crucial context.
lowtechcyclist
@Anne Laurie:
It’s kinda funny, all those fundagelicals who are so afraid the world will infect their souls that they construct these right-wing bubbles around themselves and their communities. But here in the middle of a worldwide plague, they’re apparently not the least bit worried that the world might infect their bodies.
MomSense
The two year old son of my former student is very ill with Covid. Mom is furious. She and her husband are vaccinated. The grandparents are vaccinated. All the people in their lives who are old enough are vaccinated and they always mask when they go out so this exposure was likely a random contact. She had a righteous rant on social media about the unvaccinated who don’t care about the innocent children they harm. Little Griffin looked so unwell and mom so tired.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ramiah Ariya:
The Times of India lol
Anoniminous
Single-sided RNA virus are highly prone to mutation as they have minimal error detection and correction mechanisms. Fortunately only a teeny-tiny fraction of mutations are viable and a teeny-tiny fraction of those are beneficial to the organism. The genetics and molecular biology of viruses are pretty well known so keeping up with the mutations doesn’t require a fundamental break through.
Here’s an article for those who want to dive deeper: Genetics of COVID-19
Amir Khalid
@sab:
I don’t know that I would consider osteopathy to be medicine as I understand it.
lowtechcyclist
@MomSense: Thoughts, prayers, and good wishes for Griffin and his parents. I just can’t imagine the pain of being where they are.
And it’s because of cases like this that my anger at the fundagelicals knows no bounds. They are welcome to believe whatever they want about God protecting them from Covid. But if they don’t love their too-young-to-get-vaxxed neighbor enough to wear a cloth mask when they go to the grocery store, if they don’t love that neighbor enough to spend an extra 15 minutes to get the shot when they’re in the pharmacy anyway, then their faith is meaningless, and they don’t mean a single word about any of this Jesus stuff. Fuck their worthless pretend faith.
And that goes double for you, Gov. Tate Reeves. People like you, whose words and example are heard and seen and all too often followed by thousands of others, are the reason the conservative sheeple are the way they are about vaccines and masks. Should I quote Mark 9:42 at you, dear sir? You’ve got it coming to you.
Betsy
@Cermet: Wow. Where are you?
I could use some of that.
prostratedragon
Rev. Jesse Jackson has been moved to Ability Lab, which sounds like preparation for him to go home fairly soon. However, Mrs. Jackson has been moved to intensive care. She is said to be breathing on her own. The ICU might be where the extra high flow oxygen facilities are.
Betsy
@New Deal democrat: What about social and individual behaviors that help to reduce transition?
I think you’re missing those again. Immunity — herd or individual — isn’t the only factor in case rates. Masking, distancing, outdoor vs indoor, all are just as important in spikes and valleys to the case rate.
And some states certainly have far better records on those behaviors than others. Heck, where I live, you can cross county lines and see a difference right away.
Betsy
@sab: Maybe this is your city’s worst hospital. Or is affiliated with a fundamentalist religion. Or has rightwing nutcakes on the board of directors.
Or all three!
Mousebumples
@Amir Khalid: in the US, a Doctor of Osteopathy (D.O.) can practice medicine along with M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) Some states might have different requirements for each, but Wisconsin allows both to be licensed.
My sister is an MD (from UW) but had looked at some DO schools when she was figuring out where to attend medical school. Some DO schools have a better rep than others, and any graduates that are licensed must have passed their boards.
Princess
Ron DeathSentence is the choice of the money boys, and I guess the NYT needs to reassure them their big investment in him hasn’t been in vain.
Also, someone needs to look into who owns stock in Regeneron. There’s a reason those southern governors are trying to pump its use over cheap vaccines.
Peale
@Brachiator: every time I get behind the wheel, I know I might die in a traffic accident. Which is why I don’t pull over whenever I hit a pedestrian or cyclist. They knew the risks, too and that whole “wait for the police” and “maybe get arrested” thing I’m supposed to do is just panty pissing nanny state liberalism at its worst.
Brachiator
@Anne Laurie:
The school has already reported 159 active Covid-19 cases and 500 people have to quarantine. The odds are not in the kids’ favor. There may be something besides belief in youthful immortality at play here.
lafcolleen
My teen daughters are back at school. Both are in H.S. Younger daughter’s freshman year was in person, with strict entry screening, masks, social distancing, pods and as much outdoor time (lunch, classes) as could be managed. There was an elearning option. Now she is a sophmore. We got through the year with no outbreaks although several students (a dozen or so) tested positive over the course of the year.
