The highly-contagious Omicron subvariant XBB has surged to more than 50% of COVID-19 cases in the northeastern United States and risks spreading fast as millions of Americans begin holiday travel on Friday. https://t.co/3HTergAvMo
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) December 24, 2022
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There’s no room for #Covid complacency in 2023
Stark scenes from China show the pandemic is far from over. One solution is a laser-like focus on strengthening public-health systems https://t.co/E07lrCddAb— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) December 27, 2022
China to end quarantine for inbound arrivals, restart outbound tourism in "orderly manner". Major move towards formal end of zero covid & ending China's 3 yrs of isolation.
Part of broader policy that downgrades covid management to a less infectious disease @wolfblitzer pic.twitter.com/EcR2QDtkY3— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) December 26, 2022
Frontline healthcare workers in China say hospitals are struggling with a surge in COVID cases. There are fears that patients may will be turned away due to lack of beds and resources https://t.co/570f7z839D pic.twitter.com/IhVbL5Hg9U
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 26, 2022
Chinese authorities are going door to door and paying people who are older than 60 to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Health experts say raising the vaccination rate among older residents is crucial to avoiding a health care crisis. https://t.co/o2eu1qTmEW pic.twitter.com/Mkl5txfPqT
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 26, 2022
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Long, harrowing thread with lots of visuals:
1/China is facing a medical emergency. Two harrowing days in Hebei’s ICUs shows the area’s hospitals are buckling with the spread of COVID. We saw ambulances turned away from hospitals, relatives frantically searching for beds, patients sprawled on floorshttps://t.co/Rq1Ov2ejpG
— Dake Kang (@dakekang) December 24, 2022
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People keep trying to share their medicine and the postal service keeps opening and stealing the packages so they can sell the pills to scalpers for a huge markup. They stole a big package I had sent from the US😞 No way to complain or do anything though so need to hide them… pic.twitter.com/NFcKH3ATLE
— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) December 24, 2022
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Chinese looked at wealthy countries with Paxolovid, a variety of vaccines, and far more ICU beds per capita as indications of what they could expect if they decided to "live with COVID". We don't have those things and we didn't get them during the three years we could have.
— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) December 25, 2022
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The daily tally exhibits a week-on-week increase for twenty straight days. The ministry also confirmed 19 deaths across the city. The number of seriously ill patients who are on ventilators or ECMO heart-lung machines has increased by 1 from Saturday to 44.
— Gurbaksh Singh Chahal (@gchahal) December 26, 2022
Hospital acquired Covid now accounts for 39% of Covid admissions. Hospital acquired covid counts have increased faster than other Covid admissions since the start of November.
Last week's changes in admissions:
– Total Covid ⬆️ 36%
– Hospital acquired ⬆️44%
– Other⬆️32% 2/2 pic.twitter.com/ob1MKHbTCr— Adele Groyer (@AdeleGroyer) December 22, 2022
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I wrote about the XBB.1.5 variant in the United Stateshttps://t.co/mnaA3kvpNp
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 23, 2022
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PRRI found that 59% of Americans agree that getting a COVID vaccine is a way to live out the religious principle of loving your neighbors, while 40% disagree.
The share of Americans who agreed with this statement increased over 2021. https://t.co/lKR4gnGZEB
— PRRI (@PRRIpoll) December 25, 2022
The NYTimes:
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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Dec. 26-27Post + Comments (70)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Dec. 22-23
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
The US government is preparing to drastically reduce its role in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic even as an explosion of cases in China is raising fresh concern about the virus within the Biden administration, @josh_wingrove reports https://t.co/u1Oms0zaLR
— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) December 22, 2022
… Next year’s government funding package includes a brand-new White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy that would have a director appointed by the president and up to 25 staff members.
“They’re not simply going to retire the role that [White House Covid-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha] plays when the emergency declaration ends,” said J. Stephen Morrison, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the director of its Global Health Policy Center. “You can’t just keep piling on coordinators, disease by disease.”
