COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[jimrtex]

https://twitter.com/piyushmittal/status/1350868085129953281
Particularly chilling to me is this part:

Jones announced Saturday on Twitter that she learned of the warrant and plans to turn herself in on Sunday. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed there is a warrant for Jones’ arrest but said it cannot disclose what charges she faces until she is in custody.

I was not previously aware that premeditated "arrest first, charges afterward" was a thing that could happen in the United States.

This is and has always been a nothing story.  Do some basic research and fact-checking.

How come she has Florida backwards in her picture?

It's a thing with some selfie-cameras.  A mirror effect is created.  Trying to comprehend why makes my brain hurt.

She should have fixed it before she posted it. She probably didn't notice.

[DINGO Joe]

https://twitter.com/piyushmittal/status/1350868085129953281
Particularly chilling to me is this part:

Jones announced Saturday on Twitter that she learned of the warrant and plans to turn herself in on Sunday. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed there is a warrant for Jones’ arrest but said it cannot disclose what charges she faces until she is in custody.

I was not previously aware that premeditated "arrest first, charges afterward" was a thing that could happen in the United States.

This is and has always been a nothing story.  Do some basic research and fact-checking.

How come she has Florida backwards in her picture?

It's a thing with some selfie-cameras.  A mirror effect is created.  Trying to comprehend why makes my brain hurt.

She should have fixed it before she posted it. She probably didn't notice.

Some cameras fix it automatically, why some do and don't are, again, brain cells I don't want to devote to understanding.

[It’s so Joever]

https://twitter.com/piyushmittal/status/1350868085129953281

Particularly chilling to me is this part:

Jones announced Saturday on Twitter that she learned of the warrant and plans to turn herself in on Sunday. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed there is a warrant for Jones’ arrest but said it cannot disclose what charges she faces until she is in custody.

I was not previously aware that premeditated "arrest first, charges afterward" was a thing that could happen in the United States.

This is and has always been a nothing story.  Do some basic research and fact-checking.

Which parts are false? Go on.

[Del Tachi]

https://twitter.com/piyushmittal/status/1350868085129953281

Particularly chilling to me is this part:

Jones announced Saturday on Twitter that she learned of the warrant and plans to turn herself in on Sunday. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed there is a warrant for Jones’ arrest but said it cannot disclose what charges she faces until she is in custody.

I was not previously aware that premeditated "arrest first, charges afterward" was a thing that could happen in the United States.

This is and has always been a nothing story.  Do some basic research and fact-checking.

Which parts are false? Go on.

The Rebekah Jones "story" is the clickbait that COVID media and partisan panickers like you dream of - but the only problem is it's all fake.  The salient facts are:

1) Jones had minimal responsibility for Florida's COVID-19 data.  She was not the "architect" of the state's dashboard, as was reported by several national outlets, but only had responsibility for loading external data onto a ready-made module created by ArcGIS.  That's why the Florida dashboard looks nearly identical to the Johns Hopkins' dashboard.
 
2) Jones is not a coronavirus "scientist" and describing her as such, like NPR and MSNBC did, is extremely generous and construed to give the story more legs than it deserves.  She is a doctoral student of geography at FSU.  Her skill set, as applicable to COVID-19, is in mapping and GIS applications.  She has no education or special skills in epidemiology, biology or public health.  While calling her a "(data) scientist" may be technically correct, media outlets owe their readers a fuller explanation of her role and educational background to make clear she is not a medical professional. 

3) Jones was never asked to manipulate or delete any data.  She was asked to temporarily disable the ability to export from the dashboard so data could be verified and matched to other sources.  This is the relevant excerpt from the Tampa Bay Times article, the first outlet to report Jones' story, on what data was missing and for how long:

[On May 4], the column vanished from the “Person Cases” data, which lists anonymized records for every confirmed case in Florida. The Palm Beach Post reported the disappearance the next day, May 5.

The Tampa Bay Times automatically checks for changes in the data and archives new updates. Shortly before 10:12 a.m on May 4., data still included the EventDate field, showing records with listed dates that people reported symptoms as early as January 1. By 3:02 p.m., the column was gone.

For much of the next day, May 5, the column was either missing or empty, with every row listing “None.” Finally, it returned shortly before 8:02 p.m.