Older daughter is at an arts high school. Last year academics were online and inperson studio instruction reduced to 2 afternoons a week so social distancing and pods could be created. Again, no outbreak.
Both my daughters were vaxxed as soon as I could get them appointments.
Both are in school full time this year with masks in place.
At older daughter’s school, we got a notice last weekend that 2 students at school had symptoms and tested positive. My daughter had no symptoms and she was tested on Wed. it came back negative. Her school reported an 88% response rate to a survey about vax status and over 90% reported yes.
i am still working remotely but we did a survey and we had over 170 people out of 180 surveyed report they were vaxxed. I’m on a committee that is discussing whether to require vaccination to work in person. The majority viewpoint is moving to yes.
My husband’s employee announced a re-opening of the office for Oct 1 and vaccines required.
We are in Chicago. And there is unfortunately still some low vax rates in certain areas of the city. they are associated with communities that dont have strong connections to the health system or low/poor quality of connection to government systems.
So, not anti-vax in the public protest way but wary, detachted. However there is good mask compliance everywhere I go.
Robert Sneddon
Scotland — There were 7,113 new cases of COVID-19 reported yesterday with zero new reported deaths of someone who had tested positive (note that Register Offices are now generally closed at weekends). Test positivity rate is 13.5%. ICU bed occupancy numbers are up a little at 52, three up from yesterday while hospitalisations have increased by 13 to 507.
The positive test result numbers are somewhat inflated due to data collection delays from the past few days, indicative of a surge of at-home and central-lab testing over the past week or two.
There were just over 17,500 vaccinations carried out in Scotland yesterday (Saturday) with about 20% of them first-doses. This brings the total in the adult (18+) population to 91.1% first-dose and 82.1% fully vaccinated. The first-dose vaccination rate for 16 and 17-year-olds is now 46.8%.
Cermet
@Betsy: North central Maryland. Rather safe, weather wise.
smith
@Amir Khalid: You may be thinking of the British version of osteopathy, which I understand is a form of woo. As Mousebumples said, in the US DOs are licensed the same way, take the same boards, do the same procedures, and work in the same hospitals as MDs. The med schools they come from do vary in reputation, but then so do the ones producing MDs. Their training differs only in that it includes courses in traditional osteopathic manipulation (similar to chiropractic), but very few include it in their subsequent practices as physicians.
Uncle Cosmo
@p.a.:
My HS physics teacher posted above her blackboard, in large Gothic letters (one to an 8-1/2 x 11″ sheet of colored “construction paper”)
Miz D might’ve been a dead ringer for Olive Oyl but she had a snarky sense of sticking it to &/or endrunning the school admin long before “snark” was anything more than a word in a Lewis Carroll ditty. (Or for that matter the name of a galumphing intercontinental-range thermonuclear-tipped ground-launched cruise missile** that USAF based at Presque Isle in Maine).
** NB another term that didn’t exist until years later.
Uncle Cosmo
@Anne Laurie: The Trickster God those kids’ “spiritual leaders” led them to is the one Who tricks Himself and all his followers right off the cliff.
I refer, of course, to Wile E. Coyote…
Soprano2
Re: that first tweet. Some years go down in history as memorable and consequential – 1848 and 1968 come to mind. I think 2020 will more than likely be one of those years.
I found out last night that one of our regular customers has an aunt and uncle in their 50’s in Arkansas who got Covid. The aunt has already died, and the uncle is on a ventilator. Neither one is vaccinated. The person who told me that mentioned that they wanted to try “that medicine” as a “Hail Mary” pass kind of thing. I said “You mean ivermectin?” She said yeah. I told her that it doesn’t work, and that you can’t give that to someone on a vent anyway. The tragedy is that they have a 12-year-old daughter. I heard a similar story from my massage therapist on Friday about two people her husband used to work with, only they have two kids. It fills me with rage that these kids will be orphans BECAUSE THEIR PARENTS REFUSED TO GET A FREE SHOT! ??? What the fuck is WRONG with these people?
New Deal democrat
I’ve always maintained that those would be a factor in the peak of the Delta wave, just as I suspect they have been for other countries and previous waves.
What happens up North as the weather gets colder and more activity moves indoors is going to be a great concern if 100,000,000 people are still unvaccinated and have no antibodies from previous infection.
