outbreak! (ebola, sars, coronavirus, etc)

but instead we get this:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61145692

"Civil servants must stop working from home and return to the office to ensure government buildings are at full capacity, ministers have been told.

Cabinet Office minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has written to cabinet colleagues urging them to send a "clear message" to the civil service about returning."

A little outbreak here in Oakland - a couple buddies have tested positive after attending a show on Friday night

I didn't go, but was around somebody on Saturday who has since gotten sick. I tested negative both monday & tuesday, not too worried about it.. I had the 'rona back in November

But I do want to go get a booster this week. We are not out of the woods by any means.

A friend noticed this post yesterday from the DNA Lounge here in town. It's worth a read

https://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/log/2022/04/19.html

Beautifully put, that.

yeah that says it all really.

in this hurricane, instead of building levees and storm drains, the government is telling us, "everybody should take personal responsibility for deciding what level of moistness they are comfortable with".

And in this hurricane, as it uproots trees and batters your storm windows, your friend rolls their eyes and asks, "Are you just going to stay home forever?"

I was at the Fillmore a couple weeks back, and they were still requiring proof of vax - but it was fine to have a picture on your phone (backed up by ID), so I guess that can be faked.

I think they were also doing some rapid tests outside on the sidewalk

That is wonderfully put, kudos. Thanks for sharing Ned.

this is good

Moderna says it plans to submit EUA application for #covid19 vaccine for kids 6mo-5yr by the end of the month https://t.co/mwnOwzm1p7

— Meg Tirrell (@megtirrell) April 20, 2022

also PSA

if you’re in the US and yuo test positive and are interested in paxlovid, this covers what's involved https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QERtKd1aDLDTjYAmaOOR5NVymJ-OhAFyU3EQQh4-VTM/edit. The set of risk factors that makes someone eligible for it covers like 80% of the US adult population (BMI > 25, ex-smoker, depression, etc.), and there is plentiful supply (https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/03/18/1087380770/lifesaving-covid-drugs-are-sitting-unused-on-pharmacy-shelves-hhs-data-shows). it is *extremely* effective at reducing the risk of serious acute complications, and likely reduces the amount of time you are sick and may help reduce the risk of long covid (https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/04/what-happened-to-paxlovid-the-covid-19-wonder-drug.html)

can i get a second booster yet? what’s the deal on that for under-55s with medical conditions?

Boarding a plane tomorrow morning. Can't wait!

Let me tell you, having to fly back to SF yesterday after the mandate was out was...instructive.

Do tell!

I'm lucky I wasn't in the air two days ago when the pilots and passengers broke out into celebratory war chants.

I was, but nothing was known or said until we landed so that was nice. As for yesterday: majority of passengers still masked but by no means all, while the entire crew was unmasked. That struck me as a bit much.

Can't wait!

table you're eligible for a second booster if you're at least 4 months out from your first booster and "moderately or severely immunocompromised"

Wow sic :(

Ah, it'd be worse if other countries *checks notes upthread* existed, and the people who live/d in them were real.

Fantastic piece from DNA Lounge - thanks again to Ned for sharing.

feel free to discuss australia in this thread, or any other countries you wish to discuss. I try always to note when I am speaking only of conditions in the USA, so it is plain who I'm referring to.

I'd totally forgotten about the dna lounge - had some awesome nights there. <cautiously clicks on photo gallery>

i’m in sweden right now. including the airport and the airplane itself, i’ve seen maybe 3 or 4 people wearing masks the entire time i’ve been here. it’s wild.

👍

Another day, another big COVID admissions drop - 1,435 (was 2,003 last Thursday, so that's down 28%). Still far too high of course, and you don't have to look too far to see the NHS under pressure in lots of other ways, but hopefully a continued fall in COVID will help somewhat.

— Oliver Johnson (@BristOliver) April 21, 2022

A 31-year-old woman in Spain caught Covid twice within 20 days, the shortest known gap between infections, scientists have reported.

Researchers in Spain gave details of the healthcare worker, who tested positive a few days before Christmas in December 2021 and again in January 2022. The case is further evidence that the Omicron variant can evade immunity from even recent previous infections.

The woman, who was fully vaccinated and had received a booster shot 12 days earlier, tested positive in a PCR staff screening test at work on 20 December. She didn’t develop any symptoms, and self-isolated for 10 days before returning to work.

On 10 January 2022, just 20 days after first testing positive, she developed a cough, fever and felt generally unwell and did another PCR test. This was also positive.

NEWS @CNN: Dr. Fauci confirms on the record that regulators are looking at waiting until this summer (likely June) to approve vaccines for children under 5 in order to avoid public confusion.

This comes even as the Moderna shot could be proven safe and effective as early as May

— Kasie Hunt (@kasie) April 21, 2022

this is the kind of thing you end doing when when you (unfortunately correctly) conclude after two years that your public health agencies cannot communicate clearly.

i’m not sure i understand the issue. after two years under-5s might need to wait an extra month?

The very week my son's school dropped the mask requirement, he caught a cold and passed it on to me. So I'm now a believer that masks in school are very effective.

xp

moderna are filing for approval next week. they're going to wait for pfizer to file because approving them one at a time would be "confusing".

