Across the country cases are on the rise….
The worst are is the MidWest…
There are increases in ‘reported’ cases almost everywhere….
Reported Hospital stays are starting to rise but deaths are decreasing…(they usually lag behind case numbers)…
Following the lead of several cites and states the CDC and FDA has suggested all Americans who had shot’s early in the pandemic to get a ‘booster’ shot.…
There have been varying reports of how long shots last in cutting reactions to having the virus…
Pfizer is asking the Fed’s to ok their Covid treatment pill now….
There IS a push now also to vaccinate children 5-11….
Biden attempt to go thru the Labor Dept. to have OSHA enforce a workplace test or shot mandate has been stopped by a Federal appeals court….The mandate enforcement has been suspended by the agency…
Fully reported Vaccinated are @ 59%
NY Times…
Europe dealing with a virus spike and resistance to restricting coming back….
Austrians took to the streets on Saturday to protest a newly announced nationwide lockdown and a plan to make coronavirus vaccinations compulsory, and demonstrators gathered in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The previous night in the Netherlands, rioters set fires on the streets of Rotterdam and attacked police officers at a rally against Covid measures.
A year and a half after the coronavirus swept through Europe with devastating effect, prompting strict lockdowns, the continent is once again the epicenter of the pandemic. And as governments increasingly return to measures limiting public life and introduce vaccination requirements, protests pushing back against those rules are also rising….
More…
Mask wearing going forward…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that even fully vaccinated people wear masks in public indoor spaces where community transmission of the virus is “substantial or high.” Currently, roughly 85 percent of U.S. counties meet that threshold, which is defined as at least 50 new cases weekly per 100,000 residents.
It will be safer to ease mask requirements early next year, scientists said, after more children have been fully vaccinated and the holiday travel season has passed. And voluntary mask-wearing will continue to be helpful in certain circumstances, as well as in future cold and flu seasons, they noted.
“I don’t think we’re going to want to put all our masks away,” Dr. Luby* said….
More…
*Dr. Stephen Luby, an infectious disease expert and epidemiologist at Stanford University.
From the Atlantic….
COVID’s seasonality hadn’t been disproved; to know for sure, we’d need to wait and see what happened next. Now we have nearly two years’ worth of data—from eight full seasons of pandemic—to pick apart for clues, and may well be closing in on an answer. We also know something we didn’t in spring 2020: In all likelihood, we will not eradicate COVID. That makes it all the more important that we know how cases might ebb and flow with weather in the months and years to come…
…
This three-peaked seasonality, if it’s real, would seem to make COVID an outlier, at least compared with single-season diseases like the flu. But if COVID really is driven more by seasonal changes than factors such as masking and vaccination rates, no community should expect to see a surge more than once a year. The disease would still behave like the flu on a local level, in the sense that each place would see one peak season every year—even while the country overall had three….
More…
Mandates continue to become a political pushback issue by Republican lawmakers…
GOP Opposition to Vaccine Mandates Grows Beyond Covid
Stat: “In Idaho, a lawmaker introduced a bill that would define vaccine mandates — of any kind — as a form of assault. In Florida, a prominent state senator has called for a review of all vaccine requirements, including those for immunizations that have enjoyed wide public acceptance for decades, like polio and the measles, mumps, and rubella shot. And in Montana, the Republican governor recently signed into law a new bill that forbids businesses, including hospitals, from enforcing any vaccination requirements as a condition of employment.”
The pure viciousness of many Republicans seems to know no bounds.
What kind of piece of garbage wants to risk a child getting polio to satisfy their lust for political power.
The Republican Party’s self proclaimed Orwellian use of the term “pro life “ to describe themselves only serves to highlight their cynicism ,anger and seemingly unbridled hatred.
Fauci this Sunday on Booster shots and who is “fully vaccinated ‘….
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday that the federal government’s definition of “fully vaccinated” wouldn’t immediately change following the authorization of COVID-19 booster shots last week.
“First of all, you want to go with the science,” Fauci told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz during an appearance Sunday on “This Week.”
For now, that data suggests maintaining the current guidelines for vaccination, he said. Currently, a person in the US is considered to have completed their vaccination after receiving one shot of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine or two doses of the mRNA vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer….
