Coronavirus: How dangerous a threat?

[Oldermanish]

It’s all Trump’s fault. Always has been and always will be. Nobody, no entity, no political leader has any culpability... except, ya know, one orange man.

Remember that one time last summer when the admin offered the speaker $1.9 Trillion as a 2nd aid package -including grant money to the States - and the speaker couldn’t bear to do something helpful as long as doing so could be construed as a Trump win? Ya know, to help defeat him last November?

Good times. We should all kiss Nan’s ring as often as possible.

Then there’s orange man letting everyone know months back that there would be a vaccine before the end of last year. What did Cali & NY State leaders do? I mean, other than bad-mouthing the vaccine itself? Apparently not much. No plan, no plans, no thought of plans but a ton of incompetence. Trump’s fault.

Here’s a little secret you apparently have not yet figured out: the President doesn’t really run the Country and actually is not King. Sorry to break this to you in such a harsh manner.

There is a soreness to the folks that have to admit he is not King. The King is dead but his zombie, greedy child walks on.
By the way; truth was never a part of his act so Trump suggesting a vaccine would be available before the election didn't draw much of a reaction. States and hospitals would need to plan logistics on facts, not bs.
Yeah, we remember the "aid package" that further rewarded larger corporations and provided legal protection to them. Same game that's attached to the increase for $2,000 payouts to people that need it. And if Lindsay and his folks want to characterize it as gifts to the rich; make the dedication to extended unemployment benefits instead.

 

[Chris Gadsden]

States and hospitals would need to plan logistics on facts, not bs.

Right. Which explains completely the effectiveness of what we have seen so far. The best and the brightest Keystone Cops
found anywhere in the world.

Far fewer people have gotten shots than expected due to disorganization and conflicting priorities among states, counties and hospitals - Trump's fault.


Three weeks into the most ambitious vaccination campaign in modern U.S. history, far fewer people are being protected against COVID-19 as the process moves more slowly than officials had projected and has been beset by confusion and disorganization in many states. - Oh yeah, Trump's fault.

Of the more than 12 million doses of vaccines from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. with BioNTech that have been shipped, only 2.8 million have been administered, according to federal figures. - Clearly, we know who to blame.

the federal government has left it to states to determine what to do with the vaccines it ships to them, and with some states pushing decision making to local health departments and hospitals, the process has gone far from smoothly. - Weird right? It's as if the States had no idea the vaccine was coming and now that it's here they have no idea what to do with it. Again, clearly this one is on Trump.

A medical practice in Texas had only two workers sign up to take the shots. - Clearly the admin is at fault here.

“Hospitals aren’t vaccinating everyone at the flip of a light switch,” said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, which represents state immunization officials. “There may have been an expectation from Operation Warp Speed or others that we’d give everyone the vaccine overnight. … It was a logistics equation for them. If you’ve been in vaccines for a long time, you know that’s the easy part. Getting it into actual arms is the hard part.” - I mean, OMG, how incompetent can a leader be? You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. I mean, ammirite?

Yeah, we remember the "aid package" that further rewarded larger corporations and provided legal protection to them.

This is what Queen Pelosi turned down before the election, $1.8 Trillion;

The White House offer includes the following, according to NBC News:

• State and local governments — $300 billion
• Unemployment insurance — $400 per week, through the third week of January and retroactive to Sept. 12
• Liability protection for businesses
• Stimulus checks — $1,200 for adults, $1,000 per child
• Airlines — $20 billion
• PPP loans — $330 billion
• Minority lending — $10 billion
• Testing, tracing, vaccines, and health-care providers — $175 billion
• Education — $150 billion
• Student loan forgiveness — $25 billion
• Food assistance — $15 billion
• Child care — $25 billion
• Postal service — $10 billion
• Employee retention tax credit — $91 billion
• Lodging industry — $20 billion
• Broadband — $15 billion

You can save all of your vitriol for the incompetent speaker. And you would not be wrong in doing so.

