Covid-19 is spiking . . . .

[magentaflame]

Typical..........
" Go get a prostate exam"
"NO"
" You realise prostate problems can cause erectile dysfunction?"


"Your finger or mine?"

[spot]

There was quite a fanfare made yesterday when the first person in the world other than trial volunteers was vaccinated with an approved vaccine against Covid, in Coventry.

What none of the papers noticed is that she was also the oldest person in the world, by five years, to get it. The cut-off age for all trial volunteers was 85, she's 90 and in uncharted waters.

President-elect Biden, I note, has promised to average a million Covid vaccinations a day during his first 100 days in office. That implies rather more skilled and otherwise unoccupied vaccinators than I had guessed were available. It certainly can't include existing medical staff, they're running flat out to try to treat those already infected.

He hasn't announced a basis for who will be first in the queue. Who are these hundred million jabs aimed at, the people most at risk of catching it? Those most at risk of dying from it? Citizens with paperwork or everyone resident in the country? Those most able to afford it? Will any of the recipients be asked for money or proof of identity in exchange for the injection? Will Homeland Security be in the next room detaining those scheduled for expulsion?

One of the implications of President-elect Biden's ambitious target is that at least one major statistic isn't going to move until after the hundred days are passed. If it's those most at risk of catching Covid who are prioritized then the daily deaths won't drop, if it's those most at risk of dying then the daily case count won't drop, if it's the rich then neither will drop and if Homeland Security is anywhere near the queue then a whole stack of people will remain vulnerable indefinitely.

[Snooz]

I don't know the logistics involved since (I think) the vaccine being discussed needs to be kept at sub-zero temps but many people can get regular flu shots at their local pharmacies. It doesn't take much knowledge to jab a small needle into a person's arm.

[spot]

I don't know the logistics involved since (I think) the vaccine being discussed needs to be kept at sub-zero temps but many people can get regular flu shots at their local pharmacies. It doesn't take much knowledge to jab a small needle into a person's arm.

A list of draft states plans is at https://www.kff.org/report-section/stat ... ate-plans/ - you might need to request access for some of them but the link requests it.

The UK is running 70 distribution sites where injections can be given, they're trying to create a protocol that will allow injections at more places. Most hospitals here have no capability of storing anything at -94°F.

As for who gets the first availability, before supply meets demand, here's the CDC list of priority categories. It looks extremely pious and I have no faith whatever that it will be practised anywhere on earth, much less anywhere in America:

Vulnerable and Frontline Population as defined by CDC
Healthcare personnel: Acute Care Hospital, EMS, Long-term care, Pharmacy
All other healthcare
Other frontline workers
Long-term care facility residents, People with underlying medical conditions, People 65 years of age and older
People from racial and ethnic minority populations, People from tribal communities, People who are incarcerated/detained, People experiencing homelessness/living in shelters, People attending colleges and universities, People living and working in other congregate settings, People living in rural communities, People with disabilities, People who are uninsured or underinsured.

(copied from the Texas plan)

and as for the last paragraph, that's the pie in the sky category.

[Snooz]

They could make mobile vaccine sites, putting special freezers in vans and then going to prearranged locations to give out shots. I doubt they'll be free though and trying to either get people's insurance info or payment would be a pain in the butt. Also, how long are the vaccines good for once they're warm enough to inject them?

[spot]

Also, how long are the vaccines good for once they're warm enough to inject them?

Sufficiently little time that only 70 hospitals in the UK at the moment are capable of giving the injections, and only on site. I'm sure they'll work out a distribution process but that haven't got one yet.

The Starship SN8 8 mile Boca Chica countdown is at 20 minutes.

[spot]

They could make mobile vaccine sites, putting special freezers in vans and then going to prearranged locations to give out shots. I doubt they'll be free though and trying to either get people's insurance info or payment would be a pain in the butt. Also, how long are the vaccines good for once they're warm enough to inject them?

Here we are - from the same Texas pdf document from the URL provided. I am aghast at the weasel wording which is clearly there to allow a demand for payment.

Organization must not sell or seek reimbursement for COVID-19 Vaccine and any adjuvant,
syringes, needles, or other constituent products and ancillary supplies that the federal
government provides without cost to Organization.
Organization must administer COVID-19 Vaccine regardless of the vaccine recipient’s ability to
pay COVID-19 Vaccine administration fees.

So you can't charge for the material, if it came free through a Federal scheme, and you can't check ability to pay for your administration fees.