More…
I might be a bit early but the ‘reported’ numbers maybe showing this spike beginning to level out with less overall ‘reported’ hospital stays and deaths…
If I’m right?
The two or month thing has happened again with less of a spike as the virus weakens , vaccinations crawl up and mask wearing comes back to some places…
This could be VERY good news…
But?
I could ahead of myself and wrong
The spike is across the nation…
But higher in the MidWest…But there ARE increases in heavily vaccinated states also like Mich, Mine, NH…..
Link..
Link…
I don’t see much evidence of what you’re saying.
Indeed cases seem to be spiking over most areas of the country
Deaths do seem to be leveling off ; however, they often lag behind spikes ,so we will have to see what the next few weeks bring on that front.
Data will be skewed for the next few days due to the Holidays…
I’ll look at things Monday or Tuesday…..
Update on Omicron …
Just two days after the world learned of the variant, the World Health Organization officially labeled it a “variant of concern,” its most serious category — the first since the Delta variant, which emerged a year ago. The designation means that the variant has mutations that might make it more contagious or more virulent, or make vaccines and other preventive measures less effective — though none of those effects has yet been established….
…
The W.H.O. and scientists on multiple continents cautioned that very little is known yet about the Omicron variant, or about whether the dangers it poses will justify the fears it is stoking. South African scientists announced its existence on Wednesday, and the number of cases definitively identified, all of them within the past three weeks, is still small, under 100…
More…
(Bold my addition)
Again figures for the holiday are unreliable.…
Wash Post has ‘reported’ cases dropping since Tuesday…
NY Times also has ‘reported’ cases dropping since Tuesday
Ok….
The Omicron media hysteria seems to be dropping down already…….
I find the hysteria is in full throttle.
I still waiting for some actual scientific analysis.
So am i Jack
One piece i just saw rebuts yesterdays media report that the vaccines are ineffective against this strain
The main issue seems to rapidity of its spread….
This needs some rime and less ‘hair on fire’ from the media
One thing that confuses me ( and I confess to scientific illiteracy) is that the Delta variant was pronounced much more “transmissible “ than the original Covid strain.Still the infection numbers during the current Delta “wave” haven’t approached those of the original.That seems sort of odd if it is more “transmissible.“
Apparently, the preliminary talk is this Omicron variant is “more transmissible “ which I resume means it is more so than Delta.So I’m nature what that means relative to what I stated above
The ‘experts’ don’t know either
The media has the while this racing forward for government official’s efforts to quarrintine whole countries from another which is NOT gonna wotk the way humans travel
The Dark’ continent gets banded from the workd
Again….
There is scant info/data on the Omicron variant….
But some of it IS hopeful and NOT as hysterical as the media would lead us to believe…
…
In the rush to understand the threat posed by the Omicron variant, the worrisome new version of the coronavirus, some experts are pointing hopefully to early signs that it may cause only mild illness, without some of the trademark symptoms of Covid.
…
At the moment, the variant has been spotted in at least a dozen countries, including Britain and the Netherlands. Many others are closely monitoring cases. Omicron has not yet surfaced in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention….
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Omicron has dozens of new mutations, including many that may enable the virus to be more contagious and to sidestep immune defenses. But Dr. Angelique Coetzee, who chairs the South African Medical Association, noted on Saturday that the nation’s hospitals were not overrun by patients infected with the new variant, and that most were not fully immunized.
Moreover, most patients she had seen did not lose their sense of taste and smell, and had only a slight cough, she told reporters….
More…
We should get a better idea of the latest American virus spike in the next few days…
Right now?
The Holiday reported data , which is spotty, shows drops….
Since June 1st over 150,000 unvaccinated Americans, the vast majority of whom are Republicans, have died.
Maybe we could put that into a PSA about the need to be vaccinated.
Frankly I have no problems with mandates or vaccination incentives as long as stupid stubborn Republicans walk among us.
Does the Coroner require a voter registration card to be provided? You guys are against that usually.
What about the states that do not have party registration.
What is the factual basis for this claim?
