# Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2021 Breaking News **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [January 1, 2021, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428 "2021-01-01T08:03:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![FigNorton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fignorton/32/5619_2.png) [@FigNorton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FigNorton)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/61 "2021-01-07T01:33:16Z")
Yeah, that problem is quite a ways down the road. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/62 "2021-01-07T07:09:48Z")
87,672,258 total cases 1,892,074 dead 63,145,541 recovered In the US: 21,857,616 total cases 369,990 dead 13,024,142 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 86,834,916 total cases > 1,875,520 dead > 61,533,599 recovered > > In the US: > > 21,578,606 total cases > 365,620 dead > 12,862,216 recovered New benchmarks for the US today in both daily new cases (260,973) and daily deaths (4100). For comparison, 2,977 people died in the 2001 WTC bombing. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/63 "2021-01-07T14:09:55Z")
New Record Highs in Daily Reported Cases (seven day average) on January 6 2021 Rhode Island (really shooting up fast) Louisiana (also shooting up fast) Texas (also) Surprisingly, that seems to be it, although seven states had record highs yesterday (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, Oklahoma ) ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/64 "2021-01-07T17:41:23Z")
From the BBC > **[Two more life-saving Covid drugs discovered](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55574662)** > > The drugs, which save an extra life for every 12 intensive care patients treated, can be used immediately, say experts. > The UK government is working closely with the manufacturer, to ensure the drugs - tocilizumab and sarilumab - continue to be available to UK patients. > > As well as saving more lives, the treatments speed up patients’ recovery and reduce the length of time that critically-ill patients need to spend in intensive care by about a week. > > Both appear to work equally well and add to the benefit already found with a cheap steroid drug called dexamethasone. The article gives brief details of a study in 800 intensive care patients. j ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/65 "2021-01-07T18:23:48Z")
I don’t think this has been posted in this thread yet, though I’ve been kind of distracted the last day or so. > [People with no symptoms transmit more than half of all cases of the novel coronavirus](https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2021/01/07/covid-asymptomatic-spread/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F2e3eec5%2F5ff73e629d2fda0efba3428c%2F5e7cdc91ae7e8a5948c07b96%2F41%2F72%2F5ff73e629d2fda0efba3428c), according to a model developed by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. > > [. . .] > > Fifty-nine percent of all transmission came from people without symptoms, under the model’s baseline scenario. That includes 35 percent of new cases from people who infect others before they show symptoms and 24 percent that come from people who never develop symptoms at all. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/66 "2021-01-07T20:53:25Z")
Here’s a new BMJ article about the evidence to support the UK’s decision to go with an interval of up to 12 weeks between first and second dose of both the Pfizer and the AZ vaccines: [Covid-19 vaccination: What’s the evidence for extending the dosing interval?](https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n18) **TLDR on evidence:** AZ: well, there’s a bit. Pfizer: uh… It’s very much a “balanced” article, giving (loosely speaking) some “for” and some “against” positions. As examples: For: > But Andrew Pollard, the head of the Oxford Vaccine Group and chief investigator into the trial of this [AZ] vaccine, said that extending the gap between vaccines made biological sense. “Generally, a longer gap between vaccine doses leads to a better immune response, with the second dose causing a better boost. (With HPV vaccine for girls, for example, the gap is a year and gives better responses than a one month gap.) From the Oxford vaccine trials, there is 70% protection after the first dose up to the second dose, and the immune response was about three times greater after the second dose when the second dose was delayed, comparing second dose after four weeks versus second dose after 2-3 months,” he told _The BMJ_ , referring to the MHRA’s summary of product characteristics. > > “With the Pfizer vaccine, there are no published data comparing shorter and longer gaps between doses because all participants had the second dose at 3-4 weeks. However, the biology is straightforward and will be the same as with all vaccines . . . The immune system remembers the first dose and will respond whether the later dose is at three weeks or three months.” Against: > Paul Bieniasz, a retrovirologist from Rockefeller University who is studying how the virus can acquire mutations, has warned that the UK was taking a gamble that risked fostering vaccine resistant forms of the virus. He told the news site STAT, “My concern, as a virologist, is that if you wanted to make a vaccine-resistant strain, what you would do is to build a cohort of partially immunized individuals in the teeth of a highly prevalent viral infection.” It’s worth reading all of the (fairly short) article. j ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/67 "2021-01-08T01:00:58Z")