So - presumably - you can charge for your staff skill and time, and the weasel word "administration" either means the cost of organizing or the cost of giving the jab. "Administration" conveniently means both things.

[Snooz]

I heard at one point that Trump wanted the military involved in administering the vaccines so that would cut the cost... I guess. I don't trust the Trump administration to tell me what the weather is (remember Trump's sharpie map?) so I'm taking all of this with a grain of salt.

As a reminder:

[spot]

I heard at one point that Trump wanted the military involved in administering the vaccines so that would cut the cost... I guess. I don't trust the Trump administration to tell me what the weather is (remember Trump's sharpie map?) so I'm taking all of this with a grain of salt.

I'm slowly gaining an impression that you consider the man an untruthful opportunist whose opinion of his fellow Americans is lower than most.

[Snooz]

Do you remember how much I despised Dubya? I feel warm nostalgia for the old war criminal now, my dislike for Trump has been decades in the making and it's now veered wildly into hatred. I hope only the worst for him in the very near future.

I hope that wasn't too vague.

[LarsMac]

Do you remember how much I despised Dubya? I feel warm nostalgia for the old war criminal now, my dislike for Trump has been decades in the making and it's now veered wildly into hatred. I hope only the worst for him in the very near future.

I hope that wasn't too vague.

DITTO!!!!

[spot]

Congratulations America on starting your vaccination program this week.

Churchill was oratorical on occasion, I'll look up some exact words. Actually no, I'll try doing it from memory. This is not the end. This is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.

America and the UK have seen very similar step by step increments since this all kicked off in March. The UK population is a fifth of America's, the UK Covid deaths to date is a fifth of America's, our death rates are effectively the same. We're down sixty thousand, America is down three hundred thousand, on either measure Covid has so far killed about one in a thousand people in our countries. We are perhaps a third of the way to putting this pandemic behind us, both in time remaining and in deaths to be expected.

There are two factors in play for 2021. On the one hand half the population is getting far less willing to isolate, non-essential shops and bars and restaurants have people queueing to get in whenever it's legal for them to open. On the other hand the virus will have progressively fewer and fewer unprotected people to infect. By next autumn - October perhaps - we can hope to see more than half the population protected and the numbers dwindling, but until then there's a mountain to climb. The next few months will make 2020 look easy.

It could all have been a lot worse. I wonder whether we'll plan for that when time permits, but I won't hold my breath.

The takeaway? Opinionated people might finally learn that what they believe without concrete physical evidence never has any resemblance to what actually happens in the real concrete physical world.

[FourPart]

And when Trump heard Xi Jinping offer sympathies on his Erectile Dysfunction, he just replied that the vote was rigged.

[Bryn Mawr]

I’m very impressed, my wife is booked in for the first of her Covid jabs on Friday - I wasn’t expecting that until next year.

[Bryn Mawr]

I’m very impressed, my wife is booked in for the first of her Covid jabs on Friday - I wasn’t expecting that until next year.

No sooner booked than cancelled

Promised for the next batch in the new year.

[spot]

Here's an article we could all reed, perhaps. It's written by a credible expert who seems rather angry.

Despite the warnings, the government’s strategy throughout the pandemic has been to slow the spread of the virus and reduce pressure on the NHS, rather than eliminating Covid altogether [...] Nine months later, China and South Korea have recorded three and 12 deaths per million people respectively. By contrast, based on the government data for deaths occurring within 28 days of a positive Covid test, the UK has recorded 970 deaths from Covid per million people.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... tion-occur

Anthony Costello is professor of global health and sustainable development at University College London and a former director of maternal and child health at the WHO

[spot]

I quote from Twitter:

Pippa Crerar
22 Dec

Home Sec Priti Patel tells #r4today: “The Government has consistently this year been ahead of the curve in terms of proactive decisions on coronavirus.”

I have never had a high regard for the Home Secretary, nor for her recent predecessors.

The Guardian noted recently

The Home Office’s new commitment to “compassion” is poorly served by a minister who attacks “lefty human rights lawyers” and boasts of “sending the left into meltdown” over her new plans to turn ever more people away.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... 27861cf4d8

The stance of the Home Office should not, and never should have been, the pursuit of a Hostile Environment. The Home Office ought to bend itself backward to do everything possible under the law to assist and facilitate everyone on British soil, and they don't do that. The fault lies squarely with their political master. Priti Patel has not moved a muscle beyond claiming "compassion", a claim I find beyond belief.