 

[Chris Gadsden]

The R for Flu is about 1.3. The R for COVID is about 2.5. It stands to reason that mitigating COVID from 2.5 to around 1 would push Influenza below 1 given the overlapping pathogenesis of respiratory infections.

What do you suppose the R for flu is today? And why, with the R for Covid Nationally hovering (estimated) around 1.2 would there be such a surge in disease? If Covid mitigation efforts were working why the gigantic surge in disease now? Why and how would the flu virus respond so dramatically to mitigation efforts... but not Covid?

I'm not fighting with you. I'm asking because I don't understand it.

Rt COVID-19

Up-to-date values for Rt — the number to watch to measure COVID spread.

rt.live

 

[djpbaltimore]

Exponential growth is the reason why cases surge so much. It is like interest growth except the cycle is in days instead of years. 1.2 is plenty high enough to ruin everything if you let it rev at 1.2 for long enough. The relative flatness of the beginning of an exponential curve is deceiving, but before you know it..... you hit the wall. South Dakota was above 1 from early July to end of October but never higher than 1.22. Since the disease lags, the aftermath of the infections are only truly felt 2-4 weeks later. November and December were so bad because the nation was really lax in September and October. NYC style lockdown can get you down to 0.7. Most places struggle to put it below 0.95. So 20 people infecting 19 people puts most places on a long plateau.

Rough estimates going by the CDC stats gives a current R for Influenza A of 0.87. That is what it is typically between May and September in normal years. The natural effect of weather on R means that we normally start from a lower level of infection with the Flu in the fall. A more novel pandemic strain like Swine Flu had an R of ~1.7, so the summer weather did not put R under 1, so the outbreak was bad throughout the summer and the exponential growth starting in the fall was from a higher level. That is how it infected 60 million in the first year in the US. That should sound familiar to everyone. The CDC are dealing with small numbers of Influenza at this point (20 or 30 positives per week), but the R for Influenza-like illnesses (~20k per week) is 0.91. The number of ILI was increasing until mid November, but has been steadily decreasing since then, so an estimate below 1 fits the current data. But it also shows that R was above 1 for the early part of fall due to the same laxity that led to the COVID surge. If not for COVID spiking, we would be on track for a relatively 'normal' flu season.

Mitigation worked better for Flu for reasons largely beyond our immediate control, owing to the fact that COVID lacks strong seasonality, has inherently different transmission timing, and is a completely novel virus making everyone susceptible due to lack of any immunological memory. MERS has an R around 0.7, so it never causes anything but sporadic outbreaks without mitigation. SARS V1 has a similar R as COVID, but it is not as transmissible by people early in the infection cycle. Because of that, temperature screening was able to isolate the sick before they were infectious and it was controlled relatively easily. The worst part of COVID is that this type of intervention is not really useful. Likely the contagious person has already spread COVID around before they feel super sick and stop traipsing around and interacting with people. This course of events is highly beneficial to the virus. More contacts, more spread. A sick person flat on their back in bed is not a great disease vector by comparison. Flu is more like SARS V1 as you are more infectious 2 days after the onset of symptoms instead of 0 days like COVID. China is clearly at fault for their response to the first outbreaks, but this virus is in a special category of bad. The only saving grace is that its infection cycle is slightly slower than Flu and it doesn't mutate nearly as fast.

Thank you for attending my TED talk.

 

[Oldermanish]

Chris still can't answer why the Liability Protection for businesses is an issue. Maybe they don't forward that topic on his daily feed of talking points.

 

[Chris Gadsden]

Chris still can't answer why the Liability Protection for businesses is an issue. Maybe they don't forward that topic on his daily feed of talking points.

You can’t answer why it isn’t and don’t get mad at me for Pelosi blowing a deal that would have solved some problems. Not my fault you choose to believe propaganda.

But here’s my answer: if an employer takes available measures and follows guidelines (in my case CAL/Osha, County Covid Compliance) and if the government has indicated that it is critical for my business to continue running, and if the government has actually helped my business financially in order for me to 1) continue to operate and 2) keep my current staffing level even though it makes zero business sense to.. then on the chance that an employee contracts Covid from a co-worker then, yeah, I don’t know that the employee should be able to sue me blind.

