Welcome to the COVID-19 Digest for today! I realize that this thread is early, and there are good reasons for it to be that way today. I have what I feel is a more important diary primed to go in the usual News Digest slot that has critical news that I haven’t seen talked enough about on this site. That took priority over a daily digest!
It is Monday, March 21, 2022 and about 5:30AM here on the East Coast. The omicron wave that was hit East Asia and the European Union particularly hard has yet to produce similar results here, but it is only a matter of time before such results do happen. I’m sorry for being an Eeyore and raining on the parade of re-opening people, but I am a pessimist to the core. I greatly hope that I am being alarmist!
Me, when I hear good news these days.
The main story today comes from a twitter thread by Myoung Cha (who runs a home based health care system). His total thread is about 24 tweets long, and I have analyzed it in the APR this morning, so I won’t belabor it once again here. Just know that alarm after alarm is being sent out over a potential seventh wave of infection with BA.2 being the culprit. Plan your responses accordingly!
He isn’t the only one sounding the alarm, as Dr. Fauci says we are likely to see a wave. Intelligencer in the New York Magazine concurs, calling it the sixth wave that is coming (actually the seventh). The people who are trying to downplay the wave and pretend like it won't happen this time because reasons are full of shit.
Other Stories I am Covering Today Include:
1. Biden “Return to Normal” Strategy Being Tested by BA.2 and Lack of Funds
2. Are Hospitals Safe for You Not to Catch COVID-19?
3. Testing Sites Being Shut Down In Spite of Possible Wave Incoming
4. China Containing the Omicron Wave… For Now
5. COVID Restrictions Easing Across Europe in Spite of Surge in Cases
6. East Asian Nations May be at the Peak of the BA.2 Wave
7. New Zealand has Volatile Case Counts; Australia Cases Still Trending Upwards
Biden “Return to Normal Strategy” Looks Like a Wounded Duck
I have written HERE about the urgent need to continue funding the COVID Pandemic Response Funds, but there are other issues to the “Return to Normal” Plan other than it is a huge mistake by the Biden administration. Shannon Pettypiece and Sahil Kapur write for NBC News about this strategic blunder ( bolded emphasis mine).
As President Joe Biden pushes for Americans to return to their pre-pandemic lifestyle, his administration is bracing for a new wave of U.S. Covid infections in the coming weeks without key funding or essential tools in its arsenal.
Much of the administration’s plan for the next phase of the pandemic — when Americans can return to work and normal activities without masks, in most cases — was based on the assumption that Congress would be giving it billions for treatments, vaccines and testing. But that money appears to be in jeopardy after Congress was forced to drop $15.6 billion in Covid response money from the massive government funding package signed this week.
White House officials say they have no backup plan for how to keep a number of efforts running without the funds and have already begun making cuts. Meanwhile, a new variant called BA.2, which appears even more contagious than omicron, is starting to spread throughout the U.S. and has already led to an uptick in hospitalizations in Europe.
How you could not have contingency plans in the face of GOP obstruction flies in the face of logic and their typical behavior. I am currently ANGRY at the administration (but I will still support them). There is no excuse to have been backed into this corner without making several boneheaded moves. I’m really speechless. I am!
Are Hospitals Safe From COVID-19 Infections Right Now?
Dr. Eric Fiegl-Ding sprays disinfectant on hospital practices during COVID-19. The places seem to lead to more infections than if patients did NOT choose to go to the hospital. That ER visit should be an absolute LAST resort these days. Here’s the thread unroll for those not on social media.
Hospitals should offer fresh KN95 or N95 masks if they are so insistent upon the visitor switching masks (which to be fair is a good idea). Fuck the CDC guidance that is years out of date.
Crickets from the CDC about this issue. What if the problem is the CDC?