[spot]

And what might be a silly question perhaps...

beginning in January or February, Americans employed in a range of industries will be eligible for inoculation, provided they are essential front-line workers.

Do those House Republican Representatives who spent the year flaunting their refusal to use a mask really qualify as "essential front-line workers"? Because they're getting vaccinated already, ahead of the high-risk groups and front line workers. Who authorized that.

All members of Congress qualify for vaccine priority but disagree on whether this shows leadership by example or special treatment

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... -congress/

[cars]

People are such damn fools, finally the light is at the end of the tunnel for us all. And yet they continue to ignore the fact that the pandemic is still here running rampant (most are not yet vaccinated, twice) and they are disregarding all Covid-19 protocols, gathering in large crowds, fly in planes, no social distancing, not washing hands and therefore continue to get themselves infected and die!
They are so close, and yet still so far! Sad.

[spot]

People are such damn fools, finally the light is at the end of the tunnel for us all. And yet they continue to ignore the fact that the pandemic is still here running rampant (most are not yet vaccinated, twice) and they are disregarding all Covid-19 protocols, gathering in large crowds, fly in planes, no social distancing, not washing hands and therefore continue to get themselves infected and die!
They are so close, and yet still so far! Sad.

I flew in a plane in October. It had around 15% seat occupation and the airports were extremely quiet, one of them closed the week after.

Australia and Europe might, I think, drop internal restrictions by Christmas next year unless something unexpected happens. America has no internal restrictions to drop except random unpopular short-term local crisis management. Half the planet will be much as it is now, either fixed or broken. Nobody except racists will ever criticize hijabs again and every medical bathroom cupboard will have spare facemasks at the back for emergencies.

[spot]

People are such damn fools, finally the light is at the end of the tunnel for us all. And yet they continue to ignore the fact that the pandemic is still here running rampant (most are not yet vaccinated, twice) and they are disregarding all Covid-19 protocols, gathering in large crowds, fly in planes, no social distancing, not washing hands and therefore continue to get themselves infected and die!
They are so close, and yet still so far! Sad.

A timely quote from today's Guardian for the UK's situation:

Anthony Costello, as professor of global health and sustainable development at UCL and member of Sage, said:

It’s great news about the vaccine, but at the moment we are doing 50 thousand vaccines a day, and Matt Hancock [the British health secretary] says we’ll get up to 2 million a week very quickly. If we’re to give 2 doses to 22 million people - that’s the number of people who are over 65, frontline workers, or with underlying conditions - that will take until June. If we’re going to reach herd immunity, it will take until the end of the year. So let’s get this into perspective.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... ne-updates

And his contribution last week is well worth reeding in full... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... tion-occur

[Betty Boop]

Those idiots are in Parliament sitting two metres apart but moving around to then vote, coming back from voting and having a chat at less than two metres. Not a mask in sight.

3pm Blithering idiot speaks

4pm Blithering idiot speaks

5pm Major of the blithering idiots speaks.



What an exciting day.

** I stand corrected, I've just spotted four masks being hastily thrown on once they've left their seats and are headed out the door to go vote but immediatly removed once they come back into the room.

[magentaflame]

Well it's seven hours to midnight .......................and the proverbial just hit the fan. Big time. Over the last 10 hours all hell has broken loose and we're back to masks and border closures. But you have to laugh. Because I just saw that idiot of a Prime Minister just do the New Year Address. We're doomed. ...and don't fucking god bless me you lunitic!!! Even a bloody preacher or priest asks permission to step into your home. AAAWWWW......not happy Jan!

[spot]

Well it's seven hours to midnight .......................and the proverbial just hit the fan. Big time. Over the last 10 hours all hell has broken loose and we're back to masks and border closures. But you have to laugh. Because I just saw that idiot of a Prime Minister just do the New Year Address. We're doomed. ...and don't fucking god bless me you lunitic!!! Even a bloody preacher or priest asks permission to step into your home. AAAWWWW......not happy Jan!

The news in England is that you have our imbecilic Brit-student youth partying on your beaches without a care in the world, the way they did in Spain back around September. I'd apologize if I thought they were in any way related to me. I suggest you swap them for your indefinite-period prisoners on Nauru, that way the drunken idiots can party on without harming society any longer and you'll get some useful citizens in exchange.

[LarsMac]

Living in a town of less than 500 souls, a half hour drive from any other town, being a stranger to most of the residents,
I feel blessed.
This is very far removed from where I expected to be at this time. We had originally planned to be in Vienna tonight.
Fortunately, in early March, it became obvious that things were NOT going to go as planned, and we cancelled without penalty the reservations that I had made for travel and hotel.