The new director’s main responsibilities would be to advise the president on preparing for pandemics and other biological threats, to coordinate response activities across the federal government — including research into new countermeasures and distribution of medical supplies — and to evaluate the government’s readiness. The director would also be a member of the Domestic Policy Council and the National Security Council…
The provision that would create the new office was part of a larger pandemic preparedness package assembled by Senate health committee leaders Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.). Lawmakers are aiming to pass the broader government funding package by Friday to avert a shutdown.
“We routinely underinvest in, and underappreciate, these key dimensions of preparedness. Having a pandemic response office, with a director appointed by White House, is an important development,” Morrison said.
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WHO's emergencies director Mike Ryan: "In China, what's been reported is relatively low numbers of cases in ICUs, but anecdotally ICUs are filling up…I wouldn't like to say that China is…not telling us what's going on. I think they're behind the curve."https://t.co/OEXzmx4XTB
— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) December 22, 2022
Bloomberg: #China is likely experiencing 1 million #but Covid infections and 5,000 virus deaths every day as it grapples with what is expected to be the biggest outbreak the world has ever seen, according to a new analysis https://t.co/ZB9zoTrUUZ via @bpolitics
— Patricia M Thornton (@PM_Thornton) December 22, 2022
After years of enforcing harsh measures to stamp out the coronavirus, President Xi Jinping's abrupt abandonment of zero-COVID in the face of protests and a widening outbreak has left China scrambling to avert a collapse of its public health system https://t.co/gASfISdaxd pic.twitter.com/OuSqratE4F
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 23, 2022
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China's narrow criteria for identifying deaths caused by COVID-19 will underestimate the true toll of the pandemic's current wave there and could make it harder to communicate the best ways for people to protect themselves, foreign health experts warn. https://t.co/VWqlqinuAp
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) December 22, 2022
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‘a China watcher and a news junkie, ex-South China Morning Post’
My latest #ThoughtofDayonChina: Fever meds in short supply, hospitals overwhelmed, blood shortage, death tolls soaring among the elderly, morgues overflown with body bags –Why China has a man-made crisis after "sudden reopening"https://t.co/j3y7I0z2nh pic.twitter.com/Hml9eLLChl
— Wang Xiangwei (@wangxiangweihk) December 22, 2022
The good news is we have the lowest average age of any city in China, we also have relatively few disabled people, so most Shenzheners will be fine.
— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) December 21, 2022
(Chinese New Year 2023 begins January 22.)
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Since successfully containing the first Wuhan outbreak in April 2020, China has had more than two and a half years to prepare for the end of its zero-COVID policy, which placed strict restrictions on a public increasingly tired of life under lockdowns. But Beijing hasn’t used that time wisely. The COVID-19 wave now surging across the country is hitting a deeply underprepared health care system. Streets once empty because of lockdowns are now empty because people are only venturing out to get medicine. Other countries, such as Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, abandoned strict containment policies but were able to contain hospitalizations and deaths because they had used the time they bought for themselves to vaccinate their citizens, educate their publics, and build up health care supply chains. These countries escaped the extremely high infection rates of the first year of the pandemic in countries such as the United States despite omicron waves, putting their decision-making in stark contrast to China’s.
China’s comparative success or failure won’t be clear for years, if ever, but the picture on the ground so far ranges from disappointing to frightening. The years of the pandemic were spent shoring up zero-COVID controls to extremes, not expanding the health care system. Overconfidence and over-investment in zero-COVID measures, combined with political demands and propaganda, have left health care workers uncertain as to what to do and the Chinese public dangerously vulnerable.
Reliable numbers are impossible to obtain. The official figures are an increasingly ludicrous fiction. The withdrawal of the onerous testing system has moved China from one extreme to another, with citizens forming social media groups to work together to find testing kits which are suddenly in short supply. China maintains that there have only been seven deaths since the zero-COVID policy effectively ended on Dec. 7, even as the bodies pile up in crematoriums and fever clinics. In part, this is because of China’s extremely narrow definition of COVID-19 deaths, a policy choice that continues the country’s past undercounting of flu deaths. Virtually any pre-existing condition is being seized on to avoid classifying a death as due to COVID-19, while other fatalities are being attributed, as with flu, to “pneumonia” or “cardiac arrest” rather than the trigger of COVID-19…
As a result of both the failure to prepare and the unwillingness to publicly admit the extent of the crisis, health care workers are struggling to cope. In some cases, Chinese medical staff are calling their U.S. counterparts through personal contacts to try and determine best treatment methods. One doctor in a small northeast town with whom we spoke (who asked, like other sources, for anonymity for fear of possible political consequences) talked of soaring case numbers and hospital authorities improvising to develop triage and treatment protocols with little guidance either from government bodies or the body of literature and experience that has been developed across the world over the last three years.