Uncle Cosmo
As long as you don’t end up in the crosshairs of a line of very localized & very violent T-storms. Here in north-central Baltimore City** I lost power for 16 hours a couple of Fridays back. About 10 years back when a nasty derecho blew through (also, coincidentally, on a Friday evening) the power outage was over 3 days and I had to relocate to the rec-room couch at my brother’s (all his power lines are buried & usually proof against storms).
Most every county in MD seems to be doing well w/r/t Miz Delta – but in the City** the risk remains very high. I make a point of shopping in the surrounding counties when necessary – which doesn’t help the local economy much.
** FYI Baltimore City is effectively MD’s 24th county – it belongs to no larger political unit below state level. Causes no end of problems for us, as people & businesses relocate to just outside the city limits to avoid paying local income & property taxes while still taking advantage of everything the metropolis has to offer.
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Chris T.: i would say he seems embarrassed, given his redface, but i am pretty sure it’s just rosacaea…
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Tony Jay: god told helen chenoweth not to wear a seatbelt
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
@Brachiator: the teacher reminded me of the old onion community voice piece, “if the heat doesn’t kill the elderly, i will”
the teacher’s variation: “if an active shooter doesn’t kill my students, i will”
sab
@Betsy: It is our best hospital. Also, the others ( including the Clevelamd Clinic affiliate) still don’t have a vax mandate.
sab
@Amir Khalid: My dad was a pathologist for many years. When he was a young doctor he thought DOs were quacks, and back then ( 1950s and 1960s) they were.
He spent his last twenty years at a teaching hospital, and he was quite impressed with the DOs coming through. As a pathologist he was aware of quality of doctors across the whole range of specialists, because so much of their work passed through the path lab
ETA He thought they were on a par with the MDs. But of course fundamentalist religious blinders create a different set of problems, where proving their faith to their tribe precludes critical thinking.
charon
@sab:
I broke a clavicle last April and the orthopedic surgeon the hospital referred me to was a D.O. I thought he was really good.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
One of Mama Cisco’s neighbors came down with covid. Vaxxed, mild symptoms. When she inquired about a follow up test, she was told it WASN’T NECESSARY?? Just do 10 days in quarantine and then she can go back to work!! She is now actively looking for a new doctor (and a follow up test).
Alabama is so screwed.
Another Scott
@Brachiator:
Update (from 8/27):
The double-think continues to be strong there…
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
A 70 yo friend of ours has had this horrible lingering awful cough for weeks now. His doctor sent him for Covid test and he tested negative. But still weeks very sick, short of hospitalization but bad. Plus a 100° fever for 3 weeks now.
He just checked in with another friend of his, same age, who said “That sounds just like the whooping cough I had two years ago.”
Even the vaccines that last for a lifetime don’t when we get older. Covid is making stressed out doctors neglect the slightly less obvious.
Chris T.
@sab: The whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine we got as kids—I’m assuming here that your age is vaguely similar to mine, somewhere within striking range of 60 or so—confers roughly 30 years of immunity.
Actually coming down with pertussis gives you lifetime immunity (we think) but it’s no fun. It’s not that dangerous for adults, other than potentially breaking ribs by coughing. (Broken bones are always dangerous as you can get an embolism, for instance.) You can also get bronchial scarring. I did, after my immunity wore off and I took a trip through northern Idaho and Montana.
The modern vaccine is supposedly better, but had I known, I would have asked for a pertussis booster. Coughing that hard for three months is enough to make you, er, sick.
(Seriously, I coughed until I barfed, quite a few times, and I picked up a lung wheeze I didn’t have before then. No broken ribs, thank FSM.)
Bill Arnold
@Chris T.:
Think of it as a bet that China will gain a big competitive advantage due to a very small percentage of the population suffering from (negative) long term sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, relative to countries that support (even if through ineffective action) the Right To Infect Others.
sab
@Chris T.: Same for our friend. Coughing until he either faints or barfs.
Another Scott
@Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant): My understanding is that it’s pretty well accepted that 10+ days after symptoms stop that people are no longer infectious. Getting a follow-up test is good for peace of mind, but it might not strictly be necessary. (Plus, depending on the test, it might not show anything meaningful anyway.)
E.g. CDC – Quarantine and Isolation:
FWIW.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
Wow. Thanks for the Liberty update.
These dopes can’t admit that they are following the science.
But if the students insist on ignoring recommendations I wonder what happens?
Damn, these people are stupid.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@Another Scott: Thanks for this!!