the no-nonsense, nothing-but-the-facts-m'am C19 thread

[jeremyp]

A riddle?

Oh that wily CDC

[scottmitchell74]

No question that cases are up over last year this time, but cases are way down.

A riddle?

[Halfmiler2]

No question that cases are up over last year this time, but cases are way down.

[jeremyp]

Hospitalizations nationally have increased 50 percent since bottoming out six weeks ago. But the roughly 23,000 patients with covid in hospitals over the last week still represent near the lowest hospitalization levels of the entire pandemic.The recentincrease is driven by the Northeast, where hospitalization rates are almost twice as high as any other region.

Reported cases of covid have also tripled in the Northeast in just over a month, driving much of the growth nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The country has averaged nearly 90,000 new cases each day over the past week — three times higher than the lowest point in March.

The latest uptick in infections is testing a new CDC alert system adopted by many local and state governments that categorizes covid-19 community levels as “low” even with the number of new cases rising to a level once considered high.

Public health authorities are not as worried about rising cases because the infected are increasingly vaccinated and boosted and have access to therapeutics such as the antiviral Paxlovid that help prevent people from becoming seriously ill.

But doctors say the new CDCpublic reporting categories obscure the true risk of contracting covid-19, which still disrupts lives, can lead to long-term complications, and poses heightened danger for the elderly and immunocompromised.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...virus-wave-us/

[polevaultpower]

My county currently has one of the highest COVID rates in the continental US (though I suspect this has much more to do with how easy the county has made it to report home tests than actual rates being _that_ high).

My island is the hardest hit in the county right now. The school has gone remote. Half our restaurants are closed or have shifted to takeout only. They are not shut down as a precaution, it's just that too many employees have COVID to operate.

Omicron ran through our island a few months ago (the first time we had widespread community transmission), but now with masks off, BA.2 is hitting a lot harder.

Lots of people getting COVID now who have avoided it up until this point.

[jeremyp]

North Korea confirms 1st COVID outbreak, Kim orders lockdown (yahoo.com)

North Korea imposed a nationwide lockdown Thursday to control its first acknowledged COVID-19 outbreak after holding for more than two years to a widely doubted claim of a perfect record keeping out the virus that has spread to nearly every place in the world.

Hmm! How can you lock down a people who are already locked down?

[TN1965]

North Korea confirms 1st COVID outbreak, Kim orders lockdown (yahoo.com)

North Korea imposed a nationwide lockdown Thursday to control its first acknowledged COVID-19 outbreak after holding for more than two years to a widely doubted claim of a perfect record keeping out the virus that has spread to nearly every place in the world.

[Halfmiler2]

I got my 2nd booster today - just over 6 months since the 1st one. My Myeloma doctor told me to switch it up and get Pfizer instead of Moderna this time.

[jeremyp]

And now everyone (Fauci, CDC, White House) is saying that come fall and winter, we'll have 100 MILLION new cases in the USA, because everyone is so blasé about getting the follow-up boosters, which, apparently, only have a 6-month efficacy, not to mention the likelihood of variants sufficiently different to make the previous vaccines ineffectual. I'm getting a booster every 6 months till we come up with something better.

- Florida's COVID cases have jumped to the highest level in two months, but hospitalizations remain low. State health officials logged the biggest increase in new cases since late February, but hospitalizations remain lower than before the omicron variant engulfed Florida.

Florida has logged an average of 29,715 new infections each week since April 22, data released Friday by the state Health Department shows, the biggest jump since Feb. 25.

- What will COVID look like this summer? More cases, but probably not as devastating as the last two summers or the recent omicron surge. Unlike before, now most of the U.S. population now has some immunity from vaccines, boosters and previous infections, plus we have antivirals that can prevent hospitalizations in the unvaccinated . But immunity wanes, new variants can come, and it's easy to get complacent.

[Atticus]

And now everyone (Fauci, CDC, White House) is saying that come fall and winter, we'll have 100 MILLION new cases in the USA, because everyone is so blasé about getting the follow-up boosters, which, apparently, only have a 6-month efficacy, not to mention the likelihood of variants sufficiently different to make the previous vaccines ineffectual. I'm getting a booster every 6 months till we come up with something better.