California’s hospitals, morgues, funeral homes, etc are _still_ buckling: > **[California sees two-day record of coronavirus deaths](https://apnews.com/article/los-angeles-california-coronavirus-pandemic-3488774b703cd0ab3cdf97cac671fc8d)** > > LOS ANGELES (AP) — California health authorities reported Thursday a record two-day total of 1,042 coronavirus deaths as many hospitals strain under unprecedented caseloads > [@](#): > > A surge following Halloween and Thanksgiving produced record hospitalizations and now the most seriously ill of those patients are dying in unprecedented numbers. California health authorities reported Thursday 583 new deaths and a record two-day total of 1,042. > > The state has deployed 88 refrigerated trailers, up from 60 a few weeks ago, for use as makeshift morgues, mostly in hard-hit Southern California. > > Hospitalizations are nearing 22,000 and state models project the number could reach 30,000 by Feb 1. Already, many hospitals in Los Angeles and other hard hit areas are struggling to keep up and warned they may need to resort to rationing care as intensive care beds dwindle. > > Earlier this week, state health officials caught hospitals off guard and left them scrambling with new orders limiting nonessential surgeries and requiring hospitals that have scarce ICU space to accept patients from those that have run out, an order that may require transferring patients hundreds of miles. > > The California Hospital Association said the orders don’t go far enough to address a crisis whose magnitude “cannot be overstated.” ---
**Author:** ![Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiendish_astronaut/32/3295_2.png) [@Fiendish\_Astronaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiendish_Astronaut)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/68 "2021-01-08T01:02:50Z")
Unfortunately I think we’ll go past the two million dead mark in the next seven days. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/69 "2021-01-08T01:08:20Z")
Aye; that’s pretty much a certainty, barring discovery of an immediately effective cure/prophylactic. 14,000 x 7 = 98,000 and the gap is only 95,000 or so at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/70 "2021-01-08T05:40:47Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 369,990 dead Interesting: Worldometer had 374,124 dead a couple of hours ago, which was quite a startling number ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/71 "2021-01-08T05:45:00Z")
88,503,304 total cases 1,906,749 dead 63,612,605 recovered In the US: 22,132,045 total cases 374,124 dead 13,143,317 recovered Yesterday’s numbers for comparison: > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > 87,672,258 total cases > 1,892,074 dead > 63,145,541 recovered > > In the US: > > 21,857,616 total cases > 369,990 dead > 13,024,142 recovered ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/72 "2021-01-08T07:55:57Z")
Earlier this week in Austria, the government has decided to extend the existing lockdown, which was to have expired on 18 January, until 24 January. After that time, it was planned to allow restaurants to open during the daytime only, but most other shops (apart from essential ones like grocery store and pharmacies) were to remain closed. However, the number of new daily infections has been on the rise again (from a post-holiday low of 1391 on 2 January up to 2540 yesterday) and so today it’s being considered whether to further extend the existing lockdown to the end of January. Meanwhile, with only 0.07% of the population vaccinated so far, Austria’s vaccination program is almost the slowest in the European Union. (Only France, at 0.01%, is worse.) ---
**Author:** ![Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heffalump_and_roo/32/7691_2.png) [@Heffalump\_and\_Roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heffalump_and_Roo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/73 "2021-01-08T11:01:29Z")
There’s a website called [Time to Herd](https://timetoherd.com/). It does a simple calculation of using how many vaccines given a day to calculate how long it would take at that rate to get to 70% of the population vaccinated. IF (big IF), herd immunity is reached at 70%, and the current rate of vaccinations hold constant, the website gives the number of days until herd immunity. The US will reach herd immunity by that calculation in 1,195 days. Israel will reach herd immunity in 101 days. The UK will take 1,928 days. Norway will take 5,795 days. Since the roll out has been pretty slow so far, most of the other countries besides Israel are in the thousands of days. Hopefully, the rate of vaccination will increase. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/74 "2021-01-08T14:11:51Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > The EMA has recommended approval the Moderna Vaccine. The UK also “approved” the vaccine today. (The difference is that the EU has licensed the vaccine, the UK has maid it available for use on a temporary basis). UK stocks not expected before March. j ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/75 "2021-01-08T14:54:35Z")
New Record High daily new cases (seven day average) on January 7 2021 Rhode Island (still shooting up steeply) Connecticut Delaware Alabama Texas Arkansas ---
**Author:** ![metonymic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@metonymic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metonymic)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/76 "2021-01-08T18:36:04Z")
Quebec is imposing a curfew from 8pm-5am with this new lockdown, starting Jan 9 and continuing for 4 weeks. This is the first curfew implemented in Canada since the start of the pandemic, this article notes: > **[Will a curfew help get the pandemic under control in Quebec? | CBC News](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-curfew-covid-pandemic-1.5864944)** > > Quebec is a day away from entering a four-week long curfew, the first of its kind in Canada since the coronavirus pandemic was declared. The question: how much difference will it make?  Hopefully it helps! The numbers are ever-increasing these days. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/77 "2021-01-08T19:10:46Z")
> [@metonymic](#): > > Quebec is imposing a curfew from 8pm-5am with this new lockdown, starting Jan 9 and continuing for 4 weeks. This is the first curfew implemented in Canada since the start of the pandemic, this article notes: Maybe this isn’t the right thread to ask this question… so a mod is welcome to move it somewhere else-- maybe the general COVID discussion. Is this new rule and others y’all have cited in Europe, to wit, extending the curfew by a few hours for the next 2-3 weeks, then allowing \ to open, then closing them a week later, yeah schools are open, then they’re not, then they are… are these changing/shifting-in-the-moment strategies having any positive effect? How can locking stuff down for, say, two weeks really make much difference? Are the local govts doing this just so people won’t rebel over what IMHO needs to happen, namely, a hard lockdown for the next six months or something. As the article headline says in the box: “how much difference will it make?” I ask, “how much difference **can it possibly** make?” (I know there’s no clear answer. It just seems to me that a haphazard approach invites haphazard results.) ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/78 "2021-01-08T19:39:24Z")
