Jump to content

COVID-19 III: No Politics For Thee


Recommended Posts

U.S. deaths top three million in a single year for the first time, up 400,000/15% over 2019 and counting.  Yeah, a little more than "just another strain of the flu" (as I heard an American citizen interviewee say on NPR the other night):

U.S. deaths top three million so far in 2020

Largest single-year percentage increase since 1918.  Official Covid death toll for U.S. as of this morning is around the 320,000 mark.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 1.3k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

1 hour ago, Dan Gould said:

Not good. What I find frightening is CA reaching 1 million cases a few weeks ago, now on track for 2 million in a few days or less.

The less said about the failure in leadership here, the better. No one, certainly not Gov. Newsom, seems to have a clue, other than a shut down, on what to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, if it's a declared war, there's an American model for how to manage a declared-war economy.

And there's also models aplenty how to manage non-declared war economy.

What there's not too many American models for is actually/truly declaring a war and then not really fighting it.

so is this going to be a war or what? Seems like it needs to be, we're getting attacked like it is...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last I looked, the Positivity Rate here in DC was somewhere around 5% -- vs. about 15% where my Dad lives (outside of St. Louis) -- vs. scary high MUCH higher rates in Iowa and one of the Dakotas (iirc, but I can't remember which one), Wisconsin, Michigan, you name it around the upper Midwest.

How people can be traveling for Christmas in all this is absolutely beyond me.

On a positive note, the Exec Director of the retirement home that my Dad's in (in Illinois, outside of St. Louis)... ...she thinks all her residents may be vaccinated in as little as 4-6 weeks.  Fingers crossed she's right.

I'll be glad when it's my wife's and my turn here in DC whenever that is (June, July, hopefully not any later than that)... ...but I will be absolutely thrilled when my Dad gets it.  We haven't lost any real sleep over his situation, but half of that is our willfully convincing ourselves that the people where he lives are mostly taking every precaution.

They've only had once case of COVID all year (a resident who got it gosh knows where outside where my Dad lives), but they immediately quarantined her, and stopped the virus in its tracks.  Every nursing home and retirement center for 50 miles in any direction (of where my Dad is) has had a dozen or more cases, along with deaths (some a dozen or more) -- but the home where my Dad is has just had that ONE case, and that's it.

The Exec Director there is absolutely hell on wheels, and I wouldn't want to cross her in an alley late at night.  Tenacious doesn't even cover half of it.  She has been fanatical about keeping everyone in her care, and all her employees safe -- and impressing upon her employees that they have to be vigilant in the personal lives.  I'm sure there have been some lapses here and there (it's not like all her employees are living in a bubble at the retirement home)... ...but the results speaks for itself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In local news today --

COVID-19 is projected to be the third leading cause of death in Santa Clara County this year, behind only cancer and heart disease. The data was released by health officials as the county passed a grim milestone this week with 632 cumulative deaths reported to date.

From zero to Number Three in just one year. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Well, if it's a declared war, there's an American model for how to manage a declared-war economy.

And there's also models aplenty how to manage non-declared war economy.

What there's not too many American models for is actually/truly declaring a war and then not really fighting it.

so is this going to be a war or what? Seems like it needs to be, we're getting attacked like it is...

 

This pandemic is going to be the cause of a ton of Ph.D's. The amount of studies to come out from all of this will be a never ending stream of dissertations, studies, workshops and legislation for decades to come.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So a story about a close acquaintance.  I’ve known a few people who have gotten COVID - either co-workers or former high school classmates.  But someone i know well came down with it recently.

Fortunately it was a very mild case.  Symptoms were like a cold - and not a very serious cold.  Cough for a few days, a lot of congestion.  No fever.  They got really lucky.

They also have no idea how they got it.  They’re working from home and have been fairly careful.  Their spouse and kid tested negative, as did the nanny and her family.  Maybe at a recent doctors appointment or via a surface or getting to go food?  (They live in a place where outdoor and indoor dining are currently prohibited.)

A few other comments... they had a first hand encounter with the unreliability of antigen (rapid) test.  After a few days of symptoms they got such a test and it came back negative!  Then just to be sure the following day they took a PCR test which came back positive.  So they only found out they were positive 6 days after symptoms (=8 days after being contagious).

 

Edited by Guy Berger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ejp626 said:

Apparently there are more anti-vaccers than we imagined among the medical community.  This is truly infuriating: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/31/wisconsin-health-worker-deliberately-spoiled-500-covid-vaccine-doses

I'm glad this person was fired and hopefully will be severely prosecuted.  :angry:

Anti-vaccer or sociopath? I didn't see that specified in the story.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, JSngry said:

Anti-vaccer or sociopath? I didn't see that specified in the story.

