COVID-19 Megathread 6: Return of the Omicron

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://mobile.twitter.com/atrupar/status/1290985999942778880

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/amhill/status/1291531958154137601

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/oliverdarcy/status/1291432607440347148

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The anti-vaccers comprise more than a third of our total population, and most of them are Republicans:

Poll: 35% of Americans, most Republicans would reject COVID-19 vaccine

More than one-third of U.S. adults and a majority of Republicans would not receive a free, government-approved COVID-19 vaccine if one was presently available, a Gallup survey showed Friday.

According to the poll, 35% of U.S. adults said they would not get the vaccine, compared to 65% who said they would. The share was the exact same 65/35 split among both men and women.

The age group that expressed the most skepticism about a vaccine were those between 50 and 64 years old (59%) -- and the group that was most accepting of a vaccine were between 18 and 29 (76%).

By race, the survey found that two-thirds of White Americans (67%) and 59% of non-Whites would take the vaccine, despite the virus more heavily affecting the Black and Latino communities.

Pay attention to the wording.

Donald Trump is completely ignorant, desperate for positive news about the pandemic he has horribly handled, has publicly pushed snake oil, and has repeatedly demonstrated completely disregard for science and public safety.

I'll get a vaccine approved by WHO, the EU, and/or the Biden Administration as soon as I feasibly and ethically can. That the Trump administration cannot be trusted to produce a medically sound vaccine is obvious.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://www.complex.com/life/2020/08/georgia-students-suspended-for-sharing-viral-pictures-of-packed-school-hallway

Apparently it's a crime to show that Kemp is lying about it being safe to return to school.

Same county:
https://twitter.com/Freeyourmindkid/status/1292220720777494531

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Whole thing is well worth a read. To clarify the title, Gates is saying the testing is garbage because we take so long to get results back that its useless for containment.

Bill Gates on Covid: Most US Tests Are ‘Completely Garbage’

You helped fund a Covid diagnostic testing program in Seattle that got quicker results, and it wasn’t so intrusive. The FDA put it on pause. What happened?

There’s this thing where the health worker jams the deep turbinate, in the back of your nose, which actually hurts and makes you sneeze on the healthy worker. We showed that the quality of the results can be equivalent if you just put a self-test in the tip of your nose with a cotton swab. The FDA made us jump through some hoops to prove that you didn’t need to refrigerate the result, that it could go back in a dry plastic bag, and so on. So the delay there was just normal double checking, maybe overly careful but not based on some political angle. Because of what we have done at FDA, you can buy these cheaper swabs that are available by the billions. So anybody who’s using the deep turbinate now is just out of date. It’s a mistake, because it slows things down.

But people aren’t getting their tests back quickly enough.

Well, that’s just stupidity. The majority of all US tests are completely garbage, wasted. If you don’t care how late the date is and you reimburse at the same level, of course they’re going to take every customer. Because they are making ridiculous money, and it’s mostly rich people that are getting access to that. You have to have the reimbursement system pay a little bit extra for 24 hours, pay the normal fee for 48 hours, and pay nothing [if it isn’t done by then]. And they will fix it overnight.

Why don’t we just do that?

Because the federal government sets that reimbursement system. When we tell them to change it they say, “As far as we can tell, we’re just doing a great job, it’s amazing!” Here we are, this is August. We are the only country in the world where we waste the most money on tests. Fix the reimbursement. Set up the CDC website. But I have been on that kick, and people are tired of listening to me.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

FDA chief on Trump's inaccurate COVID-19 claims: 'Won't get into who's right and wrong'

Stephen Hahn, the Food and Drug Administration commissioner, declined on Sunday to defend or criticize President Donald Trump's inaccurate claim that 99 percent of COVID-19 cases "are totally harmless."

Speaking with CNN's "State of the Union," Hahn, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said he was "not going to get into who's right and who is wrong" when pressed repeatedly about Trump's Saturday comments. But he called the virus and recent surge in cases "a serious problem that we have."

"We must do something to stem the tide," he said, "And we have this in our power to do it by following the guidance in the White House task force and the CDC."

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1292956347571544066

TIAAT:
https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/525431218910027776

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

So Putin now claims that a Russian firm has a Corona vaccine ready.

What could possibly go wrong with an under-tested vaccine from a authoritain dictator who's main concern is making himself look good?

(The mostly likely scenario is simply that it isn't effective and makes the pandemic worse as people think they're immune.)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

At this rate, we'll be close to a quarter million deaths by election day. It's so difficult to even wrap your head around that number of casualties.