I'm going to bed early tonight. I've given this year enough of my attention.
And I confess a certain reluctance to hope 2021 will prove to be much better.

[spot]

And I confess a certain reluctance to hope 2021 will prove to be much better.

That will depend very much on what you measure, I expect. I'd be surprised if either the US or the UK have reached half way so far on the deaths count, for example. Both our watched pots are boiling over at the moment.

The Operation WarpDrive military assault led by Generals Perna and Ostrowski was scheduled to have performed 20 million vaccinations so far.

More than 14m vaccine doses had been distributed in the US, but only 2.1 million people have been vaccinated, said leaders of the federal vaccine program, Operation Warp Speed, at a Wednesday news conference.

The chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, said: “We know it should be better and we are working hard to make it better.”

Terry Beth Hadler was so eager to get vaccinated that the 69-year-old piano teacher stood in line overnight in a parking lot in Florida with hundreds of other senior citizens.

She waited 14 hours and a brawl nearly erupted before dawn on Tuesday when people cut in line outside the library in Bonita Springs where officials were offering shots on a first-come, first-served basis to those 65 or older.

“I’m afraid that the event was a super-spreader,” she said. “I was petrified.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... -americans

As a minor aside, I bought my box of facemasks three years ago.

[FourPart]

A timely quote from today's Guardian for the UK's situation:

Anthony Costello, as professor of global health and sustainable development at UCL and member of Sage, said:

It’s great news about the vaccine, but at the moment we are doing 50 thousand vaccines a day, and Matt Hancock [the British health secretary] says we’ll get up to 2 million a week very quickly. If we’re to give 2 doses to 22 million people - that’s the number of people who are over 65, frontline workers, or with underlying conditions - that will take until June. If we’re going to reach herd immunity, it will take until the end of the year. So let’s get this into perspective.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... ne-updates

And his contribution last week is well worth reeding in full... https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... tion-occur

I count as Priority #6 for Vaccination. I put my details into the Online Calculator, and my expected Vaccination Date isn't until Sept - Oct.

[spot]

I count as Priority #6 for Vaccination. I put my details into the Online Calculator, and my expected Vaccination Date isn't until Sept - Oct.

I had no idea such a page existed.

I'm apparently estimated around Easter. I'd been assuming June and I still reckon I'll be lucky if it's that soon - Easter really sounds optimistic.

Based on your profile, there are between 6,029,525 and 9,926,645 people in front of you in the queue for a COVID vaccine across the UK.
Given a vaccination rate of 1,000,000 a week and an uptake of 70.6%, you should expect to receive your two doses of vaccine and be fully protected by between 26/03/2021 and 20/05/2021.

https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/vaccine-queue-uk

That "million a week" figure can only be based on deploying the armed forces, I assume it comes from the same inept Civil Service that gave us fifteen successive useless versions of Test and Trace.

[LarsMac]

I have not even looked to see if such a tool exists in the States.
I am perfectly happy to continue Social Distancing and other such methods 'til the Cows come home.
Not that I will refuse the vax, if it is offered by my doctor's office. I don't see that happening for many months, though.

I worry that people who receive the vax will, almost immediately want to go back to "The way it was"
There is already at least one case of a health worker receiving the vaccine and coming down with COVID a couple of days later.
I suspect that he was already exposed before the shot, but, the media picking up on such newsy bits will fan the flames of the anti-vaxxers.

[Aside]
My sister-in-law just passed the other day, from Old Age and COVID. Our niece and her hubby are handling the burial and services. They are of some Baptist faction who does not believe in taking the precautions or in Vaccinations. They are holding services at their church. The Mrs wants to go. We are having quite the discussion. I've seen the church in question. To keep to the guidelines of the State, no more than 10 people at a time could possibly be in the place, yet they expect 100 or more people to attend the services.

Just, No.

[spot]

I have not even looked to see if such a tool exists in the States.
I am perfectly happy to continue Social Distancing and other such methods 'til the Cows come home.
Not that I will refuse the vax, if it is offered by my doctor's office. I don't see that happening for many months, though.

I worry that people who receive the vax will, almost immediately want to go back to "The way it was"
There is already at least one case of a health worker receiving the vaccine and coming down with COVID a couple of days later.
I suspect that he was already exposed before the shot, but, the media picking up on such newsy bits will fan the flames of the anti-vaxxers.