You may disagree. If you feel compelled to share the ‘why‘ behind your disagreement with my position, feel free. On this issue there is zero chance of you or anyone else persuading me to look at the issue differently.

You can answer this one for me. Do you think the Phizer, Moderna, et al should be free from liability for the Covid vaccines they manufacture?

 

[movingtarget]

England to enter toughest Covid lockdown since March

Boris Johnson says restrictions will last at least seven weeks, with schools closing until February half-term

www.theguardian.com

 

[movingtarget]

Inflatable costume may have caused Covid outbreak at California hospital

Dozens of health workers have tested positive and one has died since staffer wore fan-powered outfit

www.theguardian.com

 

[movingtarget]

US pharmacist who tried to ruin Covid vaccine doses is a conspiracy theorist, police say

Misinformation about the vaccines has surged online as rollout has been susceptible to local disruption

www.theguardian.com

 

[Unchained]

Why do you suppose we have States? Furthermore, what is their function, or what is their role? When your trash doesn’t get picked up who do you get mad at?

Certain parts of my body contract and then leak fluid, over and over at such unpatriotic outbursts.
yes we have states...and states rights and levels of sovereign behavior within all states.
Trump declared war.
never in modern American history has a President declared war and then asked the states to buy there own weapons systems, recruit and train a specialized army, navy,air force and train a specialized military medical everything.
The idea that you take states rights to the point that citizens in rural undeveloped parts of the United States should have within an instant mobilized, really materialized a coherent pandemic response, including everything from hospitals,manpower,equipment and a coordinated,comprehensive strategy for a year long campaign against an unknown,never before seen viral, airborne,invisible enemy is crazy..
just pick any single stop light town in the US and expect it's citizens and local government to defend and defeat a global pandemic virus is loooony..
But what you are saying is not make believe,it's actually what Trump has done to a certain degree.
Declares war, and then it's critical of sub par governors for being able to construct and we operate a nuclear aircraft carrier in rural Iowa or Nebraska, coal country W.Virginia..
Most local governments could have never been expected,realistically to have the expertise to fight a pandemic, let alone the cash or credit to do it.
You make it patriotic to challenge tiny town government to fight a battle that Trump and you both know is going to be a slaughter..
So yes we have states, but for a war, a world war, America has always united..not sent 50 individual armies or navy's to storm the beaches of Normandy or Iwo Jima..
But Trump had bone spurs and as the press loves to say..Trump has smashed the norm..
history will say that when you are fighting..fighting a pandemic,a single coordinated response is better than 50 separate uncoordinated responses..
But you keep arguing about the right to fail..
You gotta drink a bunch of the Kool aid to look at this and call it a successful pandemic response..

 

[Unchained]

US Daily Deaths

The COVID Tracking Project collects and publishes the most complete testing data available for US states and territories.

covidtracking.com

 

[Merckx index]

What do you suppose the R for flu is today? And why, with the R for Covid Nationally hovering (estimated) around 1.2 would there be such a surge in disease? If Covid mitigation efforts were working why the gigantic surge in disease now? Why and how would the flu virus respond so dramatically to mitigation efforts... but not Covid?

I pointed out upthread that the R0 for C19 is actually below 1 now. It's surging in the sense that daily cases are very high, but they aren't increasing, as they would if R0 > 1. They hit a plateau about two weeks before Christmas, and are somewhat lower now than they were then. The 7-day moving average reached a peak of about 224,000 on Dec. 18. It fell a lot over Christmas, because of under-reporting, and has rebounded somewhat since (which is why the current R0 is actually greater than 1, but this is basically an artifact, because of delays in reporting), but still is at less than 210,000. It's possible that daily case numbers could rise further as we head into the depths of winter, but probably close to one-third of the American population has been infected now, which should slow down the spread a little.

The situation looks bad because deaths lag about three weeks, so since that case plateau, they have been rising. They reached a 7-day moving average peak of a little less than 2800 on Dec. 23, dropped precipitously because of under-reporting, and now have rebounded to their peak levels. But since cases have dropped in the past few weeks, deaths must, too. It looks as though we will have about the same number of deaths in January as in December, but not more.