Fair -- the story is still developing.  Possibly a bit of both...

There have been a handful of doctors, including in BC, that are on the verve of having their licenses suspended because of their aggressive anti-vaccine stance.  But it really takes the cake that you would try to prevent this from going to others, even if you choose (foolishly in my view) not to take it yourself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Quebec under curfew.  Ontario is going under mandatory stay-at-home order for at least 28 days -- https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/59922/ontario-declares-second-provincial-emergency-to-address-covid-19-crisis-and-save-lives

Schools closed or rather going virtual at least until Feb 10.

Quite a few loopholes, but this is going to be hard to take.  All I can say is that the cases better start declining (and the vaccines pushed out faster).  If this doesn't actually seem to bring things under control (because of continued outbreaks in essential workplaces for example), things will not be pretty.

All  things considered, I'd rather have the curfew...

Edited by ejp626
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/1/2021 at 7:15 PM, ejp626 said:

Fair -- the story is still developing.  Possibly a bit of both...

There have been a handful of doctors, including in BC, that are on the verve of having their licenses suspended because of their aggressive anti-vaccine stance.  But it really takes the cake that you would try to prevent this from going to others, even if you choose (foolishly in my view) not to take it yourself.

The person who spoiled the vaccine was a pharmacist! who "told investigators he intentionally tried to ruin the vaccine because it could hurt people by changing their DNA."  Presumably because this is the innovative mRNA vaccine, and it just scares him.  Well, clearly he is in the wrong profession.  His license has been suspended.  Very likely he will be charged, but one never knows these days.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/us/2021/01/13/pharmacist-accused-of-spoiling-vaccine-has-license-suspended.html

One of my college roommates went into pharmacy school.  A generally nice guy, but he was absolutely convinced that there was proof that homeopathy worked...  I guess as long as he doesn't shill for alternative medicines/doctors or try to convince people in his clinic to try homeopathy instead it probably is a harmless quirk.

But wait, there's more.  According to this story, he (the Wisconsin pharmacist, not my roommate) has been charged, and he is also a survivalist nut...

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/wisconsin-pharmacist-who-left-vials-out-thought-vaccine-was-unsafe-prosecutor-1.5253745?cache=yes

He went to his ex-wife's house to drop off "a water purifier and two 30-day supplies of food, telling her that the world was "crashing down" and she was in denial. He said the government was planning cyberattacks and was going to shut down the power grid."

Sounds like he is deep, deep down the rabbit hole.

Edited by ejp626
Link to comment
Share on other sites

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-19-vaccination-doses?tab=chart&yScale=linear&stackMode=absolute&time=earliest..latest&country=CHN~FRA~DEU~ITA~MEX~ROU~GBR~USA&region=World

I realize these are gross numbers not per capita but still, aside from the UK, all of Europe is at 100,000 vaccinations per day on a rollling seven day average but US has crossed 700,000 and most recent daily total is 900,000. Kinda sorta light at end of tunnel?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No idea when my dad will be able to get his shot(s) in downstate Illinois (near St. Louis). He lives in a retirement home now, and nearly everyone there is over 75 or 80 (he’ll be 94 in May) — but the home director said that because they aren’t technically a “nursing home” — and the state just considers them a “group living facility” (that just happens to be older people). She’s doing her best to best to get more answers, but it could be late February or March for all we know.

She’s incredibly tenacious, so my dad couldn’t have a better advocate working to get his entire facility vaccinated as soon as practicable. Not as quick as we’d like, but this all is an unprecedented effort, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was a delay of a month or two.

Hopefully the Federal involvement after the inauguration will ramp up significantly, so I can’t quite complain yet. (AKA, the cavalry is coming, though don’t worry, I’m keeping my expectations in check.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Dan Gould said:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-19-vaccination-doses?tab=chart&yScale=linear&stackMode=absolute&time=earliest..latest&country=CHN~FRA~DEU~ITA~MEX~ROU~GBR~USA&region=World

I realize these are gross numbers not per capita but still, aside from the UK, all of Europe is at 100,000 vaccinations per day on a rollling seven day average but US has crossed 700,000 and most recent daily total is 900,000. Kinda sorta light at end of tunnel?

I agree Dan, there's reason to feel optimistic that the pace of vaccination will pick up further.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...