I added the bold because it's an obvious indication that the data on the dashboard was incorrect.  Florida didn't report its first case of COVID-19 until March 1.

If you're struggling to see what all the fuss is about, I can understand why.  By the Times own account, a single column of data become unavailable for a day-and-a-half.  As  part of their initial reporting, the Times reviewed email communication between Jones and her coworkers related to the missing data:

According to internal emails reviewed by the Times, Department of Health I.T. Director Craig Curry emailed Rebekah Jones just before 5 p.m. on May 4. He cited Dr. Carina Blackmore, director for the Division of Disease Control and Health Protection.

“Per Dr. Blackmore, disable the ability to export the data to files from the dashboard immediately. We need to ensure that dates (date fields) in all objects match their counterpart on the PDF line list published,” Curry wrote.

The tables in the PDF documents did not include the column of data showing when symptoms were first reported, only the “Case Date” — the date the state recorded and confirmed the case.

“This is the wrong call,” Jones replied minutes later.

A few minutes later, she emailed Curry again. “Case line data is down.”

Then, just after 6 p.m., the I.T. director emailed both Jones and Dr. Blackmore. “Re-enable for now please.”

Jones replied, “10-4.”

Jones' superior, Dr. Carine Blackmore (i.e., an actual medical scientist), asked to have the data disabled while health officials verified the dates with other official sources.  This is critical.  The Times and national media outlets who picked up on their reporting had a full explanation for why the data was temporarily unavailable, but they chose to run with "coronavirus conspiracy" as a hit-piece against DeSantis.  Jones' accusations were misrepresented from the very beginning for political gain.

4)  Jones was fired for a pattern of insubordination.  Florida media has reported the dashboard (which Jones had responsibility for) was altered several times and often did not match other state sources of information, making tracking and data analysis using the dashboard "impossible."  According to a statement from DeSantis spokesperson Helen Ferre "Jones exhibited a repeated course of insubordination during her time at the department, including her unilateral decisions to modify the COVID-19 dashboard without input or approval from the epidemiological team or her supervisors."  In 2016, she was booked on charges of battery against a police officer on the campus of LSU (where she worked at the time.)  She has also been arrested for "sexual cyberstalking" in Leon County since becoming employed with the Department of Health.

The bottom line is that Jones was fired for performance issues, not for refusing to delete/manipulate data.  Her troubled criminal and personal history suggest a disgruntled employee who is now trying to get media attention about her firing as retribution.  The easiest way to get this attention is to claim a Republican governor is involved in a conspiracy to cover-up COVID-19 information detrimental to reopening Florida's economy.

Despite the obvious problems with this story, you and other COVID-panickers will double-down on the idea that DeSantis is withholding or manipulating COVID data.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

A lot of people are having to go through a lot just trying to get a vaccine
(see thread):
https://twitter.com/btshapir/status/1351218054580072451?s=20

[Mr. Morden]

https://twitter.com/vmsalama/status/1351306939091836929

[Roll Roons]

https://twitter.com/vmsalama/status/1351306939091836929

But he won't be president on January 26...

[Mr. Morden]

https://twitter.com/vmsalama/status/1351306939091836929

But he won't be president on January 26...

Obviously, the order will be signed before he leaves office.  Biden can issue a new one if he wants, but this'll be the new default if Biden does nothing.

[Mr. Morden]

And actually, there's more context here.  The CDC already announced that Jan. 26th is the day when a new policy will start, that will require a negative covid test before anyone (even American citizens) fly into the US:

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s0112-negative-covid-19-air-passengers.html

So (again, unless Biden reverses this) this'll be the new travel policy, replacing the old restrictions.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

A lot of people are having to go through a lot just trying to get a vaccine
(see thread):
https://twitter.com/btshapir/status/1351218054580072451?s=20

Where did this guy sign up for any appointment?  For example, the website for LA County makes it clear that you should only sign up for an appointment if you are a healthcare worker:

http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/ncorona2019/vaccine/hcwsignup/pods/

[urutzizu]

Biden spox says Evropean travel ban won't be lifted.

https://twitter.com/jrpsaki/status/1351322381864890370?

Honestly, I think this is petty actionism. The rule requiring negative pcr is clearly more sensible. Non-essential travel by non-american citizens from those countries is negligible right now anyway. Just perptuates "protect us from them" narrative and unnecessary diplomatic damage, which is what their original purpose was.  