By the way, as I also pointed out upthread, I agree with you that Pelosi should have accepted Trump's offer last fall, though as I also pointed out, it wasn't clear that McConnell and his bunch would have gone along. It looks very much as though they wouldn't have. But that doesn't excuse Pelosi from not accepting, and putting pressure on the Republican Senate. I even buy into the notion that Pelosi did not want to accept the offer because it would have enhanced Trump's election chances.

 

[movingtarget]

https://www.news.com.au/world/north...s/news-story/d7d1c44e21c7abf636010c605d45a221

 

[djpbaltimore]

I pointed out upthread that the R0 for C19 is actually below 1 now. It's surging in the sense that daily cases are very high, but they aren't increasing, as they would if R0 > 1. They hit a plateau about two weeks before Christmas, and are somewhat lower now than they were then. The 7-day moving average reached a peak of about 224,000 on Dec. 18. It fell a lot over Christmas, because of under-reporting, and has rebounded somewhat since (which is why the current R0 is actually greater than 1, but this is basically an artifact, because of delays in reporting), but still is at less than 210,000. It's possible that daily case numbers could rise further as we head into the depths of winter, but probably close to one-third of the American population has been infected now, which should slow down the spread a little.

The situation looks bad because deaths lag about three weeks, so since that case plateau, they have been rising. They reached a 7-day moving average peak of a little less than 2800 on Dec. 23, dropped precipitously because of under-reporting, and now have rebounded to their peak levels. But since cases have dropped in the past few weeks, deaths must, too. It looks as though we will have about the same number of deaths in January as in December, but not more.

By the way, as I also pointed out upthread, I agree with you that Pelosi should have accepted Trump's offer last fall, though as I also pointed out, it wasn't clear that McConnell and his bunch would have gone along. It looks very much as though they wouldn't have. But that doesn't excuse Pelosi from not accepting, and putting pressure on the Republican Senate. I even buy into the notion that Pelosi did not want to accept the offer because it would have enhanced Trump's election chances.

The hospitalizations seemed to hit a peak around 125K which would indicate that we had hit a lull right before Xmas. But the number jumped up to 128K yesterday, so we might be entering a brief surge caused by Xmas travel and holiday gatherings. The testing numbers have been spotty due on the holidays, so it is unclear what is happening in many states. It is a patchwork. Some states are clearly on the down swing but LA county looks like it is going to be BAD. More cases in the last 5 weeks than the previous 11 months combined. They are already forced into some rationing. Georgia is trending bad too with really poor health infrastructure. Arizona has the dubious distinction of having the highest case counts per capita in the world for the second time after doing so initially this past summer. Fool me once... I think January will be the worst month for mortality. Vaccines will start helping in February.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1346283751861608449

View: https://twitter.com/Pervaizistan/status/1346283751861608449

 

[Unchained]

White House said it would hit the 20 million vaccinated mark by the end of December(2020, it's Trump you have to be specific) missed that by 14 million. Now many doctors calling for a single dose regiment that looks to delivery a very high level of protection,80+% for a single dose and administer the second dose later after all the kinks are straightened out.
And as was forewarned about the expectations of the public, in true Trump style he over promised and under delivered. In the worst cases who knows what the damage will be but it's clear in examples like Florida were the government decided to reinvent the CDC wheel and make the criteria 65 and older and go with a cattle call style, people are waiting in long lines. The images captured in a few states will likely have a negative impact on the public, who already had many questions and reservations about the vaccine.
Ugly all around as the current White House can't get it right..
So no meetings about Covid progress,or Covid status ,deaths,hot spots,new information,research...but instead trips to Georgia calling for government officials to commit felonies and for citizens to protest in the streets despite science, medical evidence discouraging the exact behavior Trump is demanding.
vaccines or vitriol..Trump's priorities are clear

 

[Nomad]

"North Dakota got a mask mandate, South Dakota didn't. Covid-19 cases have plummeted in both."