She stated that the first case of the latest wave of COVID-19 she saw was on Nov. 28. Now, approximately one-third to one-half of admittees in the in-patient section of her hospital were positive for COVID-19 and about 60 percent of the staff, including herself, had caught it. “I feel like the hospital is sort of struggling because of how many workers are sick with the coronavirus,” she said…
Underlying the outbreak is a spotty vaccination record. The two-dose rate is more than 90 percent but much lower among older Chinese, especially the over-80s. Only around 40 percent of the public has received a booster shot. While some analysts have blamed the government for not pushing vaccinations more heavily, resistance to vaccination among the public is strong, despite repeated persuasive efforts by local authorities. Thanks to safety scandals in the past, China’s health care system suffers from a long-time crisis of trust.
The fragmented nature of government in a huge nation has also contributed. Older Chinese tend to live in more rural areas, and COVID-19 measures have been far tougher in the cities than in the countryside. Rather than demanding vaccination directly, city authorities, with some exceptions, have normally required proof of vaccination as part of the ubiquitous (until recently) health-code app system. Even that usually only required the first round of vaccination, not boosters. And older people who live in rural areas have often avoided the health-code app system altogether since they don’t travel.
The government has also failed to approve or import the more effective mRNA vaccines. Part of this may be the desire to promote domestic solutions and technology. But biological paranoia may have played a role too. Since well before the pandemic, Chinese military academics and other public figures have promoted the idea that the United States is developing viruses to genetically target Han Chinese. Far-right anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and Russian propaganda about biowarfare in Ukraine have also widely circulated in China. One idea commonly heard from ordinary Chinese people is that the mRNA vaccine will alter your DNA. While much of this is deliberate propaganda, people in parts of the Chinese government may also sincerely believe in such ideas…
Indian reporter in Beijing:
Read this interview with Dr Randeep Guleria why India is not likely to see a spread as in China at the moment – with some alarm at the prospect – because these are two completely different contexts wrt immunity.https://t.co/jpqPHtzrgB
— Ananth Krishnan (@ananthkrishnan) December 21, 2022
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cautions India amid China coronavirus surge https://t.co/oJIS65r0el
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 23, 2022
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Dogs were trained to rapidly detect SARS-2 in the sweat of concert goers. They achieved a diagnostic specificity of 99.9% and sensitivity of 81.6%. The overall rate of concordant results (between the dogs and PCR tests) was 99.7%. h/t @SamWangPhD https://t.co/chqtm7vRRj pic.twitter.com/EXi2wi9zt0
— Nicholas A. Christakis (@NAChristakis) December 21, 2022
Another reason you don't want to catch the #coronavirus: #Covid can affect vision & depth perception. The ongoing internat'l research is using animal models to determine the eyes susceptibility to SARS2 & exploring whether it infects the eyes directly https://t.co/FTrw6LtP5o pic.twitter.com/Z5FnNiPoda
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) December 21, 2022
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SHEA, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, is suggesting hospitals no longer routinely test asymptomatic patients for #Covid. Juice not worth the squeeze, they say.
IPC folks: Good idea? Bad idea? https://t.co/MWcVtczKkw— Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 (@HelenBranswell) December 22, 2022
Anecdotally, it’s harder to get the new bivalent booster. Spousal Unit & I finally got ours Wednesday; there are no walk-in appointments available here, and our last appointment was cancelled because the only available pharmacist called in sick that day…
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Highest Covid hospitalizations in New York since January and soaring in seniors, as the XBB variant with added mutations gains growth advantage https://t.co/cz0BwwaIM3 pic.twitter.com/AE7Gh7fQ1P
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 22, 2022
GREAT NEWS: If you're experiencing symptoms and don't know what you have, now you can go to any of dozens of mobile "Test to Treat" sites around NYC and get tested for covid, flu & rsv AND if you need it get an Rx for paxlovid or tamflu *on the spot*.