A travesty all around. What can hospitals do to combat this trend of unsafe cross infections (which could very easily lead to the next variant)? Hospitals should have the UV light systems for disinfection ready to go by now… but too many DON’T. Hospitals need to be a safe place, and right now between MRSA/other superbugs and COVID, a hospital is a DANGEROUS place to be in long term!
I feel unclean tweeting this link from The Tiger Beat on the Potomac Politico, but they rightfully scooped the original story and they show that at least one government agency is taking this problem extremely seriously. IF you run into trouble at a medical facility, REPORT IT.
Testing Sites Being Shut Down in Spite of Possible Wave Coming
Yes, you read that right. We think COVID is over, so we are closing down testing sites so that we cannot accurately track cases. Wasn’t it TFG who said “We have more cases because we have more testing!” Welp, I guess one way to play hide the data is just to stop testing entirely.
Anushka Patil writes about this idiocy in the New York Times, and he takes no prisoners.
Some states will close mass coronavirus testing sites in the coming weeks, as many did before the recent Omicron surge, despite concerns among some public health experts that the United States may be unprepared for a new wave of cases.
The closures arrive only a few months after Americans were forced to wait hours in long lines for free tests or to pay for testing. New Hampshire closed all state-run sites on Tuesday. Massachusetts will have closed a majority by April 1. South Carolina has been gradually closing them this month; Utah has been doing so since February.
State health departments have cited sharp drops in demand for testing as a critical factor in their decisions, as well as a significant improvement in the availability of at-home rapid tests and declines in daily cases and hospitalizations, which have been recorded in nearly every state.
We are really not as smart as we think we are, aren’t we? What a stupid move — especially with the COVID Pandemic Response Funds drying up!
Dr. Eric Fiegl-Ding is as sardonic as always when COVID stupidity is detected. I’ve linked to enough stuff by him today, so I will let you decide whether to click on the thread unroll or not youself.
China Containing the Omicron Wave… For Now
Ignore the top portion of the graph below. The bottom part shows how well China has been handling “Zero COVID” before this surge, and that they seem to be at a point where it can go either one of two ways.
1) China is successful — leading to vindication of Zero COVID for the authoritarian regime.
2) China loses grip on the surge — leading to tens of thousands of deaths in a short time period.
Irontortoise for DailyKos agrees with the general consensus, writing a late night diary about the data the Chinese government is providing to us.
In terms of official news, CNN shows a video of how China is using increasingly authoritarian measures to combat the BA.2 surge found throughout China. China’s plan seems to be identify cases, close everything localized around each case, and divide and conquer instead of using overtly board measures. CNBC writes:
As some parts of China reopen, others are imposing new Covid-related restrictions, reflecting the challenge government officials face in controlling the worst outbreak since early 2020.
Chinese authorities are trying to maintain their zero-Covid strategy that used swift lockdowns to help the economy grow in 2020. Beijing has increasingly emphasized how the strategy needs to be "dynamic."
But local officials now face multiple challenges at once: Keeping their jobs whose performance hinges on controlling Covid outbreaks, limiting the spread of a highly transmissible variant and supporting enough growth to achieve the national GDP target of around 5.5% set by Beijing.
"Officials at all levels must give top priority to epidemic response," according to a readout Friday of a top-level government meeting chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
As the last nation pursuing Zero COVID zealously, China has a lot to lose if this doesn’t go well.
COVID Restrictions Easing in Europe in Spite of Spike in Cases
The European Union is clearly going to be the next region that is the peak of all cases around the globe, as these graphs below show sharply surging nation after nation. Scandinavia and Eastern Europe thankfully are still on the downswing, as they already had their terrible omicron outbreaks and peaked about a month ago.
In spite of the cases surging upwards, the continent is joining others in ditching nearly all pandemic restrictions. It baffles the mind why governments are doing this when it is clear infections are rising once more. Kate Connolly and Sam Jones write for the Guardian about this seeming paradox.