North Dakota got a mask mandate, South Dakota didn't. COVID-19 cases have plummeted in both

At the worst moment of the pandemic, North Dakota and South Dakota took divergent policy paths. Since then, South Dakota's COVID-19 curve as emerged as a kind of Rorschach test for the effectiveness of mask mandates: Opponents of mandates have pointed to South Dakota's decline as proof that the…

www.grandforksherald.com

 

[Chris Gadsden]

White House said it would hit the 20 million vaccinated mark by the end of December(2020, it's Trump you have to be specific) missed that by 14 million.

Pretty hard to do when there were only 17 million doses in circulation by 12/31. Trump's fault.

Ugly all around as the current White House can't get it right..

It's true. Playing every position on the field is difficult. Trump's fault.

Gottlieb has the right idea. He said a few days back that every vaccine in the arm should be considered a "win." Meanwhile we have the PC equity police here in the Golden State making sure the correct people get the vaccine first. As of this morning we have about 454,000 vaccinated in Cali which is around 40% of the vaccines received.

"As the first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine arrive in California, officials are facing intense pressure to prioritize vulnerable communities and promote equity and racial justice in the state’s distribution scheme. "

Now, I can tell you the massive incompetence coming from the Governor is slowing the vaccinations down by something like 5-fold.

Why? You can guess why and you support why.

Newsom also gave an update on the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in California. He said the state has received 1.29 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. More than 450,000 doses have already been administered, though Newsom acknowledged that's not nearly enough.


"We are working aggressively to accelerate our pace," he said. "You're going to start seeing more rapid distribution of this vaccine, I can assure you that now.

"That said, it's gone too slowly. I know for many of us, all of us, I think we want to see 100% of what's received immediately administered in people's arms, and so that's a challenge."

Trump's fault.

The governor tried to make it clear that distributing the vaccine is anything but easy, saying there's some "mythology" about how the rollout is supposed to work.

"The vaccines don't arrive magically in some state facility," Newsom said. "We don't receive large crates of vaccines."

So no meetings about Covid progress,or Covid status ,deaths,hot spots,new information,research.

Oh, there's meetings. There held by incompetent governors like the one Newsom held yesterday.

Meanwhile in New York there's even a bigger clown running that State:

As positive cases and hospitalizations continue to rise across his state, Cuomo signed an executive order this weekend ensuring that thousands more will contract the virus before all is said and done. In the order, Cuomo increased penalties for COVID-19 vaccine providers that disregard his prioritization and mandated eligibility certification for New Yorkers who wish to receive the vaccine.
In other words, Cuomo is needlessly dragging out the vaccination process. Cuomo should be doing everything he can to make sure as many COVID-19 vaccine doses are administered as possible in the coming weeks. Instead, he is doubling down on an insane prioritization strategy that puts young “front-line” workers ahead of elderly citizens while also creating additional barriers for vaccine distributors.
It should come as no surprise, then, that New York has administered only 32% of the vaccine doses given to the state. Cuomo’s prioritization requires vaccine distributors to track down front-line workers across a variety of professions and age groups before administering vaccines to anyone else. Even worse, distributors must now also certify these workers’ eligibility through a certification process that could take weeks.

Pure Brilliance.

 

[Nomad]

"Covid vaccines "might not" work as well on South African strain, scientists warn:"

COVID vaccines "might not" work as well on South African strain, scientists warn

Scientists are optimistic that existing vaccines could be adapted, and they expect trial data soon to help determine whether the new variant really is vaccine-resistant.

www.google.com

"Johannesburg, South Africa — The new coronavirus variant identified in South Africa poses even more of a risk than the strain discovered several weeks ago in England, Britain's top health official warned on Monday. His alarm came as scientists warned that the new strain sweeping through South African coastal communities could be resistant to the COVID-19 vaccines approved or awaiting approval in the U.S. and Europe."

"I'm incredibly worried about the South African variant," Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Radio. "This is a very, very significant problem... it's even more of a problem than the U.K. new variant."

"As the first doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine outside of medical trials were administered at an Oxford hospital on Monday, senior Oxford immunologist Professor John Bell — who helped create the prestigious university's vaccine — said there was a "big question mark" over whether the current versions of vaccines would work on the South African variant."

 

[djpbaltimore]

"Covid vaccines "might not" work as well on South African strain, scientists warn:"

COVID vaccines "might not" work as well on South African strain, scientists warn

Scientists are optimistic that existing vaccines could be adapted, and they expect trial data soon to help determine whether the new variant really is vaccine-resistant.

www.google.com

"Johannesburg, South Africa — The new coronavirus variant identified in South Africa poses even more of a risk than the strain discovered several weeks ago in England, Britain's top health official warned on Monday. His alarm came as scientists warned that the new strain sweeping through South African coastal communities could be resistant to the COVID-19 vaccines approved or awaiting approval in the U.S. and Europe."

"I'm incredibly worried about the South African variant," Health Secretary Matt Hancock told BBC Radio. "This is a very, very significant problem... it's even more of a problem than the U.K. new variant."

"As the first doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine outside of medical trials were administered at an Oxford hospital on Monday, senior Oxford immunologist Professor John Bell — who helped create the prestigious university's vaccine — said there was a "big question mark" over whether the current versions of vaccines would work on the South African variant."

As discussed before about how scientists communicate, this strikes me as a poor job of relaying the message of the scientists to the masses. Especially in the headline. What the highlighted quotes amount to are scientists who have not done sufficient tests or seen enough data on the new variant to claim a definitive answer. This is evident if the author had given the full quote from Bell. “I don’t know about the South African strain. There is a big question mark over that.” And a key bit of context about why they are more worried about the SA variant than the UK variant in relation to the vaccine is that they are not really worried at all about the UK variant based on the work already done on it. The SA variant has 2 more mutations in addition to one it shares with the UK variant, so the structure will be more divergent from the vaccine spike protein.

And don't get me started on the 'work as well' phrasing which was the headline writer's oversimplification and not the words used by any of the scientists. I prefer the headline from the guardian article about the same topic. "Scientists appeal for calm over new COVID variant in South Africa." Also, 90% efficacy for the variant would also be not working as well, but also not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. The bigger worry is the increased transmissibility IMO.

 

[Jagartrott]

Let's get to the bottom of this. Ten years from now. Obviously, this is anti-China slander from the conspiring MSM.
(from The Guardian)

The head of the World Health Organisation is “very disappointed” that China has still not authorised the entry of a team of international experts to examine the origins of the coronavirus, Reuters reports. “Today, we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva. “I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials and I have once again made it clear the mission is a priority for the WHO,” he told reporters.

 

[Cookster15]

Let's get to the bottom of this. Ten years from now. Obviously, this is anti-China slander from the conspiring MSM.
(from The Guardian)

The head of the World Health Organisation is “very disappointed” that China has still not authorised the entry of a team of international experts to examine the origins of the coronavirus, Reuters reports. “Today, we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalised the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva. “I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials and I have once again made it clear the mission is a priority for the WHO,” he told reporters.

Agree with the WHO. What is the delay? Why does it take so long to secure the necessary permissions when, for example, they can build new infrastructure at a dizzying rate?

 

[djpbaltimore]

Mostly reasons beyond the scope of the thread IMO. The dreaded P word. I do wonder what the WHO reasonably hope to accomplish here.

Meanwhile in New York there's even a bigger clown running that State:

As positive cases and hospitalizations continue to rise across his state, Cuomo signed an executive order this weekend ensuring that thousands more will contract the virus before all is said and done. In the order, Cuomo increased penalties for COVID-19 vaccine providers that disregard his prioritization and mandated eligibility certification for New Yorkers who wish to receive the vaccine.
In other words, Cuomo is needlessly dragging out the vaccination process. Cuomo should be doing everything he can to make sure as many COVID-19 vaccine doses are administered as possible in the coming weeks. Instead, he is doubling down on an insane prioritization strategy that puts young “front-line” workers ahead of elderly citizens while also creating additional barriers for vaccine distributors.
It should come as no surprise, then, that New York has administered only 32% of the vaccine doses given to the state. Cuomo’s prioritization requires vaccine distributors to track down front-line workers across a variety of professions and age groups before administering vaccines to anyone else. Even worse, distributors must now also certify these workers’ eligibility through a certification process that could take weeks.

Pure Brilliance.

The moral of the story is that micromanaging a vaccine rollout on the fly can be just as counterproductive as having no plan at all. Really impressive how the distribution of this vaccine is becoming a keystone kops routine in so many states.

Here in MD, people were getting invitations to schedule a vaccination appointment that later had to be rescinded as the invitation was sent in error. Each county is running different schemes for reaching the health care workers who are eligible for the first shots. And it is unclear whether the process applies to the county that you work in or the county you live in, which is a big issue for health care workers. One county is doing walk-in style, and many workers are working on the assumption that it is better to ask forgiveness than permission. People might not remember, but the Swine Flu vaccine rollout was just as bad as this. I was hoping we had learned some things, but recent events are disabusing me.

I don't know if this was what happened here, but the grift potential is large.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1346508740200042497

View: https://twitter.com/RebeccaDRobbins/status/1346508740200042497

 

[Chris Gadsden]

“It’s chaos out there. The state has no idea what it’s doing,” said Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin, particularly taking aim at the leadership of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“The Cuomo handling of the vaccine is blithering incompetence.”
McLaughlin said that county governments like his have been largely sidelined during the vaccine’s launch, with Cuomo and his team micromanaging the process from Albany, getting bogged down in details rather than putting the jabs into the arms of those who need them.
“This administration can’t administer the vaccines that are in its hands,” he said.

But, but , but it's the hospital's fault... I mean Trump.

From Cuomo's administration a letter sent to hospitals in part said;

If you don’t use the allocation by the end of this week, the allocation you’ve received by the end of this week, you can be fined and you won’t receive further allocations. We’ll use other hospitals who can administer it better.

This prompted a question from a reporter who asked:

On the one hand, you’re telling hospitals to use their allotment by the end of the week or face a fine. But on the other hand, you’re telling them if they mess up the prioritization they could also face a fine. Are those competing principles there and is that in any way slowing down the vaccination process?

It's a good question for Clown Cuomo. But I'll admit, of the brothers I thought Fredo was the one on CNN. Clearly I was wrong. They are both Fredo.

 

[djpbaltimore]

Following up on my earlier post. Here is a great thread for a serology analysis on one of the key mutations in the SA variant. This is not vaccination-induced antibodies, but rather antibodies induced by prior infection. But this is the kind of data that will need to be repeated with sera from vaccinated people to really tell how much of an effect the mutant will have on vaccination. At this point, vaccines would be expected to provide some protection, but that protection may not be as good as for other strains based on this data. It is also a mutation that has arisen in multiple strains, so barricading SA is not an option. Incidentally, this is also part of the rationale for minimizing infection levels prior to vaccination. The more virus out there, the increased likelihood there is for the virus to mutate into an escape variant and be selected for in a Darwinian sense. The SA variant has a mutation that seems to make it more transmissible and a separate mutation that helps it evade the immune system a bit. Really thankful that it doesn't mutate like Flu. But given enough time, an immune escape variant is going to emerge.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1346442049663340544

View: https://twitter.com/jbloom_lab/status/1346442049663340544

 

[Koronin]

If someone wants the news article I am sure I can go find it again. Spain appears to have their success rate and getting vaccines into people determinant on which province is doing the vaccinating. Certain provinces are doing very well with around 3-5 having used around 80% of the vaccine doses they have while other provinces are around 10%, and several in between. Now they do think some of their issues are due to having the rollout over the holiday and hoping vaccination rates are able to pick up once the holidays are over.

On a side note, after the second CT for my husband they have backed off the lung cancer thought as the mass in his lungs has decreased as have the lymph nodes. They do have a comment that they want a biopsy on both the mass and on a lymph node that is still has a high swell rate. This is good news.