Locations/times by borough: pic.twitter.com/9CS5weKBJb
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) December 21, 2022
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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Dec. 22-23Post + Comments (28)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Dec. 19-20
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
I mean, we're laughing now but let's see in a couple of months. Anyway, even when it's silly, invention for mitigation that works is good.
Add a mini-HEPA filter in there and you have a serviceable Hoerger-Wu PAPR tent.
Sign: Please do not get too close to me@michael_hoerger pic.twitter.com/owhpWI8885
— Naomi Wu ???? (@RealSexyCyborg) December 14, 2022
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These are two unhappy people.
I can't blame them, because they're right:
It will come back and bite us. pic.twitter.com/eKz6pRdCut— tern (@1goodtern) December 17, 2022
Cities across China scrambled to install hospital beds and build fever screening clinics on Tuesday as authorities reported five more deaths and international concern grew about Beijing's surprise decision to let the virus run free. https://t.co/KoDNWad3ke
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) December 20, 2022
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When they spotted us filming staff quickly became physically aggressive, pushing us and grabbing hold of our camera gear.
At another large crematorium we saw multiple uniformed and plain clothed police officers ushering hearses off the street.— Leo Lord-Jones (@leolordjones) December 19, 2022
Thread:
Shanghai is turning into the Ghost Town Beijing has already been for a week. Everybody seems either sick or staying in to avoid Covid.
This is a usually busy shopping street today: pic.twitter.com/PQciM2XEjc
— Christian Petersen-Clausen (@chris__pc) December 19, 2022
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Chinese health authorities say they just started to conduct a complete survey ???? of covid high risk groups NOW (cross ref health records & vaccination record, home visits to verify info if necessary etc)
that's yet another thing that hasn't been done in the past 3 years pic.twitter.com/c1djypudag— Chenchen Zhang ??????? (@chenchenzh) December 17, 2022
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Well, it’s based on an MIT theory…
Clever WeChat app to detect if you have COVID from the sound of your cough based on this: https://t.co/4yPbFCqTTw
It's a good idea with RAT tests in very short supply at the moment, and there's a feature to let you submit training data. With so many people using it, could work. pic.twitter.com/wXnqR9fmTR— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) December 18, 2022
When you consider that much of the new data on bivalent booster protection is based on comparison with people who have had multiple shots and boosters, and infections, it's particularly impressivehttps://t.co/sAxR8IxKgr
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 17, 2022
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Link to graphhttps://t.co/Cze8bZxwXr
Link to 94% of people age 65+ had 2 shots and only 36% have had a recent boosterhttps://t.co/WWoVjw5Bll
Link to the new data on booster impact reduction of hospitalization age 65+https://t.co/sAxR8IxKgr— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 18, 2022
Thread (read the whole thing!)
New Poll: Voters support requiring everyone to mask in indoor public spaces in order to combat another #COVID surge 🧵 pic.twitter.com/1baYgqXvHk
— Matthew Cortland, they/them (@mattbc) December 19, 2022
Opposition to indoor masking, an effective public health intervention to mitigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2, is driven by partisanship.
82% of Democrats support it, 54% of Independents –– but only 29% of Republicans. https://t.co/dA5G8teIhZ
— Matthew Cortland, they/them (@mattbc) December 19, 2022
Let’s shift our focus from ‘what the virus is doing’ to what WE should be doing. @DrMikeRyan pic.twitter.com/Wevk4ZGxXO
— Mrigank Shail, MD (@mrigankshail) December 17, 2022
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Dec. 19-20Post + Comments (33)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Dec. 15-16
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
New study estimates that the COVID-19 vaccination program in the U.S. prevented more than 18.5 million additional hospitalisations and 3.2 million additional deaths. Will this be a triggering as the suggestion that antivaxxers may not be the best drivers?https://t.co/QKC1URUMeT
— Dr Susan Oliver (@DrSusanOliver1) December 13, 2022
That study was done in Canada (but I suspect it scales for the US, because FREEDUMB):
… The increased traffic risks among unvaccinated adults extended to diverse subgroups (older & younger; drivers & pedestrians; rich & poor) and was equal to a 48% increase after adjustment for age, sex, home location, socioeconomic status, and medical diagnoses. The increased traffic risks extended across the entire spectrum of crash severity and appeared similar for Pfizer, Moderna, or other vaccines. The increased risks collectively amounted to 704 extra traffic crashes.