[jeremyp]

Who'd a thunk it:

Trevor Noah joked about the event becoming a superspreader — and now the cases are rolling in. The annual White House Correspondents Dinner, along with the festivities held in the days before and after it, have led to the inevitable spread of Covid.

In the days since WHCD weekend, reporters and staffers from CNN, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Politico, and other participating news organizations have tested positive for the virus. Most notably, ABC’s Jon Karl, who shook hands with President Biden and who sat next to Kim Kardashian, has fallen ill,

[jeremyp]

If you are old and haven't been boosted don't count your chickens...

"The vaccinated made up 42 percent of fatalities in January and February during the highly contagious omicron variant’s surge, compared with 23 percent of the dead in September, the peak of the delta wave, according to nationwide data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed by The Post.

A key explanation for the rise in deaths among the vaccinated is that covid-19 fatalities are again concentrated among the elderly.

Nearly two-thirds of the people who died during the omicron surge were 75 and older, according to a Post analysis, compared with a third during the delta wave. Seniors are overwhelmingly immunized, but vaccines are less effective and their potency wanes over time in older age groups.

The bulk of vaccinated deaths are among people who did not get a booster shot, according to state data provided to The Post. In two of the states, California and Mississippi, three-quarters of the vaccinated senior citizens who died in January and February did not have booster doses. Regulators in recent weeks have authorized second booster doses for people over the age of 50, but administration of first booster doses has stagnated."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...ated-boosters/

[Halfmiler2]

Monthly Update:
The Friday (4/1/22) afternoon numbers:

Cumulative Numbers:
Global: 485.058 million cases & 6.129 million deaths
USA: 80.019 million cases & 979.3K deaths
NY State: 4.976 million cases & 55,140 deaths
NJ State: 1.900 million cases & 30,245 deaths
Bergen Co: 193.1K cases & 3,102 deaths

Global numbers exclude China which has only reported four deaths in two years. NJ & NY numbers are confirmed numbers only and exclude probables.

NJ & NJ Details:

The Rt for NJ increased to 1.03.
NJ has 5.69% & NY has 2.7% positivity rates
NJ has 336 & NY had 833 hospitalizations.
NJ has 7.7 million first shots, 6.8 million total vases, and 3.2 million boosters. NY has 15.9 total bases.

31-day Daily Averages:
Global: 2 million cases & 3K deaths
The USA: 35K cases & 1K deaths
NY State: 2.25K cases & 13.3 deaths
NJ State: 840 cases & 9.3 deaths
Bergen Co: 165 cases & 0.6 deaths

Monthly Update:
The Sunday (5/1/22) afternoon numbers:

Cumulative numbers:
Globally: 510.856 million cases & 6,223K deaths
The USA: 81.261 million cases & 992.7K deaths
NY State: 5.151 million cases & 55,458 deaths
NJ State: 1.951 million cases & 30,396 deaths
Bergen Co: 200,568 cases & 3,124 deaths

NJ & NY Detail:
NJ has 476 & NY has 1,868 hospitalizations
The Rt for NJ increased to be 1.15.
NJ has 7.49% & NY has 6.9% positivity %.
NJ has 6.86 million fully vaccinated (81%).
NJ has 7.78 million first shots,
NJ has 3.5 million boosters,
NY has 16.0 million fully vaccinated (82.3%).

30-day Daily Averages:
Globally: 900K cases & 3.3K deaths
The USA: 41K cases & 450 deaths
NY State: 5.8K cases & 10.6 deaths
NJ State: 1.7K cases & 5 deaths
Bergen Co: 233 cases & 0.7 deaths

[bambam1729]

A front-page article in the Wall Street Journal today indicates that the COVID death toll in Shanghai far exceeds the 36 reported by the government - which are the first COVID deaths reported in China in two years. China had not even reported any COVID cases in Shanghai in 2021.

The article says based on eye witness reports there have been more deaths in a single nursing home than reported for the entire city.

I'm shocked. Shocked!

[Halfmiler2]

A front-page article in the Wall Street Journal today indicates that the COVID death toll in Shanghai far exceeds the 36 reported by the government - which are the first COVID deaths reported in China in two years. China had not even reported any COVID cases in Shanghai in 2021.

The article says based on eye witness reports there have been more deaths in a single nursing home than reported for the entire city.