(unfortunately correctly)

and surely just urging Pfizer to file in the same week would cause greater confusion

I get the annoyance but I also think the last 2 years have proven the American public to be pretty f’n easily confused

I think people in other countries are less confused about what the government recommends, even if they disagree.

The problem is more the CDC and FDA have done a bad job communicating with clarity over two administrations, and have spent a lot of time talking themselves out of things by playing armchair psychologist (eg we better not recommend this because people won’t do it) and not enough time making clear public health recommendations.

Being repeatedly disagreed with by two White Houses and thousands of state and local governments hasn’t made their job easier, to be fair.

Flying today. In airplanes and both airports, a majority of people are unmasked but the number of masked people isn't small at all, and it's all very chill -- I am dubious there is going to be any substantial amount of hassling of masked folks by freedom-enforcers, I (in N95) have received not so much as a funny look

my experience yesterday too -- 50% of passengers on my flight still masked. Crew too. I'd say most airport staff and many international travelers still masked.

gut capacity of govt to do anything other than throw money at problem, then throw money at problem: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/22/opinion/covid-pandemic-drugs-treatment.html

"the problem," meaning "cronies in adjacent industries"

i didn't realize there was another country (Eritrea) besides North Korea that has not administered any vaccines

otm

Kids under five still have no vaccine.

Pfizer's was delayed in a confusing turnabout, and FDA may delay Moderna authorization because... some baffling theory about simultaneous release?

My piece on why this makes no sociological or immunological sense.https://t.co/Dru7vK1gkm pic.twitter.com/4yM8nplt3Y

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) April 27, 2022

The weird, five-dimensional behavioral chess-game reported by Politico about the FDA wanting to authorize kids vaccines simultaneously, later, by DELAYING one of them now misses the very obvious and painful point that this communicates that vaccines aren't important for kids. pic.twitter.com/mCHlYh6AaB

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) April 27, 2022

Just continuing to completely fuck up at all turns. It would almost be impressive to see so many spectacular self-inflicted failures one after the other if the real world consequences weren't so dire.

Meanwhile, increasing number of comments on local Reddit threads about the difficulty of finding PCR tests. Two years in and we still can't even nail that part down.

Interesting. They're piled up at my Target.

Sorry, to be clear, people are struggling to find appointments for actual PCR tests to supplement at home ones.

xps "weird, five-dimensional behavioral chess-game"? The concern, noted in the Politico article she's drawing on there, but not in her thread, is approving the Moderna vaccine (with results seen by many scientists as disappointing)"...leaves the FDA with the prospect of green-lighting Moderna’s vaccine, only to potentially find out several weeks later that Pfizer’s vaccine performs far better." Not the benefits of simultaneous promotion. And Moderna hasn't even filed their application yet, and hasn't said when it will be complete.

do you think we should have waited to approve pfizer for 12-15 year olds in case moderna turned out to be better?

how long should we wait to approve a vaccine in case a better one comes along?

do you think it's weird, five dimensional chess to consider, as one of many factors, that the two applications are expected be received within days of each other and that one may have great efficacy?

do you think this consideration was material to the discussion in her thread?

and, again, neither application has been submitted.

fwiw it's not a thread. it's 1500 word nyt article that i think is engaging with a complex issue in good faith.

"and, again, neither application has been submitted."

fauci is on the record about the plan here. we're not borrowing imaginary problems.

i think her point that delaying an effective vaccine for a reason like this is at least as likely to communicate that it's eh, not actually that important to get vaccinated, as it is to give people confidence.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/04/us-failed-miserably-at-protecting-children-from-omicron-cdc-study-finds/

"Clarke and colleagues focused on the period from December 2021 to February 2022 to understand the impact of the omicron wave. For the population as a whole, seroprevalence in the US rose from 33.5 percent to 58 percent. But the most significant increases in levels of infection were in children. Seroprevalence rose from 44 percent to 75 percent in children ages 0 to 11 and 46 percent to 74 percent in 12- to 17-year-olds."

75%. i guess you're right. at this point it hardly matters. they've all had it.

"you're right"? ok, looks like you're not looking for respectful engagement

xp, I read her piece, which also omits that important consideration.

With applications not submitted now at the end of April, and the notional delay being "until June," I'm not sure how we get to it's "not actually that important to get vaccinated."

The approval process involves the evaluation of multiple factors. To suggest that they're simply playing psychology games is not productive.

eh, i guess you're more willing to give a notoriously dsyfunctional agency with a particularly terrible record during the past two years the benefit of the doubt than i am. personally i think assuming the FDA is made up good technocrats making the best possible decision in the light of many factors is absolutely bananas, when "they're fucking up. again." is right there.

and i agree with zeynep that this particular decision is likely to backfire on their goals (or their goals according to fauci).

Starting to mentally prepare for flying to/within the US next month, in anticipation of the possibility that some nutbag has a go at my foreign self for wearing a N95. (Reading upthread that folks are chill about it helps!)

I flew cross country a few nights ago. Maybe 40% of the people were wearing masks.

NYC subway mask compliance is dropping sadly, but depends on the line, the time of day etc.

But I think in most places, especially big cities, nobody's gonna look at you funny for wearing a mask.

I spent half of last week in Sacramento California. A pretty red urban area, wasn't a big deal, even in places where others weren't wearing.

It's all lol West Coast so I know there shouldn't be too much drama. But ya never know.