30 thoughts on “C-19 Chat Post – December 16 2021”

    1. A few I agree with. Some have been proven to be incorrect in our schools alone. But this is in a country that has done a horrific job so it doesn’t surprise me.

      1. I agree with the general idea of changing up how we react and mitigate. To put it bluntly, this isn’t your grandfather’s COVID anymore (in a good way).

  1. France is severely restricting travel from Britain, essentially barring tourists.

    In the Netherlands, Amalia, the King’s daughter, had a birthday party with 21 invitees. This exceeded the limit of 4, and so the King was heavily criticized by the media. The Prime Minister went on TV to defend the monarchs, saying that they’re “human, they make mistakes.”

    50% of restaurants in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe will simply close entirely throughout the entire Christmas and New Year’s holiday period.

    The Premier League may postpone matches for several weeks, due to outbreaks and restrictions put in place on fans entering stadiums. It’s not certain whether postponement will happen, but owners of several teams are in favor of postponement or even cancellation of a number of games.

    1. I am sure I am in the minority because I agree. But then looking at the world covid map I posted a few days ago, we are hardly in a positive to criticize. As far as the birthday party…..might have been wiser to admit it was wrong.

  2. I know of one community out this way that has received the at home tests baker promised. The community will give them to the food bank for distribution which seems to make a lot of sense.

    1. Adding. They are also going to several other places such as the senior center, housing authority, churches and a couple of others.

    1. I am reading that they do so much testing and people aren’t really sick at all. In the end we are all going to get this. This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated st this point. Time to live normally. I know folks don’t want ti hear that, but facts are what they are.

  3. IMHO boosters should have been highly recommended for all ages from the beginning, not just for the elderly and compromised. We probably wasted a few months debating whether boosters were for everyone, meanwhile Omicron was developing and now it’s going like a runaway train overtaking Delta soon, if not already.

    Joshua, do you think in hindsight if boosters were recommended for all ages, Omicron might never have had a chance to develop at all, or at least be a virtual non-factor right now?

    It seems that ever since Covid-19 arrived last March 2020, we as a planet are always at least one step behind because time is “wasted” on what to do next even if it’s just a month or two.

    And AFAIC, we as a planet are in far worse shape than last year, in spite of vaccines and now boosters on top of boosters.

    And btw, I heard that Broadway is closing again. Great progress in a year, huh? 🙁

    1. Philip, you make an excellent point. Fauci et al. have been one step behind throughout. That doesn’t make them bad people or incompetent. But, it does mean that they have lacked the foresight of, for example, their Israeli, Danish, and British counterparts. While it’s understandable that a risk-benefit analysis must be carried out prior to recommending boosters for all adults, the CDC ignored the fact that such studies had already been completed outside our borders. So long as the numbers of subjects involved in the studies are large – and they were very large – there’s no need to replicate in the U.S., especially when we’re talking about the same active ingredient as the first two doses of which we know a lot. Right now, I feel like the CDC is ignoring NPI totally, and that’s a problem. The Queen of England just canceled her annual pre-Christmas gathering for an official lunch. Canada has limited capacity to 50% at all indoor arenas with more than 1,000 people. The Dutch strongly urge no gatherings in homes of more than 4 people from outside the household. I could go on and on. From the CDC, Fauci, and our President we hear … crickets. That’s very odd, in my view. We’re not talking draconian measures here, or lockdowns. Just common sense NPI.

  4. Florida has the fastest growing number of cases in America right now; 80% growth in one week. Hospitalizations and deaths are already rising steadily this week.

    Other states aren’t far behind, including several Northeast states, like NY and NJ.

    London hospitalizations are rising fast. The slope is somewhat flatter than the rise in cases, but there still hasn’t been the decoupling everyone had hoped for in the spring. https://twitter.com/Unusual_Times/status/1471525435032883207

    1. I was wrong. Darned if every time I try to credit DESE and the folks who continue to put kids in this position, I’m wrong. We had a few hundred more positives.

    1. Joshua – What is a good source for Florida data? There will be a wedding in my family in Florida in about a month. My immediate family is not going, but many of my relatives are.

      1. Healthy Florida is the name of their Department of Health. It produces relatively good data, but often with a lag (especially hospitalizations and deaths). Please note that although cases have risen A LOT this week in Florida, their baseline was low as of last week. They had a bad Delta wave in the summer, but by November had actually become one of the lowest case per capita states. That has changed in a hurry this week. I also look at Florida data on Prof. Howie Forman (Yale) twitter feed. For some reason, he’s obsessed by Florida data, and often gets into Twitter arguments with Healthy Florida folks. While these arguments are political, the data are not.

        Big advantage of a Florida wedding in January is that you can do a lot outside.

  5. MA cases at 11 month high; hospitalizations almost triple what they were in early November. Worcester area being hit the hardest right now.

    Rhode Island is vertical in terms of case growth. Know several doctors there. The situation is grim in a number of places. Hospitals are canceling most if not all elective procedures. Elective is a euphemism for planned (and often critically important) procedures. https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1471627526661304320

    1. Oddly, RI schools seem to be doing well. But I have yet to compare student to student since our schools are clearly larger

  6. This is what we have come to. Groups involved in the Jan 6 coup are now asking for local organizations to be targeted. This includes school committees.

    Violence and hate messages in schools are horrific

    And now there was a MAYBE threat for violence against all schools in the country, including elementary, tomorrow. Many parents out this way are keeping kids home. Our schools will have an increased police presence

    My God. We are beyond help I’m afraid

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