COVID-19 Update

Out of every 1,974 Americans who were alive in February this year, 1 of them is dead now because of COVID-19.

An American has died of COVID-19 every 99 seconds for the last 6 months, 11 days.

Yesterday, an American died of COVID-19 every 57 seconds.

Out of every 10 Americans who are dead now because of COVID-19, 6 of them are dead because 45* panicked and went limp at the moment of truth. Or worse - he made a conscious decision not to act, motivated by something so monstrously perverse that most of us won't want to be told about it even if someone figures it out.

And, again, the number of Cases could be as much as 10 times higher than is being reported, and the number of Deaths could be 2 or 3 times higher.

MedPage Today, from about 3 weeks ago:

... in 7 of these 10 sites, researchers estimated there were more than 10 times as many infections as reported cases, the authors wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine. The CDC has also created an interactive, public dashboard with data from the 10 sites, which the agency said would be regularly updated.

An accompanying editorial in JAMA by Tyler Brown, MD, and Rochelle Walensky, MD, both of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, characterized this study as "a substantial step forward" and an "important reference point" for serosurveys to come. Previous serologic studies have been "narrow in scope, focused on specific geographic catchment areas or local cohorts captured via unrestricted, 'walk-up' enrollment," they said.

In contrast, the new CDC analysis drew on blood samples collected for routine healthcare purposes such as cholesterol screenings and inpatient monitoring.

Brown and Walensky noted relevant points this data brings up in light of discussions around public health, starting with debunking the idea of "herd immunity" for COVID-19 as of now. The editorialists noted the herd immunity threshold is generally considered to be 60% to 70%, and as of mid-May, 7 of 10 locations were experiencing "substantial, as-yet uncontrolled increases" in new cases.

Top 20 Countries

 

Top 20 States

 

WaPo:

A Georgia district returned to school last week. More than 900 students and staff are now quarantined.
A third of those quarantined are students and teachers at Etowah High School, which has 14 confirmed cases. The school will shut down until Aug. 31, school officials said.

Three necessary things for young people who feel their future is unraveling
These are not being given much consideration in the national debate.

‘This is no longer a debate’: Florida sheriff bans deputies, visitors from wearing masks
Florida set a new record with 217 covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, while Marion County also set its own record for daily deaths with 13.

Florida and Georgia report highest single-day death tolls since start of coronavirus pandemic
The aggressive Russian approach has been criticized by outside scientists who worry the country is skipping essential large-scale testing.

South Dakota health officials watch for the coronavirus as motorcyclists descend
Emergency workers were tested before the Sturgis rally and will undergo more tests once the bikers leave town.

Today's Tweet

Genius

Kudos to whoever made this👏🏼💙😂🤣😭💀 pic.twitter.com/C0WYs9sYzB

— ⚔️💖Barb💖⚔️ (@ReSista_Barb) August 11, 2020

Today's Tweet

Oy - makes my head hurt

The President says the “1917 pandemic” ended the Second World War pic.twitter.com/jSltuSYim2

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) August 10, 2020

Today's Pix

click

👁👃🏻👁

👅

⬇︎

COVID-19 Update

Dead Americans Projected

By Election Day = 224,764By Year's End    = 276,854

And here comes Uncle Vlad - riding in to do whatever it is he and 45* think will further muddy things up and make it harder for anyone to decide what's what and who might actually be telling the truth.

This just gets more and more fucked up.

WaPo:

Russia unveils covid vaccine ‘Sputnik V’, claiming breakthrough in global race before final testing complete

First off, can we go ahead and fire the headline writer please? The splashy "unveils" is ridiculous. It invites the inference that they have something legit. And while it may turn out that way, saying it like that - like they've got it and everything's going to be just peachy - is a tiny bit premature.

Anyway -

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Tuesday that Russian scientists achieved a breakthrough in the global vaccine race, announcing that the country has become the first to approve an experimental covid-19 vaccine and that his own daughter has already taken a dose.

Officials have pledged to vaccinate millions of people, including teachers and front-line health-care workers this month — before even finishing clinical trials — with the formula developed by the Gamaleya Institute in Moscow.

But Russia’s hard charge toward a potential vaccine has raised alarm among global health experts that the country is jumping dangerously ahead of critical, large-scale testing that is essential to determine if a possible covid-19 protection is safe and effective. Few details of the Gamaleya research have been made public or underwent peer review.

Russia’s Health Ministry did not respond to requests for comment, and the Gamaleya Institute referred an interview request to the ministry.

The vaccine is named Sputnik V, a reference to the first orbital satellite, which was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957 and set off the global space race. The name also evoked how Putin’s government has seen the vaccine race as a point of national pride and competition on a global scale, with labs in the United States, Europe, China and elsewhere are also in the hunt for a potential vaccine.

“Of course, what counts most is for us to be able to ensure the unconditional safety of the use of this vaccine and its efficiency in the future. I hope that this will be accomplished,” Putin said at a meeting with government members Tuesday, adding that one of his two daughters had received the potential Gamaleya vaccine. He didn’t identify which daughter.

That last bit - Putin saying his daughter has taken the vaccine. Did anyone else hear the echo of 45*'s hydroxychloroquine claims in that little flourish?

I can see a strategy at play, where Cult45 points at the great and powerful Vlad, and tells us  "the Democrats are obstructing your right to pay Mr Putin his pound of flesh and blah blah blah".

I'm so fucking sick of this shit.

USPS

What To Do

We could bring this monster to heel in a coupla months if these stupid Cult45 devotees would just get the fuck outa the way.

I think some sense is creeping in on the rubes, but they continue to be goaded into this hyper-libertarian mode by politicians (mostly Republicans) who just can't let go of the need to make shit up that they think works in their favor.

NYT:

It’s no mystery how America got here. The Trump administration’s response has been disjointed and often contradictory, indifferent to science, suffused with politics and eager to hand off responsibility to state leaders. Among the states, the response has also been wildly uneven.

It’s also no surprise where the country is headed. Unless something changes quickly, millions more people will be sickened by the virus, and well over a million may ultimately die from it. The economy will contract further as new surges of viral spread overwhelm hospitals and force further shutdowns and compound suffering, especially in low-income communities and communities of color.

The path to avoiding those outcomes is as clear as the failures of the past several months.

Scientists have learned a lot about this coronavirus since the first cases were reported in the United States earlier this year. For instance, they know now that airborne transmission is a far greater risk than contaminated surfaces, that the virus spreads through singing and shouting as much as through coughing, and that while any infected person is a potential vector, superspreading events — as in nursing homes, meatpacking plants, churches and bars — are major drivers of the pandemic. By most estimates, just 10 to 20 percent of coronavirus infections account for 80 percent of transmissions.

We can and must do better.

• Clear, Consistent Messaging
• Better Use of Data
• Smarter Shutdowns
• Testing, Tracing, Isolation and Quarantine