I saw somewhere a 10-day or so window between inoculation and protection, it would be surprising if it were much less than that - the immune system has to react to the provocation.

[Aside]
My sister-in-law just passed the other day, from Old Age and COVID. Our niece and her hubby are handling the burial and services. They are of some Baptist faction who does not believe in taking the precautions or in Vaccinations. They are holding services at their church. The Mrs wants to go. We are having quite the discussion. I've seen the church in question. To keep to the guidelines of the State, no more than 10 people at a time could possibly be in the place, yet they expect 100 or more people to attend the services.

Just, No.

I'm sorry to hear that. Funeral services here stick to a fixed maximum attendance and have a zoom camera and screen where people can see and take part, I was at one a few months back and it was quite effective.

[magentaflame]

Well it's seven hours to midnight .......................and the proverbial just hit the fan. Big time. Over the last 10 hours all hell has broken loose and we're back to masks and border closures. But you have to laugh. Because I just saw that idiot of a Prime Minister just do the New Year Address. We're doomed. ...and don't fucking god bless me you lunitic!!! Even a bloody preacher or priest asks permission to step into your home. AAAWWWW......not happy Jan!

The news in England is that you have our imbecilic Brit-student youth partying on your beaches without a care in the world, the way they did in Spain back around September. I'd apologize if I thought they were in any way related to me. I suggest you swap them for your indefinite-period prisoners on Nauru, that way the drunken idiots can party on without harming society any longer and you'll get some useful citizens in exchange.

That's just the icing on the cake. We have people trying to escape through airports, trying to escape hotels. It's becoming insane again. But.... what's interesting this time around is people are beginning to discuss imprisonment for those who deliberately flout the quarantines. And why not? it should be a type of terrorism under the definition of home grown terrorism. Western Australia did it to a 21 year old .....I think he's still quarantining in under the three month imprisonment that State gave him. lol We've already had the harsh lockdowns and nobody wants to see that back again. I do believe the general populace are beginning to get angry. The turmoil people had to go through to get back over the borders within a very short period of time . If they didn't make it over by midnight the 1st they had to isolate. From now on though you can leave our State whenever you want.....but you can't come back again during the border lockdown period unless you're an essential worker/truck driver. The news have just reported 80m people a day are streaming into Canberra from hotspot areas....???????? Why?????
As far as the backpackers are concerned. I believe locals were more pissed off with the disgraceful way in which they left the place. They won't be welcomed back again, and they have stuffed it for the next lot that go through that area.

[LarsMac]

There's a News bit about a town in Colorado that has been nearly 100% infected, after two National Guardsmen who came to help out with the inoculation program at a nursing home arrived, already infected, and passed it on to the entire town before it was detected.

[magentaflame]

There's a News bit about a town in Colorado that has been nearly 100% infected, after two National Guardsmen who came to help out with the inoculation program at a nursing home arrived, already infected, and passed it on to the entire town before it was detected.

How in gods' name does THAT happen?

[Bryn Mawr]

There's a News bit about a town in Colorado that has been nearly 100% infected, after two National Guardsmen who came to help out with the inoculation program at a nursing home arrived, already infected, and passed it on to the entire town before it was detected.

How in gods' name does THAT happen?

They must have been welcomed with open arms

[LarsMac]

There's a News bit about a town in Colorado that has been nearly 100% infected, after two National Guardsmen who came to help out with the inoculation program at a nursing home arrived, already infected, and passed it on to the entire town before it was detected.

How in gods' name does THAT happen?

It appears to be the new variant that has been in the news, lately.
They apparently were infected prior to arriving. No mention of how that happened, at least not in the media, so far.
Since we have no contact tracing to speak of - That would be a violation of our inalienable rights, you know.

[magentaflame]

There's a News bit about a town in Colorado that has been nearly 100% infected, after two National Guardsmen who came to help out with the inoculation program at a nursing home arrived, already infected, and passed it on to the entire town before it was detected.

How in gods' name does THAT happen?

It appears to be the new variant that has been in the news, lately.
They apparently were infected prior to arriving. No mention of how that happened, at least not in the media, so far.
Since we have no contact tracing to speak of - That would be a violation of our inalienable rights, you know.

You guys hit a horrible milestone today.
I have no words.

[LarsMac]

Oh, you just wait. We ain't done, yet.

[magentaflame]

There's a News bit about a town in Colorado that has been nearly 100% infected, after two National Guardsmen who came to help out with the inoculation program at a nursing home arrived, already infected, and passed it on to the entire town before it was detected.

