Covid-19 #21 - The Darkness Before the Dawn

[Fragile Bird]

Wait - California has more than 60,000 new cases yesterday? More than the entire US in the summer?

Damn.

[The Anti-Targ]

3 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

Well. My office just closed for four weeks because some idiots actually went to work WITH SYMPTOMS. And I think were told to go take a covid test, which came back positive.
 

This is why we can’t have nice things...

I hope you were never in breathing distance of this person. Hope you stay well.

That's idiotS, plural?

[Mudguard]

41 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

Wait - California has more than 60,000 new cases yesterday? More than the entire US in the summer?

Damn.

It's bad here.  Official state numbers for Wednesday was about 53K new cases, with about 12K coming from tests taken earlier than the previous day but not reported until Wednesday for some reason.  The 7 day rolling average tends to smooth out the spikes from reporting issues and makes it easier to see trends.  Case numbers are still going up here. 

Our governor, Newsom, recently violated his own COVID-19 guidelines and recommendations to attend an indoor birthday dinner party at a 3 Michelin star restaurant (French Laundry) for one of his lobbyist friends, no mask in sight and over a dozen people living it up at a place that charges over $300 per seat.  Not a good look at the height of the pandemic.  Hypocritical, elitist, etc.  

Also, LA mayor shuttered a bunch of restaurants even though they set up outdoor dining facilities, but allowed a Hollywood production to set up an outdoor dining facility right outside the closed restaurants that looked pretty much the same, except for being 10 times larger.  That also looked really hypocritical.

It's already hard enough to convince people 9 months into the pandemic to continue social distancing, but these things erode public trust and make some people think, especially those on the fence, if it's OK for our leaders to ignore the guidelines, I don't have to continue following the guidelines either.

[The Anti-Targ]

2 hours ago, rotting sea cow said:

I think it's pretty much the same. Half of the deaths are in nursing homes, again, like in practically every country. Either, countries have  massively failed to adequately protect them or it's simply too difficult when the virus is running rampant through the community. It might well be both.

 

I think, too, a lot of people bought the myth that Sweden would have herd immunity by May, and the summer lull kind of played into that notion. Clearly not true, or post infection immunity only lasts a few months, which would mean there is no such thing as herd immunity for this virus, at least not from natural infection. I hope for the world's sake that it is just the former and not nearly as many people in Sweden caught the infection early on as people thought.

Also, Emmanual Macron tested positive (not Sweden related, just to be clear).

[Tywin et al.]

1 hour ago, Mudguard said:

Also, LA mayor shuttered a bunch of restaurants even though they set up outdoor dining facilities, but allowed a Hollywood production to set up an outdoor dining facility right outside the closed restaurants that looked pretty much the same, except for being 10 times larger.  That also looked really hypocritical.

I saw the video I believe this is referencing. It's really tricky because crews on a lot of sets don't interact with one another for long periods of time, and I believe the set in question was made so large to keep people apart.

Also, $300 just for a seat? I've gone to a lot of expensive restaurants, but I've never had to pay for a seat except when the place only has a couple options to order from and the value is deemed to be the same for each meal.

[Mudguard]

1 hour ago, Tywin et al. said:

I saw the video I believe this is referencing. It's really tricky because crews on a lot of sets don't interact with one another for long periods of time, and I believe the set in question was made so large to keep people apart.

Also, $300 just for a seat? I've gone to a lot of expensive restaurants, but I've never had to pay for a seat except when the place only has a couple options to order from and the value is deemed to be the same for each meal.

No, it wasn't the set.  They set up an outdoor dining area with tables, benches and canopies, which is the same thing the restaurant had set up.  

And yes, the menu at the French Laundry is fixed.  You eat what they serve you.

[Mlle. Zabzie]

5 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Wait - California has more than 60,000 new cases yesterday? More than the entire US in the summer?

Damn.

Cali is getting all the headlines, BUT TAKE A LOOK AT TENNESSEE.

[Fragile Bird]

1 minute ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

Cali is getting all the headlines, BUT TAKE A LOOK AT TENNESSEE.

Holy crap, 8,945 yesterday and there are only 6.8 M people. 177 deaths. Wow.

I’m freaking out because we hit 2,432 in Ontario and we have 14.5 M people. And all of Canada hadn’t had that big a one day death total since May, when 222 were announced because Quebec did a sweep of records in the back counties to capture all deaths.

Just looking at Worldometer, and 9 states had more cases yesterday than Canada, and only California has more people.

And South Carolina, 5.1 M people and 2,655 new cases, more than Ontario.

January is going to be horrible for all of us.

[rotting sea cow]

8 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

I think, too, a lot of people bought the myth that Sweden would have herd immunity by May, and the summer lull kind of played into that notion. Clearly not true, or post infection immunity only lasts a few months, which would mean there is no such thing as herd immunity for this virus, at least not from natural infection. I hope for the world's sake that it is just the former and not nearly as many people in Sweden caught the infection early on as people thought.

I think we will learn about that soon enough. Brazil is having a new spike of cases and it's then matter of time till the virus reaches Manaus.

Three-quarters attack rate of SARS-CoV-2 in the Brazilian Amazon during a largely unmitigated epidemic

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/12/07/science.abe9728

 

[Tywin et al.]

11 hours ago, Mudguard said:

No, it wasn't the set.  They set up an outdoor dining area with tables, benches and canopies, which is the same thing the restaurant had set up.  

That's part of the larger set though.

Quote

And yes, the menu at the French Laundry is fixed.  You eat what they serve you.

Those prudes should have called their restaurant Pilgrim Laundry.  

[Tywin et al.]

Just wait until the post-Christmas numbers. Literally just about everyone I've talked to has plans for Christmas, even the ones who avoided any kind of Thanksgiving gettogethers. 

You gentiles are odd folks.

[Tywin et al.]

17 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

Yikes. My plans for Christmas is Same as Thanksgiving - me, Pumpkin, and W. 

Well you're not an idiot. But think of the two you mentioned before. They're going to be everywhere...

[Mlle. Zabzie]

58 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Just wait until the post-Christmas numbers. Literally just about everyone I've talked to has plans for Christmas, even the ones who avoided any kind of Thanksgiving gettogethers. 

You gentiles are odd folks.

My parents un-invited us LMAO.  (We weren't going anyhow, but they wanted to be SURE).  We are just chilling (strike that, freezing our a$$es off) here.  I do know a fair number of people who are going to visit family.  Most of them are taking SOME kind of precaution (e.g., two week quarantine before travel or testing), but of course that isn't foolproof, AND, the folks in my circle tend to be more cautious......

[IheartIheartTesla]

15 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

Yes, two idiots. At a meeting in an enclosed conference room with a number of other people. Smdh. So god only knows how many people in the office have it now. 

None of us are required to go to the office; it’s completely voluntary.

I'd suggest to the office mandarins they introduce a screening form everyone has to fill when they get in to the office (with the standard questions everyone knows by now), and a temperature value that they took at home.

We shut down conference rooms here across site, and even when there have to be in person meetings (very, very rare), the seats are arranged so as to be socially distant.

[Tywin et al.]

29 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

My parents un-invited us LMAO.  (We weren't going anyhow, but they wanted to be SURE).  We are just chilling (strike that, freezing our a$$es off) here.  I do know a fair number of people who are going to visit family.  Most of them are taking SOME kind of precaution (e.g., two week quarantine before travel or testing), but of course that isn't foolproof, AND, the folks in my circle tend to be more cautious......

I assume that a majority of people that say they're taking some types of precautions are more talk than walk. 

Also, glad to see you're back, tax law nerd. 

[Mlle. Zabzie]

26 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

I assume that a majority of people that say they're taking some types of precautions are more talk than walk. 

Also, glad to see you're back, tax law nerd. 

I would put it more charitably.  I think a LOT of people WANT to do the right thing, but (I) there is a lot unknown, (ii) the guidance is desperately unclear and ever-changing, (iii) while tests are available some places they are not foolproof and can be expensive either in money or time, and (iv) a lot of the “fool proof” solutions are not palatable in terms of life, especially at this point.  So there is a balance between total isolation living off your survivalist cans on the one hand, and full anti-mask party time on the other, and people are going to make individual choices here that are rational on the micro level that still may on a macro level drive the pandemic.  Other than a national lockdown (which won’t happen) not sure there is a lot to do about that.  That said, consistent national messaging would be hugely helpful.....

 

eta - glad to be back.

[IheartIheartTesla]

Yeah, thats ridiculous (and also potentially enough cause for termination if they are shown to have willingly lied on those forms).

Dont know if I've said this here, but I've had to quarantine twice (i.e, not go in to workplace) because family members showed symptoms, subsequently ruled out by negative COVID tests. Still, even with me not showing any symptoms and those tests, they wouldn't let me in. It was voluntary self reporting, which is the key; also part of the reason the CDC reduced its isolation times from 14 to 10 days to encourage such behavior.

[Zorral]

The vaccine distribution woes are begun!  Because, you know, Operation Warp Speed is a fed program, i.e. shoggoth's, and is a disaster, because disaster and cruel is all They do. Nothing else.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/12/17/pfizer-vaccine-supply-states/

Quote

 

....Wiesman, of Washington state, said he could appreciate Operation Warp Speed’s decision to provide numbers of verified doses only, as opposed to an estimate of what might be available by week’s end. But he said states can’t plan without a longer-term sense of what they will receive, which has been impossible because of changing estimates from the pharmaceutical companies and from Operation Warp Speed.

We need to have some sense of what regular production is going to be, what the throughput of the manufacturer is so we can look more than a week ahead,” he said.

Some of these concerns were communicated on a call last week with governors and administration officials, including Vice President Pence, Azar and Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed. There was only preliminary guidance on shipments for this week, said a state official who participated in the call. Administration officials, peppered with questions about the initial supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, emphasized the Moderna vaccine, which they said would be available soon....

...Another person involved in the planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation, said Pfizer executives were baffled that the administration was not immediately distributing all of its vaccine, instead leaving much of it on the shelves....

 

 

[IheartIheartTesla]

Both Pence and Pelosi have received the Pfizer vaccine, so at least that's #2 and #3 in the chain of command sorted, Wonder if they will go down the cabinet (and of course, president pro temp) in terms of priority for vaccine.

[Tywin et al.]

4 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

I would put it more charitably.  I think a LOT of people WANT to do the right thing, but (I) there is a lot unknown, (ii) the guidance is desperately unclear and ever-changing, (iii) while tests are available some places they are not foolproof and can be expensive either in money or time, and (iv) a lot of the “fool proof” solutions are not palatable in terms of life, especially at this point.  So there is a balance between total isolation living off your survivalist cans on the one hand, and full anti-mask party time on the other, and people are going to make individual choices here that are rational on the micro level that still may on a macro level drive the pandemic.  Other than a national lockdown (which won’t happen) not sure there is a lot to do about that.  That said, consistent national messaging would be hugely helpful.....

How do we define a lot, because there are also a lot of people who think this is a hoax and/or refuse to alter their behaviors. Just look at Chat's office. And the shitty thing is it only takes a few people to screw over a lot of people. 

A national lockdown should have happened and is probably the only way to stem what's going on right now. It will still be a while until enough people have been vaccinated, and who knows how bad things will be by then.