“The study found traffic risks were 50%-70% greater for adults who had not been vaccinated compared to those who had,” noted Dr. Redelmeier.
“These data suggest COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is associated with significant increased risks of a traffic crash, however, this does not mean COVID-19 vaccination directly prevents crashes. Instead, it shows how adults who do not follow public health advice may also neglect the rules of the road. Misunderstandings of everyday risk can cause people to put themselves and others in grave danger.”
The authors recommend that individuals who hesitate to take the COVID-19 vaccine reflect on their choices and recognize how such decisions have repercussions in ways they do not imagine…
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Pandemic's 2-year global death toll may be closer to 15 million, nearly 3x more than previously reported, according to a new WHO study. Researchers say the pandemic caused ~4.5M more deaths than would have been expected in 2020 & 10.4M more in 2021 https://t.co/YxLvattEur
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) December 15, 2022
The deaths from Covid in the first 2 years of the pandemic were nearly 3-fold reported—~15 million globally—by @WHO excess death calculationshttps://t.co/YwZHD4ufC1@Nature pic.twitter.com/sE7wVs0tWR
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 14, 2022
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China put a priority on protecting rural communities from COVID as millions of city-dwellers planned holidays for the first time in years after Beijing abandoned its stringent system of lockdowns and travel curbs https://t.co/tRjDRaZh91 pic.twitter.com/uwtWTBQEx5
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 16, 2022
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In Beijing, patients going to fever clinics jumped 16x this Sunday compared to a week before & calls to the emergency hotline increased 6x
Concern is when covid hits rural areas w/ poor infrastructure
Canned peach craze reflects lack of communication b/t health officials & public— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) December 15, 2022
Consequence: there's now a waiting list to get bodies into crematorium. RFA wrote about 5-6 days waiting list at 3 crematoriums in BJ (https://t.co/lrZBFwl599), we found 2 more with waiting list of 3-5 days. Means relatives have nowhere to go with the body of their loved one.
— leen vervaeke (@leenvervaeke) December 16, 2022
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Ah, now reporting cases in the hospital- much more transparent and helpful.
I wonder if between this and making Paxlovid available they're going to come around to a sane response🤔 https://t.co/gc92NfD7Wl— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) December 14, 2022
Prof Chen (article below): ‘timing of China's re-opening "not ideal" but had to do it…Singapore/New Zealand made changes when infections at bay…#China moved with full-blown outbreaks… government "heard the voice of the protesters" but not ideal timing.’ https://t.co/qdTleHrz34
— Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) December 14, 2022
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All is not quiet on the Asian-Pacific front
(besides China) pic.twitter.com/ON6Xhw2DvP— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 14, 2022
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Excellent, if scary, article — worth reading the whole thing:
Long Covid can attack multiple organs and weaken overall immunity for months https://t.co/xv1Za03wA0
— Bloomberg (@business) December 14, 2022
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Beginning & end of a long, informative thread:
I know we got off on the wrong foot in 2020 and I have remained unimpressed with your antics since. But I’m sincerely happy to answer any of your virology questions so you can stick to humiliating yourself in matters of business, law, or pronouns.https://t.co/FHXsb9yEKf
— Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen) December 15, 2022
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COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Dec. 15-16Post + Comments (55)
Thursday Morning Open Thread: Another Busy Week (& It Ain’t Even Over!)