How in gods' name does THAT happen?

It appears to be the new variant that has been in the news, lately.
They apparently were infected prior to arriving. No mention of how that happened, at least not in the media, so far.
Since we have no contact tracing to speak of - That would be a violation of our inalienable rights, you know.

You guys hit a horrible milestone today.
I have no words.

Well we only have 29 cases in the state at the moment but I've donned the mask again and I'm not going near anyone. Work and home that's it. And I'm going to start using shopping over the internet.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/victo ... 784ee825a8

[spot]

If yesterday's report from Imperial College is correct, the UK is now back in exponential territory for the foreseeable future. Even a lockdown will still not bring it back below 1, unlike earlier lockdowns.

The new variant of Covid-19 is "hugely" more transmissible than the virus's previous version, a study has found.

It concludes the new variant increases the Reproduction or R number by between 0.4 and 0.7.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55507012

We had been hoping it was just insanitary revellers rather than quite so big a jump in infectivity but apparently not.

I might make another graph at this rate. Even the UK lockdown only brought R down to 0.8 or so locally, and the lowest estimate there says an extra 0.4 on top of that is still exponential growth until the vaccination program makes enough progress to bring it below 1 again. Perhaps vaccinating all the front line workers will achieve that. Doing it among the general population might take the best part of 2021, in the UK and in America.

It's quite possible the new variant evolved in the south of England but it could just as easily have been abroad, we've been doing so much monitoring that it's reasonable to think we were likely to be the first to detect it.

It's pointless to repeat that we'd be in a better position in the UK had we driven the number of infected dramatically low, the way Australia has, through competent government.

During January, the government will publish the R number and growth rate estimates on the following dates:

Friday 8 January
Friday 15 January
Friday 22 January
Friday 29 January

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/the-r-number-in-the-uk

[LarsMac]

There are similar stories all over the Rural US.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/us/s ... riant.html

By Dave Philipps
Published Dec. 30, 2020
Updated Jan. 2, 2021, 10:34 a.m. ET
SIMLA, Colo. — An isolated ranching community on the high plains is the last place its residents expect to be first for anything, especially a new, more infectious variant of the coronavirus. But on Wednesday, state health officials announced that the first known case of the variant in the United States had been confirmed at a nursing home in Simla, Colo.

The variant had infected a National Guard soldier sent to help with a Covid-19 outbreak at the town’s Good Samaritan Society nursing home. A second soldier at the nursing home tested positive and may also have the variant, Emily Travanty, the interim director of the state public health laboratory, said on Wednesday in a conference call with reporters.

All 26 residents of the nursing home and 20 of its 24 regular employees have tested positive for the coronavirus in recent weeks, and four residents have died. It was not clear whether the two National Guard soldiers were infected at the nursing home or had picked up the virus before they came to Simla. They arrived on Dec. 23, after most of the cases at the facility had occurred, said Dr. Rachel Herlihy, Colorado’s state epidemiologist.

Simla is an unlikely place for a virus variant only recently detected in the United Kingdom to turn up. Most things that happen don’t happen here. Trends come and go without notice. News is usually a thing watched from a distance. For generations this windswept stretch of short-grass prairie perched at 6,000 feet, about 80 miles southeast of Denver, has been shaped mainly by the timeless rhythms of raising cattle.

On Wednesday morning, after news of the virus in Simla had broken, a resident was asked what had changed on the town’s lone paved street in the 29 years she had lived there. She looked west toward the snow-dusted tangle of lawn mowers outside MT Small Engine Repair, then east, where a troop of wild turkeys was languidly crossing the main street in front of the entirely empty Coach-Lite Motel, and said, “Nothing.”

That stayed pretty much true when the virus arrived in the United States early in the year. Many of the roughly 600 residents of Simla went on with life assuming that, like most things that sweep the country, the pandemic would pass them by.

A National Guard soldier sent to help with a Covid-19 outbreak there has tested positive for the variant of the coronavirus.
The Good Samaritan Society nursing home in Simla on Wednesday. A National Guard soldier sent to help with a Covid-19 outbreak there has tested positive for the variant of the coronavirus.Credit...Matthew Staver for The New York Times
“When the virus first started in the spring, it was calving season and we were too busy to pay it much attention,” said Don Bailey, a retired biology teacher who now runs black Angus cattle on a ranch outside town. “We were out checking the herd five or six times a day, and you don’t have to wear a mask when you are out with the cows.”