[compucomp]

Biden spox says Evropean travel ban won't be lifted.

https://twitter.com/jrpsaki/status/1351322381864890370?
Honestly, I think this is petty actionism. The rule requiring negative pcr is clearly more sensible. Non-essential travel by non-american citizens from those countries is negligible right now anyway. Just perptuates "protect us from them" narrative and unnecessary diplomatic damage, which is what their original purpose was.  

Why not both? Who said that imposing a negative test requirement meant that the travel ban had to be lifted?

Trump clearly made this move with an intention to sabotage Biden and I'm glad that Biden is not having it.

[Dr. Arch]

The updated numbers for COVID-19 in the U.S. are in for 1/18 per: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

I'm keeping track of these updates daily and updating at the end of the day, whenever all states finish reporting for that day.

ΔW Change: Comparisons of Weekly Day-to-day Growth or Decline of COVID-19 Spread/Deaths.

• IE: Comparing the numbers to the same day of last week, are we flattening the curve enough?

Σ Increase: A day's contribution to overall percentage growth of COVID-19 cases/deaths.

• IE: What's the overall change in the total?

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1/10: <Sunday>

• Cases: 22,917,334 (+217,396 | ΔW Change: ↑4.10% | Σ Increase: ↑0.96%)
• Deaths: 383,275 (+1,795 | ΔW Change: ↑28.58% | Σ Increase: ↑0.47%)

1/11: <M>

• Cases: 23,143,197 (+225,863 | ΔW Change: ↓5.70% | Σ Increase: ↑0.99%)
• Deaths: 385,249 (+1,974 | ΔW Change: ↓3.47% | Σ Increase: ↑0.52%)

1/12: <T>

• Cases: 23,368,225 (+225,028 | ΔW Change: ↓0.23% | Σ Increase: ↑0.97%)
• Deaths: 389,599 (+4,350 | ΔW Change: ↑24.39% | Σ Increase: ↑1.13%)

1/13: <W>

• Cases: 23,616,345 (+248,120 | ΔW Change: ↓11.07% | Σ Increase: ↑1.06%)
• Deaths: 393,928 (+4,329 | ΔW Change: ↓0.94% | Σ Increase: ↑1.11%)

1/14: <Þ>

• Cases: 23,848,410 (+232,065 | ΔW Change: ↓15.44% | Σ Increase: ↑0.98%)
• Deaths: 397,994 (+4,066 | ΔW Change: ↓1.64% | Σ Increase: ↑1.03%)

1/15: <F>

• Cases: 24,102,429 (+254,019 | ΔW Change: ↓21.81% | Σ Increase: ↑1.07%)
• Deaths: 401,856 (+3,862 | ΔW Change: ↓4.05% | Σ Increase: ↑0.97%)

1/16: <S>

• Cases: 24,306,043 (+203,614 | ΔW Change: ↓16.22% | Σ Increase: ↑0.84%)
• Deaths: 405,261 (+3,405 | ΔW Change: ↑2.22% | Σ Increase: ↑0.85%)

1/17 (Yesterday): <Sunday>

• Cases: 24,482,050 (+176,007 | ΔW Change: ↓19.04% | Σ Increase: ↑0.72%)
• Deaths: 407,202 (+1,941 | ΔW Change: ↑8.13% | Σ Increase: ↑0.48%)

1/18 (Today): <M>

• Cases: 24,626,376 (+144,326 | ΔW Change: ↓36.10% | Σ Increase: ↑0.59%)
• Deaths: 408,620 (+1,418 | ΔW Change: ↓28.17% | Σ Increase: ↑0.35%)

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Slight optimism...rising.

[emailking]

Could the holiday today be part of the drop? I know a lot of places stay open.

[jimrtex]

2) Jones is not a coronavirus "scientist" and describing her as such, like NPR and MSNBC did, is extremely generous and construed to give the story more legs than it deserves.  She is a doctoral student of geography at FSU.  Her skill set, as applicable to COVID-19, is in mapping and GIS applications.  She has no education or special skills in epidemiology, biology or public health.  While calling her a "(data) scientist" may be technically correct, media outlets owe their readers a fuller explanation of her role and educational background to make clear she is not a medical professional. 

Is she still a doctoral student at FSU? I thought she had dropped out.

