‘We have gone backwards’: Covid confusion snarls Biden White House
A half dozen former health policy makers, including members of Biden’s transition team, said the Biden administration needs an urgent strategy reset.
US COVID cases jump by 27% in a week to all-time high of 1.486m – but deaths rise by just 12% to 1,906 as NY cases plateau, sparking hopes Omicron has peaked
- Covid cases in the US have tripled over the past two weeks, up to over 700,000 per day, as the nation continues to suffer record surge
- There were 1.486M new cases Monday, the highest single day figure of the pandemic. Hospitalizations in the US also peaked
- Deaths have not followed the same trend, though, only increasing 12% as the CDC chief saying almost all are among people with four or more co-morbidities
- On average, 130,000 Americans are hospitalized with Covid every day, though many people are likely just testing positive when going in for other treatment
- Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says the virus will likely be around for the next decade, but his company’s booster shots will be able to ‘control’ the pandemic
- The variant is already showing signs of burning out in England and Denmark, though, a positive sign for the US going forward
- One study found Omicron could have a lower death rate than the yearly flu
The United States is poised to surpass its record for covid-19 hospitalizations as soon as Tuesday, with no end in sight to skyrocketing case loads, falling staff levels and the struggles of a medical system trying to provide care amid an unprecedented surge of the coronavirus.
Monday’s total of 141,385 people in U.S. hospitals with covid-19 fell just short of the record of 142,273 set on Jan. 14, 2021, during the previous peak of the pandemic in this country.
www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/u-s-poised-to-break-record-142-000-covid-19-hospitalizations/ar-AASDR0Z
Why More Americans Are Saying They’re ‘Vaxxed and Done’
COVID has always divided Americans. The Omicron wave is even dividing the vaccinated.
To understand how ideologically scrambling the Omicron wave has been, consider this: Some 2022 Democrats are sounding like 2020 Republicans. In spring 2020, many Republicans, including President Donald Trump, insisted that COVID was hardly worse than the flu; that its fatality risk was comparable to an everyday activity, like driving in a car; and that an obsessive focus on cases wouldn’t give an accurate picture of what was going on in the pandemic.
In the current Omicron wave, these Republican talking points seem to have mostly come true—for most vaccinated non-senior adults, who are disproportionately Democrats.
But Democratic talking points about the severity of COVID and the need for commensurate caution remain valid and not only for the sick and elderly. Ironically, they are especially true for the unvaccinated—a disproportionately Republican group that has seen their hospitalization rates soar this winter to all-time highs. About 9,000 Americans are dying of COVID every week. Preliminary state data suggest that more than 90 percent of today’s deaths are still among unvaccinated people. This year, COVID is on pace to kill more than 300,000 unvaccinated people who would, quite likely, avoid death by getting two or three shots.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/01/covid-omicron-vaccination-rashomon/621199/
THIS IS TOTAL CHART CRIME BY @nytimes
NYC ADULT VAX RATE IS VIRTUALLY 100%, HOW CAN YOU SAY ITS THE UNVACCINATED GETTING COVID??
FRAUD. pic.twitter.com/31YAUq5K89
— Endless Capital (@endless_frank) January 11, 2022