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, President Biden, Proud To Be A Democrat!, Vice-President Harris
Holiday gift for everyone:
Get your free COVID tests through USPS, restarting again tomorrow! Please get yours and be careful around vulnerable friends and family this holiday season https://t.co/nIPlPMeptT
— Lewie Pollis (@LewsOnFirst) December 14, 2022
Gladys Knight performs “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me” following US-Africa Leaders Summit dinner at White House pic.twitter.com/GgyaDibcMs
— Aamer Madhani (@AamerISmad) December 15, 2022
Biden tells a packed room of African leaders at the US-Africa summit: “When Africa succeeds, the United States succeeds, quite frankly, the whole world succeeds as well.” pic.twitter.com/xtZSUjJmuU
— Akayla Gardner (@gardnerakayla) December 14, 2022
??: First Lady Jill Biden hosts spouses of African leaders as part of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, at the REACH at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Dec. 14, 2022, in Washington. (AP) pic.twitter.com/lZTy4iMOz8
— Voice of America (@VOANews) December 14, 2022
Normally I’d lead with this, but TaMara did a great job already!
Today, the House unveiled its portrait of Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House. #HouseCollection https://t.co/l1TR6fCQfS pic.twitter.com/Wpl3GGOm4y
— U.S. House History (@USHouseHistory) December 14, 2022
Per this article the VP is one of the most consequential VPs ever… https://t.co/MQzfgeA7hu
— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) December 15, 2022
Some fascinating details in this story on the legislative sausage-making that usually doesn’t get seen / reported:
To break one tie vote, Vice President Harris was pulled out of a dinner she was hosting, her motorcade whisking her down Massachusetts Avenue well after business hours. Another time, she was several states away from D.C. when she learned her vote was needed, and hopped a quick flight back before dashing from the steps of Air Force Two to the U.S. Capitol.
With the Senate knotted at 50-50 during the first two years of Harris’s tenure, the vice president has broken 26 ties, including key votes that nudged along or cemented defining policies of the Biden administration. The tiebreaking duties could ease soon, however, now that Democrats grew their advantage in the upper chamber to a still-narrow 51-49 edge in last month’s midterms…
On paper, the two years Harris has spent as a tiebreaker have made her one of history’s most consequential vice presidents, in a role that has often been more ceremonial than substantive. Each time Harris voted, she and the administration won, as President Biden rarely tires of pointing out.
But people close to the vice president say being the chief tiebreaker has come at a cost, tethering Harris to the U.S. Capitol when she could be building her brand and touting successes across the country…
Harris’s supporters have long contended that she would benefit from more occasions when she can showcase the administration’s work.
“The main thing is I wish she was out there more — more visible,” said J.A. Moore, a South Carolina legislator who endorsed Harris’s run for president. “It’s the visibility piece — people want to see her out more. It speaks to the fact that they want to see that representation. They want to see more of her face and her connection with what the administration is doing.”…
In comments earlier this year to the Democratic National Committee, Harris hinted at what she has accomplished by breaking Senate ties, but also, in a chamber that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation, what still remains out of reach.
“In our first year in office, some historians here may know, I actually broke John Adams’s record of casting the most tiebreaking votes in a single term,” she said. But she added, “I cannot wait to cast the deciding vote to break the filibuster on voting rights and reproductive rights.”
Thursday Morning Open Thread: Another Busy Week (& It Ain’t Even Over!)Post + Comments (172)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Dec. 12-13
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
More than 1M Americans have died from #Covid19. A new study from @commonwealthfnd suggests the toll would have been 4 times higher, but for Covid vaccines. @brittanytrang reports. https://t.co/3NAqEbSwdm
— Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 (@HelenBranswell) December 13, 2022
Hospitalizations for people with COVID-19 in the U.S. rose by more than 30% in two weeks. Much of the increase is driven by older people and those with existing health problems, said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC. https://t.co/HylU9gmFLB
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 11, 2022
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"We will get back to a world, I hope, where people appreciate when a group like public health officials have devoted their lives to the safety and the health of the American public," Dr. Anthony Fauci tells Judy Woodruff. https://t.co/RpD46RbZEQ
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) December 11, 2022
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The head of the GAVI global vaccine alliance suggested on Monday it was too early to call an end to the COVID-19 emergency, saying the pandemic could still get worse. https://t.co/XZViZLL2oE
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) December 12, 2022
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BBC: On #China's internet today thousands rushed to the social media page of hero doctor & whistleblower #LiWenliang to tell him that zero-#COVID was being abandoned. As if stopping by the graveside of a family elder, they poured their hearts out to him. https://t.co/TH4NreWqjt
— Patricia M Thornton (@PM_Thornton) December 8, 2022
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The end of the Zero Covid era has been bewildering in its speed. It's literally happened over the last week. Unfortunately it doesn't mean everything's back to normal. People are now scared of getting infected, and with good reason since half the city seems to have Covid.