Let me help you then:  over 2.8 million Americans died in 2019, and the median age of a COVID decadent is 78 years (same as U.S. life expectancy at birth)

Yes. Your "Party of Life" is a death-cult. We get it. You don't have to keep disgracing yourself to remind us.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/kerpen/status/1293990087911514112

It is funny on how the pro-lock down people refuse to acknowledge the stats like this.

And I have not had one pro-lockdown person yet have a coherent answer when they are confronted with the societal issues of mass evictions, mass suicides, permanent unemployment, etc just to save a few old people.

It's funny how you take a horrifying statistic about a pandemic that our national is doing a terrible job of responding to and immediately leap to the conclusion that it must be the fault of [thing you don't like].

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

‘Horrifying’ data glitch skews key Iowa coronavirus metrics

The glitch means the Iowa Department of Public Health has inadvertently been reporting fewer new infections and a smaller percentage of daily positive tests than is truly the case, according to Dana Jones, an Iowa City nurse practitioner who uncovered the problem. It’s particularly significant because school districts are relying on state data to determine whether they will offer in-person instruction when school resumes in the coming days and weeks.

The glitch means the Iowa Department of Public Health has inadvertently been reporting fewer new infections and a smaller percentage of daily positive tests than is truly the case, according to Dana Jones, an Iowa City nurse practitioner who uncovered the problem. It’s particularly significant because school districts are relying on state data to determine whether they will offer in-person instruction when school resumes in the coming days and weeks.

But the state has yet to publicly announce the error. Amy McCoy, a spokeswoman for the public health department, told the Associated Press that she hoped to have more information about the issue soon.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1292886763690745859

https://twitter.com/wingoz/status/1296486281405501440

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/maddow/status/1298683300836454400

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/brianklaas/status/1299651625640919040

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1299471313128452097

Heart Issue Linked To COVID-19 Will Sideline Georgia State Quarterback (August 21st, 2020)

The combination of COVID-19, college football and cardiac problems emerged in a major way Thursday with a Georgia State University quarterback being diagnosed with a heart condition.

Mikele Colasurdo announced on Twitter on Thursday that he was diagnosed with a heart condition “as a result of my COVID-19 infection.’’

He added that because of his condition, he won’t be able to play football this year.

(As the full article makes clear George State has a COVID-19 prevention/detection program in place and intends to participate in this season.)


Donald Trump is sacrificing people - destroying their health and their lives - in a desperate attempt to avoid facing the consequences for his own incompetence and malice. He's evil.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/benmontour/status/1300275167042600960

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The extent to which this country has collectively just completely given up on actually suppressing the virus is infuriating. Plateauing at 40-45K new cases per day most days is disastrous and inexcusable.

Trump wants to go with a herd immunity approach.

Which is extremely dangerous and extremely deadly (assuming the current rate of infection, that would mean close to 7 million Americans dead before we reach immunity).

Is that really it, or is his goal now to just sow as much death and chaos as he can, either to try to wreck the election or just to leave a mess for Biden and taken revenge on a country that is rejecting him?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/tylerkingkade/status/1303782855017889800

Since early September, Waukee and Woodbury Central Community School Districts have told teachers to get students up and walking around every 12-14 minutes in order to minimize consecutive time spent next to classmates. The 14-minute limit would allow most students to remain learning in-person even if someone in the classroom tests positive for COVID-19. The Iowa Department of Public Health guidelines state that only those exposed to the virus for 15 consecutive minutes within 6 feet need to quarantine after exposure.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Well here’s a weird theory that may explain the lower death rates in the past few months:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/face-masks-could-giving-people-covid-19-immunity-researchers/?fbclid=IwAR0z2sVoVRbaFS6uc62aeNHoGGmT9A1c_VpHZ_iBVc588UZ5ve_xYEgKGX0

I’ve felt for a while now that the inital advice of health experts NOT to wear masks may have been the biggest mistake of the entire course of the pandemic.  It would certainly be #1 if this theory turns out to be true.  If all of the lockdowns had simply been replaced with mask requirements, we could have save hundreds of thousands of lives as well as most of the economic damage.

There's at least one other very straightforward reason why not as many people are dying: Doctors are better at treating COVID-19 patients now.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/iblametom/status/1305856404926816256

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/themaxburns/status/1306048475319218176

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1306408278755164160

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Thread:
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1307879247550316544

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/ClaraJeffery/status/1308240816570204162
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1308209927274536961