[Del Tachi]

D.C.

https://twitter.com/AlexCTaliadoros/status/1350236342182096905

Democratic governance at work!

Like people who live in glass Mississippis should throw anything.

Is this....WHATABOUTISM!?

I thought only Fuzzy was lame enough to do that, lol

[It’s so Joever]

Another new strain has been identified in California (and watch Taco boy try to turn this into a matter of Democrats bad hahahahaha)
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/new-coronavirus-strain-cedars-sinai-los-angeles-covid-19-surge/2508635/

There are worries this strain could be less susceptible to the vaccine.

Meanwhile, the South Africa strain appears to not show evidence of being significantly less susceptible to the vaccine, although potentially may be less susceptible to monoclonal antibody treatments.

[DINGO Joe]

D.C.

https://twitter.com/AlexCTaliadoros/status/1350236342182096905

Democratic governance at work!

Like people who live in glass Mississippis should throw anything.

Is this....WHATABOUTISM!?

I thought only Fuzzy was lame enough to do that, lol

Gotta give credit to Mississippi, they spotted Louisiana a huge lead in COVID death and they still caught up.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Almost a third of recovered Covid patients return to hospital in five months and one in eight die

Research by Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found there is a devastating long-term toll on survivors of severe coronavirus, with many people developing heart problems, diabetes and chronic liver and kidney conditions.

Out of 47,780 people who were discharged from hospital in the first wave, 29.4 per cent were readmitted to hospital within 140 days, and 12.3 per cent of the total died.

[Dr. Arch]

The updated numbers for COVID-19 in the U.S. are in for 1/19 per: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

I'm keeping track of these updates daily and updating at the end of the day, whenever all states finish reporting for that day.

ΔW Change: Comparisons of Weekly Day-to-day Growth or Decline of COVID-19 Spread/Deaths.

• IE: Comparing the numbers to the same day of last week, are we flattening the curve enough?

Σ Increase: A day's contribution to overall percentage growth of COVID-19 cases/deaths.

• IE: What's the overall change in the total?

Older Numbers (Hidden in spoiler mode to make the post more compact)

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1/10: <Sunday>

• Cases: 22,917,334 (+217,396 | ΔW Change: ↑4.10% | Σ Increase: ↑0.96%)
• Deaths: 383,275 (+1,795 | ΔW Change: ↑28.58% | Σ Increase: ↑0.47%)

1/11: <M>

• Cases: 23,143,197 (+225,863 | ΔW Change: ↓5.70% | Σ Increase: ↑0.99%)
• Deaths: 385,249 (+1,974 | ΔW Change: ↓3.47% | Σ Increase: ↑0.52%)

1/12: <T>

• Cases: 23,368,225 (+225,028 | ΔW Change: ↓0.23% | Σ Increase: ↑0.97%)
• Deaths: 389,599 (+4,350 | ΔW Change: ↑24.39% | Σ Increase: ↑1.13%)

1/13: <W>

• Cases: 23,616,345 (+248,120 | ΔW Change: ↓11.07% | Σ Increase: ↑1.06%)
• Deaths: 393,928 (+4,329 | ΔW Change: ↓0.94% | Σ Increase: ↑1.11%)

1/14: <Þ>

• Cases: 23,848,410 (+232,065 | ΔW Change: ↓15.44% | Σ Increase: ↑0.98%)
• Deaths: 397,994 (+4,066 | ΔW Change: ↓1.64% | Σ Increase: ↑1.03%)

1/15: <F>

• Cases: 24,102,429 (+254,019 | ΔW Change: ↓21.81% | Σ Increase: ↑1.07%)
• Deaths: 401,856 (+3,862 | ΔW Change: ↓4.05% | Σ Increase: ↑0.97%)

1/16: <S>

• Cases: 24,306,043 (+203,614 | ΔW Change: ↓16.22% | Σ Increase: ↑0.84%)
• Deaths: 405,261 (+3,405 | ΔW Change: ↑2.22% | Σ Increase: ↑0.85%)

1/17: <Sunday>

• Cases: 24,482,050 (+176,007 | ΔW Change: ↓19.04% | Σ Increase: ↑0.72%)
• Deaths: 407,202 (+1,941 | ΔW Change: ↑8.13% | Σ Increase: ↑0.48%)

1/18 (Yesterday): <M>

• Cases: 24,626,376 (+144,326 | ΔW Change: ↓36.10% | Σ Increase: ↑0.59%)
• Deaths: 408,620 (+1,418 | ΔW Change: ↓28.17% | Σ Increase: ↑0.35%)

1/19 (Today): <T>

• Cases: 24,806,964 (+180,588 | ΔW Change: ↓19.75% | Σ Increase: ↑0.73%)
• Deaths: 411,486 (+2,866 | ΔW Change: ↓34.11% | Σ Increase: ↑0.70%)

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Unlike yesterday, which could have been noise due to the holiday, this feels like a genuinely good sign that the holiday surge has passed.