— Gabriel Corsetti (@GabrielCorsetti) December 11, 2022
Nowhere asks you for a recent test anymore, so no one wants to get tested either. I found this open testing booth which would have had an enormous queue just a week ago. Now it had three people waiting. On the other hand, everyone's trying to get hold of home testing kits. pic.twitter.com/AkUK0jFjmX
— Gabriel Corsetti (@GabrielCorsetti) December 11, 2022
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Significant reduction of hospitalization (by 40%) and deaths (by 70%) among patients who received Paxlovid vs controls in a large US health system (@MassGenBrigham) https://t.co/adjB62nooJ@AnnalsofIM @AnnWoolleyMD @SDrydenPeterson pic.twitter.com/m1NgJXAvBI
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 12, 2022
(2,980 yuan = approximately $427)
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A #Covid nasal vaccine has been approved for use as a booster in India. The vax is based on technology licensed from Washington Univ in St. Louis & has been approved on an emergency basis in India. The vaccine is delivered via nose drops https://t.co/7svWRe3fP0
— delthia ricks 🔬 (@DelthiaRicks) December 12, 2022
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Fauci has something Musk can't buy; class.
— M.D. Lafrance (@MD_Lafrance) December 12, 2022
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Monday / Tuesday, Dec. 12-13Post + Comments (42)
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Dec. 8-9
This post is in: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Foreign Affairs
The rise in US Covid hospitalizations may surpass the summer BA.5 wave, fueled by waning immunity, lack of mitigation and BQ.1.1https://t.co/o5ibW11jaX pic.twitter.com/Y3Uf6EKC3i
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 7, 2022
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For much of the world, 2022 marked the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. https://t.co/ZUTdE9ABrp
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) December 7, 2022
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There's relief, but also confusion & fear
Parts of the city are quiet. People allowed out, but some stay in, feeling unprepared
It's like whiplash. Authorities went from declaring all out war on covid, to suddenly downplaying the risks
People/businesses playing catchup pic.twitter.com/HEDHCW2zvS— Selina Wang (@selinawangtv) December 8, 2022
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On interdependence and medical supplies, once its demand side needs were resolved, China was ultimately a MASSIVE exporter to the world of personal protective equipment (PPE) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic starting April 2020
Source: https://t.co/YhHa7tlrWb pic.twitter.com/Dt7WQOiJi5
— Chad P. Bown (@ChadBown) December 8, 2022
Ginger, (Chinese) ginseng and sleep early.
That's the precautions they are advising the public to take.
Not well-fitting K/N95 masks (which also lessen the severity of infection if you do get infected)https://t.co/S3jdVMflvU
Ginseng
I'm not joking https://t.co/tAwdEDf2N7
— Naomi Wu 机械妖姬 (@RealSexyCyborg) December 9, 2022
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Disheartening thread…
My latest: The covid treatment Paxlovid has been free so far.
But soon people who are at the highest risk of severe illness and are least able to afford the drug — the uninsured and seniors — may have to pay the full price. https://t.co/aOEDg6h8Hk— Hannah Recht (@hannah_recht) December 7, 2022
The body of evidence we have for efficacy and safety of Covid vaccines is the largest in the history of medical interventions
— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) December 7, 2022
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If you’re inside with people, wear a mask. If you’re on a train or in an airplane not wearing a mask, what the hell are you thinking. I know it’s hard to have meetings without snacks but you can give goodie bags for later!
You don’t want to get people sick, ok? So many germs pic.twitter.com/MGiMbDuZnu
— Jorts (and Jean) (@JortsTheCat) December 7, 2022
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Dec. 8-9Post + Comments (36)
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