I think you have to factor in the latest version of Covid - it is having a very serious impact in the UK despite lockdowns - which area now slated to go on for at least 4 weeks with a tacit hint that this could be very much longer - at least another 2 or 3 weeks more. In fact I personally get the feeling that the progress of the vaccination program is likely to be the main consideration in unlocking rather than the fall of infections. Our recent history of lockdown is that a couple of weeks prior to Xmas a newish set of protocols were introduced, with lockdown levels from 1 to 3 being implemented, that went up to 1 to 4 pretty quickly and the vast majority of the UK was either 3 or 4. (I will link to the lockdown levels in a moment – just stay with me for a bit) They had an alleged 2 day easing of restrictions for Xmas(but I personally beleive that this was widely breached), meantime most of the area outside London was on level 4 London on Level 3 and the more sparsely populated counties on Level 3. We had lots of whining about why the most populous part of the country was on L3 with infection rates very nearly the same as L4 parts of the country. It almost appeared to be working, there was a hesitation and small reduction of infections for a few days, but since then it has absolutely shot upwards, especially in the London zone (which is basicly a part circle of UK around 80 miles across centred on London) We have now reached a crisis, we have now got implementation of L5 pretty much everywhere, its a lockdown and London Mayor has announced a state of medical emergency due to the impending collapse of medical services - and this allows for much more draconian action, transfers of staff and patients and opening of stanby facilities. If you look on the worldmeters site and view what has taken place in the UK, you’ll see what happened in the period from around 5 Dec onwards - worth noting that there were calls for earlier and harder lockdowns around 7th Dec including the closure of all schools but the administration were slow to respond - by around 10th Dec for the initial raising of the lockdown level to a few more days to teh highest level. What that means is this, earlier lockdowns are way better than later ones, once you are already starting to be concerned, its already way too late. Short lockdowns are a waste of time, actually they may be counterproductive because any slight fall in infection rates leads to demands to unlock and for complacency which leads to an increase in infections with an absolute vengeance > **[Covid: How does the alert level system work?](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-52634739)** > > The rapid increase in Omicron cases in the UK has led to the alert level being raised. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/79 "2021-01-08T20:02:41Z")
COVID is raging and still Trump has managed to make it the second most important story. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2021, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/80 "2021-01-08T20:23:08Z")
Here’s some news: > **[Vaccine rollout hits snag as health workers balk at shots](https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-vaccine-health-workers-676e03a99badfd5ce3a6cfafe383f6af)** > > The desperately awaited vaccination drive against the coronavirus in the U.S. is running into resistance from an unlikely quarter: Surprising numbers of health care workers who have seen firsthand the death and misery inflicted by COVID-19 are... > [@](#): > > It is happening in nursing homes and, to a lesser degree, in hospitals, with employees expressing what experts say are unfounded fears of side effects from vaccines that were developed at record speed. More than three weeks into the campaign, some places are seeing as much as 80% of the staff holding back. > > “I don’t think anyone wants to be a guinea pig,” said Dr. Stephen Noble, a 42-year-old cardiothoracic surgeon in Portland, Oregon, who is postponing getting vaccinated. “At the end of the day, as a man of science, I just want to see what the data show. And give me the full data.” > [@](#): > > While the federal government has released no data on how many people offered the vaccines have taken them, glimpses of resistance have emerged around the country. > > In Illinois, a big divide has opened at state-run veterans homes between residents and staff. The discrepancy was worst at the veterans home in Manteno, where 90% of residents were vaccinated but only 18% of the staff members. > > In rural Ashland, Alabama, about 90 of some 200 workers at Clay County Hospital have yet to agree to get vaccinated, even with the place so overrun with COVID-19 patients that oxygen is running low and beds have been added to the intensive care unit, divided by plastic sheeting. > [@](#): > > Oregon doctor Noble said he will wait until April or May to get the shots. He said it is vital for public health authorities not to overstate what they know about the vaccines. That is particularly important, he said, for Black people like him who are distrustful of government medical guidance because of past failures and abuses, such as the infamous Tuskegee experiment. > > Medical journals have published extensive data on the vaccines, and the Food and Drug Administration has made its analysis public. But misinformation about the shots has spread wildly online, including falsehoods that they cause fertility problems. > > Stormy Tatom, 30, a hospital ICU nurse in Beaumont, Texas, said she decided against getting vaccinated for now “because of the unknown long-term side effects.” > > “I would say at least half of my coworkers feel the same way,” Tatom said. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428.md?page=5)