Israel will offer a FOUTH shot as a second virus booster….
This is NOT a scientifically based decision…It’s a hunch
Israel’s decision this week to become the first country to recommend a fourth vaccine dose to combat the highly contagious omicron variant came after health officials concluded that an initial booster had turned the tide this fall against the delta variant.
While they acknowledged that their decision was not based on new scientific data about the omicron variant, officials said they thought it would be prudent to recommend an additional shot because they believe that the ability of the initial booster to prevent infection has been waning over time….
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The WHO has labeled the new variant a “Variant of Concern” which is notable that it is more serious than a “variant of interest”. We still don’t know yet how serious this threat is, but why downplay its potential seriousness?
I don’t understand why James feel it is his duty to put more people’s lives at risk by 1) Telling people repeatedly that the virus is going away when more people in the US died this year than last year and 2) Never advocating vaccinations – suggesting that exposing people to Cov-19 is NOT morally wrong.
Virus travel shutdowns reports scared the market…
It’s coming back….
Stocks in sectors heavily affected by the pandemic led much of Monday’s rebound after plunging on Friday. Shares of cruise lines, banks and financial services companies, technology firms, manufacturers, hotels and travel companies rose sharply Monday morning, far exceeding losses taken by some electronic entertainment and commerce companies….
More…
It appears that GOPer’s are gonna try to pin the Omicron on Joe Biden and Democrats…
Is anyone surprised that it took only a couple of days for Republicans to spread obviously nonsensical conspiracy theories about the omicron coronavirus variant? U.S. Representative Ronny Jackson, a Texas Republican and former White House physician, took to Twitter on Sunday to claim: “Here comes the MEV — the Midterm Election Variant! They NEED a reason to push unsolicited nationwide mail-in ballots. Democrats will do anything to CHEAT during an election — but we’re not going to let them!”
More…
The good news about Omicron is that there are still no known deaths from it. we’ll find out more in the next two weeks, but potentially it is less deadly.
THAT seems to be the early news Z…..
Updates….
Biden tries to ratchet down the ‘hair on fire media’ coverage….
President Biden on Monday described the omicron variant of the coronavirus as a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic,” as cases continue to emerge around the globe.
In an address from the White House, the president pressed Americans to get coronavirus vaccinations and boosters, calling the shots “the best protection against this new variant or any of the various out there.”….
More…
Post Thanksgiving virus data numbers are all over the place….
Need more time….
Until we see how this new variant plays out?
The numbers are irrelevant.
Red States Now Paying People to Not Get Vaccinated
Catherine Rampell: “Once upon a time, states debated whether to pay people to get vaccinated. Now, some red states are paying people not to get vaccinated, by cutting checks to workers who quit or are fired because they refuse covid-19 shots.”
There must be a whataboutisms for this.
Rhode Island’s public employees union has negotiated a contract with the state (yet to be ratified) that gives $3,000 in bonuses ($1,500 in two successive years) to those who’ve been vaccinated.
The outcry from Outraged Taxpayers is predictable (“My boss doesn’t pay me extra to get vaccinated; I just get to keep my job, so why should those overpampered bureaucrats… ? ”)
As for Kaiser-Permanente Health being a Left-Coast Socialist plot, it was born as precisely the opposite, The engineer and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser (Sr) was a vehement anti-socialist who started Kaiser Health specifically to forestall Socialized Medicine (at about the time that the postwar British Labour government was establishing the National Health Service).
Cf. the health insurers and big pharma supporting Obamacare (the ACA) in order to forestall and preclude Single-Payer.
I must day I find it disturbing when an article says “some red states are paying people not to get vaccinated”, but it doesn’t say what those states are.
Journalistically, it’s misleading. It’s about regular unemployment benefits.
It would be the same thing as saying that if an employee quits a job or is fired from a private sector job because they did not submit to a drug test, that unemployment benefits would be akin to “paying them to do drugs.”
Maybe the unemployment benefits policy is inappropriate in both circumstances but there would not be any consistency in how it is described.
Based on age, most of you were eligible for a booster shot months ago. Insurance is not needed.
There’s one person out west who may have waited too long, but I am sure will follow through in a few days.