Still a long way to go, of course.

[Beefalow and the Consumer]

https://twitter.com/piyushmittal/status/1350868085129953281

Particularly chilling to me is this part:

Jones announced Saturday on Twitter that she learned of the warrant and plans to turn herself in on Sunday. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed there is a warrant for Jones’ arrest but said it cannot disclose what charges she faces until she is in custody.

I was not previously aware that premeditated "arrest first, charges afterward" was a thing that could happen in the United States.

I assume they mean, "cannot disclose to the media," what charges she faces. Which is entirely reasonable.

2) Jones is not a coronavirus "scientist" and describing her as such, like NPR and MSNBC did, is extremely generous and construed to give the story more legs than it deserves.  She is a doctoral student of geography at FSU.  Her skill set, as applicable to COVID-19, is in mapping and GIS applications.  She has no education or special skills in epidemiology, biology or public health.  While calling her a "(data) scientist" may be technically correct, media outlets owe their readers a fuller explanation of her role and educational background to make clear she is not a medical professional. 

Should NPR and MSNBC call her a, "Data Scientist, which is literally the job she had with the state, so not a 'real' scientist, kind of like Jill Biden is not a 'real' doctor, because if we call Dr. Biden a 'real' doctor, people might think she carries a stethoscope and one of those knee-mallet things everywhere she goes, and similarly people might think Jones works under a fume hood with safety glasses on while Erlenmeyers sit bubbling away on magnetic stirrers?"

Anyway, non-story is a non-story. Don't comment publicly on data that's not yours. Don't take data home with you. Use your head.

[jimrtex]

https://twitter.com/piyushmittal/status/1350868085129953281
Particularly chilling to me is this part:

Jones announced Saturday on Twitter that she learned of the warrant and plans to turn herself in on Sunday. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed there is a warrant for Jones’ arrest but said it cannot disclose what charges she faces until she is in custody.

I was not previously aware that premeditated "arrest first, charges afterward" was a thing that could happen in the United States.

I assume they mean, "cannot disclose to the media," what charges she faces. Which is entirely reasonable.

2) Jones is not a coronavirus "scientist" and describing her as such, like NPR and MSNBC did, is extremely generous and construed to give the story more legs than it deserves.  She is a doctoral student of geography at FSU.  Her skill set, as applicable to COVID-19, is in mapping and GIS applications.  She has no education or special skills in epidemiology, biology or public health.  While calling her a "(data) scientist" may be technically correct, media outlets owe their readers a fuller explanation of her role and educational background to make clear she is not a medical professional. 

Should NPR and MSNBC call her a, "Data Scientist, which is literally the job she had with the state, so not a 'real' scientist, kind of like Jill Biden is not a 'real' doctor, because if we call Dr. Biden a 'real' doctor, people might think she carries a stethoscope and one of those knee-mallet things everywhere she goes, and similarly people might think Jones works under a fume hood with safety glasses on while Erlenmeyers sit bubbling away on magnetic stirrers?"

Anyway, non-story is a non-story. Don't comment publicly on data that's not yours. Don't take data home with you. Use your head.

Her job description appears to be Geographic Information System Analyst.

[It’s so Joever]

Almost a third of recovered Covid patients return to hospital in five months and one in eight die

Research by Leicester University and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found there is a devastating long-term toll on survivors of severe coronavirus, with many people developing heart problems, diabetes and chronic liver and kidney conditions.

Out of 47,780 people who were discharged from hospital in the first wave, 29.4 per cent were readmitted to hospital within 140 days, and 12.3 per cent of the total died.

Misleading title.
This is severe Covid patients. That’s not to say this disease is not dangerous, it is and virus truthers should be imprisoned, but it’s not all Covid patients.