Summer passed with almost no cases in the county, and community life went on with little change. The 4-H members showed their prize sheep and cattle at the county fair, school stayed in session and the old-timers still met for coffee each morning at Simla’s lone breakfast spot, the Country Corner Cafe.

“We went ahead and canceled a supper we have with friends every Wednesday, but otherwise things have generally stayed the same,” Mr. Bailey, 71, said. Even with the pandemic, he kept open the one-man antique saddle museum he has built in an outbuilding on his spread — though the trickle of visitors would hardly break most social distancing regulations.


The town’s feeling of isolation from the global problem changed late this fall when a second wave of infections swept across Colorado and hit Simla and surrounding Elbert County particularly hard, sending it into the state’s “severe risk” threat level, where it remains today. Soon nearly everyone in this tightknit community knew someone who was sick.

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“I have a friend in the I.C.U. right now,” said Cené Kurtchi, 71, who runs the cafe with her husband, Michael. “There are a lot of people in town who are sick. They’ll say it’s just the flu or bronchitis, but it’s 26 miles to the closest place where you can get a test.”

The response to the virus is shaped not only by geography but also by politics. President Trump won 74 percent of the vote here in November. Signs supporting him still sprout on nearly every block. One on the fence of a quiet side street read: “SAVE FREEDOM, VOTE TRUMP.”

In a pandemic in which precautions have become political, many residents refuse to wear masks. On Wednesday about a quarter of the shoppers going into the Simla Food Store had their faces uncovered, despite being only half a block from the nursing home where the entire patient population recently tested positive and the mutant virus surfaced.


Crews in hazmat suits worked to clean the nursing home in Simla on Wednesday.Credit...Matthew Staver for The New York Times
Ms. Kurtchi shook her head when discussing the lack of masks. Some of her longtime neighbors have called for a boycott of the cafe because she and her husband require masks.

On Wednesday, television news crews gathered in front of the modest, one-story nursing home while cleaning crews in hazmat suits discreetly passed in and out through a back door where the strong scent of cleaning products wafted into an alley.

The state sent a team to the nursing home on Tuesday to collect new specimens from the residents and staff members. Based on the samples tested so far, Dr. Herlihy said, it does not appear that the variant is circulating in the facility, but more samples were being tested on Wednesday.

The National Guard soldier confirmed to have the variant is isolating at home in Arapahoe County, in the suburbs of Denver, and the one with the suspected case is isolating at a hotel in the town of Limon to the east, Dr. Herlihy said.

In Simla’s lone craft shop, on a dirt road where the only visitors were a half-dozen local cats lounging in the winter sun outside the front door, the owner, Carla Tracy, had just gotten off the phone with a friend who had told her the new variant had come to their town.

“My gosh, this itty-bitty town most people can’t even find on a map,” she said. “And we thought we wouldn’t have much trouble with the virus. Then it hit us. Just goes to show you it’s everywhere.”

[spot]

President Trump appears to have taken his eye off the ball these last few weeks...

From today's Washington Post:

In the past week in the U.S....
New daily reported cases rose 12.6%
New daily reported deaths rose 16.8%
Covid-related hospitalizations rose 5.4% Read more

Among reported tests, the positivity rate was 13.1%.

The number of tests reported fell 14.7% from the previous week.

And, if I red the table right, one American in sixteen has now tested positive.

[magentaflame]

President Trump appears to have taken his eye off the ball these last few weeks...

From today's Washington Post:

In the past week in the U.S....
New daily reported cases rose 12.6%
New daily reported deaths rose 16.8%
Covid-related hospitalizations rose 5.4% Read more

Among reported tests, the positivity rate was 13.1%.

The number of tests reported fell 14.7% from the previous week.

And, if I red the table right, one American in sixteen has now tested positive.

People like him think of the populace as a nuisance and not people they are supposed to serve. He couldn't give two roots about anyone except himself. American Doctors are expecting an enormous rise in number within the next month, due to the holiday period .

[spot]

President Trump appears to have taken his eye off the ball these last few weeks...

People like him think of the populace as a nuisance and not people they are supposed to serve. He couldn't give two roots about anyone except himself. American Doctors are expecting an enormous rise in number within the next month, due to the holiday period .