Pandemic restrictions are being lifted with alacrity across Europe despite many countries experiencing a record surge in coronavirus cases and concerns about the failure to vaccinate many people considered vulnerable to the disease.
In
Germany most pandemic controls will be lifted on Sunday after a heated parliamentary debate on Friday which led to both houses of parliament voting in favour.
That was despite cases in Germany reaching a new daily record of almost 300,000 on Friday – a seven-day incidence rate of 1,706 cases per 100,000 residents – and a majority of the population expressing concern that the relaxations were coming too soon. Germany has been recording daily deaths of over 200 for several weeks.
Once again, I am left scratching my head. #CovidIsNotOver, people!
East Asian Nations May be at the Peak of the BA.2 Wave
While cases are high still in all three nations, at the very least the case rate is no longer hockey sticking upwards.. While it may be a weekend blip, that can only be welcome news for all three beleaguered countries right now. Deaths will continue to rise though, as they are always the ultimate lagging indicator.
South Korea keeps reporting less cases than during the peak a few days ago, but cases are still stubbornly high.
Vietnam is also reporting fewer cases over the past couple of days, which is a relief to the Southeast Asian nation which lagged behind or was ahead of the rest of the ASEAN Bloc in this wave.
The situation is still grim in Hong Kong, but cases are going down and there is a plan to keep cases from flaring up once again when this wave subsides.
New Zealand Volatile Case Counts; Australia Cases Still Trending Upwards
It looks like full steam ahead on reopening New Zealand to the rest of the world, despite volatility in cases. Nothing new has been reported about the island nation since that news article.
In terms of Australia, there is no further update about the island continent other than the graph above. Last time, the surge looked to be a combination of West Australia (which is isolated, even for Australia) experiencing its omicron surge and the rest of the country possibly seeing BA.2 in action.
Whew, that was a speed record, having to write it overnight on the fly! I feel a lot like this dude right now!
Me at work overnight when plans change!
Monday, Mar 21, 2022 · 3:02:17 PM +00:00
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bilboteach
As my other diary today wasn’t as successful, I’ve decided to post here about the fact that the Biden Pandemic Response Funds are running out, and that Republicans are blocking any new funding.
This means the following will happen:
- No money for monoclonal antibodies, Paxlvoid, and other anti-COVID drugs.
- No money to purchase more vaccines for here or abroad.
- No money for testing or virus sequencing.
- No money for next generation COVID vaccines.
- Funds for those who are stricken with COVID and uninsured run out.
Obviously, letting the funding lapse right before a wave of COVID would be an unmitigated disaster. Please contact your Congress critters TODAY to restore full funding that was stripped from the budget.
Either way, there will need to be an increased pressure campaign on your members of Congress to pass SOMETHING soon. While it feels like contacting your Representative and Senator is pointless, if enough people do it the collective action freaks them into more sense. Do know that certain avenues to reach a staffer (the actual members NEVER answer) are better than others.
A) Send a letter by snail mail. Seriously. So few people do it these days that it makes a point. This is what gives the highest chance of being read as well.
B) Phone calls. You may get a busy signal and you may get a lot of canned responses, but eventually a staffer picks up. They tally the calls made for and against every issue. Obviously, we know which way we want the tally to go.
C) E-mail. This is the quickest and least effective means of contact. Unless it is seeking help from their office (constituent outreach), expect a canned and automated message back. Again, the tally may be logged, but I bet the system bogs down with thousands of e-mails daily and is mostly ignored.
Find your Representative and their email: https://www.house.gov/representatives
Find your Senator and their email: https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
Call the House member by using https://directory.house.gov/ to find their office number.
Call the Senate members by using https://contactsenators.com/senator-phone-numbers to find their office phone number.
Mail to the House by using: https://www.house.gov/doing-business-with-the-house/leases/contact-us
Mail to the Senate by using: https://contactsenators.com/senator-mailing-addresses
Here is a link to the original diary for more information about the sausage making preventing COVID-19 Response funding:
