Coronavirus thread

[MusicTurner]

- All travel anywhere abroad now warned against by our Danish government. Situation was worsening but has been a bit more stable for about 3-4 days now, following further restrictions. In late summer, we were down at 20-30 daily cases, recently it has become 750-1050. But the number of tests is also much bigger, and treatment works better, with shorter hospitalization periods, on average 3 days and fewer fatalities.
- tough days in France where there is a very thorough lock down starting today, combined with a series of terror attacks from Islamist radicals
- Sweden sees worsening and strengthens restrictions, warning against participating in public life in general
- South Korea and Taiwan some of the few countries experiencing continued success in fighting the virus, partly due to strict surveillance systems.

[T. D.]

From Bloomberg News:

New Projection Shows Higher U.S. Death Toll (11:59 a.m. NY)
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an influential modeling group, is projecting a higher U.S. death toll amid a surge in virus cases and hospitalizations. The group now projects about 405,000 Covid-19 deaths by Feb. 1, representing a nearly 20,000 increase from a previous projection of about 386,000 deaths.

"Europe is seeing a surge right now and Europe is ahead about a month from the United States. So basically we are watching what would unfold here in the United States," Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences with IHME, said Thursday morning in a briefing held by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The full data are set to be released later Thursday, he said.

[Karl Henning]

It was what it was.

[T. D.]

Won't stop Cheeto Mussolini from saying he did a good job...

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/29/trump-administration-vetted-political-views-of-274-celebrities-for-botched-covid-ad-campaign.html

The Trump administration vetted 274 celebrities for their political views as part of a $265 million public service campaign on the coronavirus, House lawmakers said.
The ad campaign was designed to advance Trump's "partisan political agenda" ahead of the Nov. 3 presidential election, according to the joint inquiry by three key House panels.
The new documents indicate that HHS officials may have violated federal contracting law, the lawmakers said.

[Karl Henning]

"Amid a surge of coronavirus cases in Massachusetts, new state data indicate that dozens of clusters in the past month have been identified in child care settings, nursing homes, senior living centers, restaurants and food courts, and from organized athletic activities.

Yet many of these clusters — identified as two or more confirmed cases with a common exposure — resulted in a relatively small percentage of the roughly 20,000 new confirmed cases for that period.

By far the largest number of clusters counted by Massachusetts are from households, defined as a shared residence of people who are not identified with another cluster. And contact tracers were not necessarily able to learn whether those infections were linked to workplaces, social gatherings or other activities."

[SimonNZ]

Garry Kasparov: "I you keep saying you're turning the corner, that means you're going in circles."

[Herman]

More from Superspreader Central HQ:

Mike Pence will not quarantine after four aides test positive for coronavirus

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/25/mike-pence-coronavirus-four-aides-test-positive-for-covid-19.html

That's not good.

We need Pence to be on hand in November, should Trump want to cut and run.

[BasilValentine]

Over 90,000 new cases yesterday? Death counts on the way up again? Counties hosting Trump rallies develop significantly higher case rates versus surrounding counties and state averages? Sigh.

[Todd]

Europe struggling with 2nd surge of COVID-19 case, and it may be worse than the 1st

The continent now accounts for 46% of global coronavirus cases.

[drogulus]

     A Flu Shot Might Reduce Coronavirus Infections, Early Research Suggests

In the new study, Mihai Netea, an infectious disease immunologist at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and his colleagues combed through their hospital's databases to see if employees who got a flu shot during the 2019–2020 season were more or less likely to get infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Workers who received a flu vaccine, the researchers found, were 39 percent less likely to test positive for the coronavirus as of June 1, 2020. While 2.23 percent of nonvaccinated employees tested positive, only 1.33 percent of vaccinated ones did. Netea and his team posted their findings on the preprint server MedRxiv on October 16.

     I got my flu shot in September. The advice was to get it early this year.

[BasilValentine]

Looks like we're closing in on 100,000 new cases and 1,000 deaths today in the U.S.

I plan to get a flu shot next week.

[T. D.]

...

I plan to get a flu shot next week.

Me too. Read an item a while back in which Dr. Fauci recommended that people in my age group (I just turned 63) wait until late October to get the flu shot. As usual I'll be late.

[Herman]

I had mine this week, it's grrreat!

[vandermolen]

I had my first ever flu vaccination this year.

[krummholz]

Me too. Read an item a while back in which Dr. Fauci recommended that people in my age group (I just turned 63) wait until late October to get the flu shot. As usual I'll be late.

Did he give a reason? The only reason I can think of is that supplies of the high-dose vaccine might not become available until then. But I'm not certain whether it's recommended if you're under 65. I'm 65 and was told for the first time that I should get the high-dose formulation, and received it at work earlier this month.

[T. D.]

Did he give a reason? The only reason I can think of is that supplies of the high-dose vaccine might not become available until then. But I'm not certain whether it's recommended if you're under 65. I'm 65 and was told for the first time that I should get the high-dose formulation, and received it at work earlier this month.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/when-dr-anthony-fauci-gets-his-flu-shot-and-why.html

So you're more likely to have immunity in peak times of Feb. and Mar. But he wasn't specific about age recommendations.

[T. D.]

Cheeto Mussolini big lie of the day (so far):

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-30/trump-claims-at-rally-doctors-lie-about-virus-deaths-for-money

President Donald Trump claimed without substantiation that U.S. doctors are lying about the number of Americans who've died from Covid-19, saying they inflate the figure because they are paid more money for deaths attributed to the virus.

There's no evidence for the president's assertion, and physician groups have castigated him for maligning their profession.

[Herman]

it's not so much the insult that's bad; it's the nth instance of Trump wanting people to trust him over people who know what they're talking about.

[Karl Henning]

No surprise, Dept.: Stanford study estimates that 18 crowded Trump rallies ultimately resulted in 30,000 coronavirus cases

[71 dB]

No surprise, Dept.: Stanford study estimates that 18 crowded Trump rallies ultimately resulted in 30,000 coronavirus cases

If true that's about double all coronavirus cases in Finland (16,113 as of writing this).