The variant discovered in England which raises the R value replication rate by another "0.4 to 0.7" is causing most cases in England now, having first been seen here in November. That might suggest it will become the majority variant in America by March. If President-elect Biden is right in claiming he will vaccinate a third of the American population by Wednesday April 14 2021, which is what he recently announced as his intention, then that might start reducing the figures from whatever maximum they hit by then. Personally I don't expect him the reach half that many by then.

[magentaflame]

President Trump appears to have taken his eye off the ball these last few weeks...

People like him think of the populace as a nuisance and not people they are supposed to serve. He couldn't give two roots about anyone except himself. American Doctors are expecting an enormous rise in number within the next month, due to the holiday period .

The variant discovered in England which raises the R value replication rate by another "0.4 to 0.7" is causing most cases in England now, having first been seen here in November. That might suggest it will become the majority variant in America by March. If President-elect Biden is right in claiming he will vaccinate a third of the American population by Wednesday April 14 2021, which is what he recently announced as his intention, then that might start reducing the figures from whatever maximum they hit by then. Personally I don't expect him the reach half that many by then.

Strange isn't it. We were told it will take up to three years to vaccinate all of us. We have the new strain here also.

[spot]

President Trump appears to have taken his eye off the ball these last few weeks...

People like him think of the populace as a nuisance and not people they are supposed to serve. He couldn't give two roots about anyone except himself. American Doctors are expecting an enormous rise in number within the next month, due to the holiday period .

The variant discovered in England which raises the R value replication rate by another "0.4 to 0.7" is causing most cases in England now, having first been seen here in November. That might suggest it will become the majority variant in America by March. If President-elect Biden is right in claiming he will vaccinate a third of the American population by Wednesday April 14 2021, which is what he recently announced as his intention, then that might start reducing the figures from whatever maximum they hit by then. Personally I don't expect him the reach half that many by then.

Strange isn't it. We were told it will take up to three years to vaccinate all of us. We have the new strain here also.

If the Flying Doctor is vaccinating a dozen at each station you can see why it might be a drawn-out campaign.

[LarsMac]

President Trump appears to have taken his eye off the ball these last few weeks...

People like him think of the populace as a nuisance and not people they are supposed to serve. He couldn't give two roots about anyone except himself. American Doctors are expecting an enormous rise in number within the next month, due to the holiday period .

The variant discovered in England which raises the R value replication rate by another "0.4 to 0.7" is causing most cases in England now, having first been seen here in November. That might suggest it will become the majority variant in America by March. If President-elect Biden is right in claiming he will vaccinate a third of the American population by Wednesday April 14 2021, which is what he recently announced as his intention, then that might start reducing the figures from whatever maximum they hit by then. Personally I don't expect him the reach half that many by then.

So around 120 million people in about 100 days?
a bit over a million a day?
We can do this.
Maybe.
Though he can't even get started for a couple weeks.
He may want to push that date out a few weeks.

[spot]

MorseLife has made scarce coronavirus vaccines — provided through a federal program intended for residents and staff of long-term-care facilities — available not just to its residents but to board members and those who made generous donations to the facility, including members of the Palm Beach Country Club, according to multiple people who were offered access, some of whom accepted it. The precise number of invitations, and how many may have also gone to non-donors, could not be learned.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... d-vaccine/

Privilege is still a driving force in America, evidently. It's an old word meaning "private law".

[spot]

Perhaps if everyone who gets a vaccination gets to vaccinate two more people, and then they in turn do the same etc.

We could all be vaccinated in a week.

Or they could invent an infectious vaccine, that would work as well.

[Snooz]

Disneyland to Become Mass Covid-19 Vaccination Site
AP

Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, the bulk of which has been closed since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March, will serve as the first super Point-of-Dispensing (POD) site for Covid-19 vaccines in Orange County.

The site is expected to become operational later this week, county officials announced Monday. Also on Monday, Los Angeles County announced that its mass Covid-19 testing operation at Dodger Station will be phased out this week so the sports arena can be turned into a large-scale vaccination location.

“The Disneyland Resort, the largest employer in the heart of Orange County, has stepped up to host the county’s first Super POD site – undertaking a monumental task in our vaccination distribution process,” acting Chairman Andrew Do, First District, said in the Orange County announcement.

The site will have the capacity to vaccinate thousands of residents daily, according to the county.

https://deadline.com/2021/01/disneyland ... 234671765/

[spot]

I so hope the vaccinators are all in Goofy costumes.

I'm not remotely impressed by the progress of the coup so far. A proper coup would have had F35s from the National Guard giving air cover like something from Independence Day. Do none of these hobbyist pilots vote Republican?