# Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2022 Breaking News
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone
**Tags:** covid-quarantine
**Created:** [January 1, 2022, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022 "2022-01-01T05:02:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2022, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/21 "2022-01-03T18:03:13Z")
From the [NYT](https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/03/world/omicron-covid-vaccine-tests#fauci-says-hes-more-concerned-about-the-strain-to-hospitals-than-the-record-number-of-cases):
> Dr. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, noted on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that many new infections, especially in people who are vaccinated and boosted, result in no symptoms or mild symptoms, **making the absolute number of cases less important** than it was for previous versions of the virus.
>
> “As you get further on and the infections become less severe, **it is much more relevant to focus on the hospitalizations as opposed to the total number of cases** ,” Dr. Fauci said.
>
> **That advice is in keeping with what many epidemiologists have said all along.** Despite the daily drumbeat of case counts, the number of positive tests has never been a perfect indicator of the course of the epidemic.
---
### Author:  [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/22 "2022-01-03T20:48:18Z")
Yet you found nothing amiss with “Saily”… 😃
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2022, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/23 "2022-01-03T20:49:03Z")
Unfortunately, reporting of hospitalizations lags infections, and is reported even less consistently across the states then infection is.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2022, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/24 "2022-01-03T21:06:13Z")
Nobody wrote a fantastically humorous blog piece about that typo that I could link to.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2022, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/25 "2022-01-03T21:45:52Z")
Iowa:
> **[Iowa sees coronavirus surge with over 17,700 cases in a week](https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-public-health-iowa-centers-for-disease-control-and-prevention-07f39f1c7c3d60adebd9ade93f45407c)**
>
> DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — State public health data released Monday indicates Iowa is beginning the new year with a large surge in coronavirus cases. The state Department of Public Health posted 17,773 confirmed positive tests in the past seven days.
---
### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2022, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/26 "2022-01-03T21:46:17Z")
New Jersey:
> **[NJ hospitals face staff shortage as hospitalizations climb](https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-new-jersey-nursing-homes-38dd77c51e405953b30cb612bbf7bf00)**
>
> TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey hospitals and long-term care facilities are facing staff shortages amid a “tsunami" of COVID-19 cases, and hospitalizations have climbed by nearly 60% since the end of last month, Gov.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/27 "2022-01-04T04:22:10Z")
# Holy crud, Worldometer has 933k US cases in one day
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/28 "2022-01-04T04:40:42Z")
I haven’t looked at that source, but my local numbers include the holiday weekend (3 days of data).
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/29 "2022-01-04T04:43:48Z")
292,966,139 total cases
5,465,921 dead
255,344,343 recovered
In the US:
57,104,794 total cases
848,844 dead
41,708,956 recovered
Yesterday’s numbers for comparison:
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#):
>
> 290,632,901 total cases
> 5,460,317 dead
> 254,530,059 recovered
>
> In the US:
>
> 56,142,175 total cases
> 847,408 dead
> 41,543,060 recovered
---
### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/30 "2022-01-04T05:26:43Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#):
>
> How can the rest of us hope to escape it?
To be fair, an Antarctic research station is a very closed venue in a cold environment. Regardless of pre-travel precautions it’s propitious for spread.
> [@Skywatcher](#):
>
> I don’t dare look but I get the feeling that the right-wing spinning this as “Why bother trying to escape?”
A significant faction thereof has been on that line since the very beginning of the whole thing.
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> **Puerto Rico** – 12261
Remember how around Thanksgivingish PR was being held up in media as the Great Vaccination Success Story?
Well yes, we were (are!), and the protection measures had been getting adjusted nice and gradually.
Problem was, too many people on the ground began seeing that publicity and decided it meant “Victory is declared! WooHoo!” And the pressure to capitalize on that to say “let’s project that HERE is where you should come travel!” became a bit too irresistible.
Now, if people had been wise they we _could_ have been pitched as an attractive destination in the sense of being a _safe_ destination. I know there were Dopers who went there in that spirit.
_But_ what happened was that the promotions entities were pressured to try and sell it as the destination _where you no longer needed to be worried_. And part of that was restarting large arena concerts and similar events, just as omicron was hitting.
By mid-December the Tourism Office were still announcing that dozens of multi-thousand-passengers cruise ships were going to make port. By Xmas of course all that had all gotten tossed and let’s go back on the defensive.
And NOW we even are finally getting a strong antivaxx pushback, from the usual Facebook University graduates who figure out that all this means that all the measures taken before were worthless.
> [@Lancia](#):
>
> I just did a cursory search. The average asking price for that model, that year, in that configuration is $24K.
Oh I am in a similar situation. The “Blue Book” has been blown apart by the supply chain entanglement. Theoretically my 2018 is now worth on the street about as much as dealer invoice on a 2022. If it weren’t that I **can’t** get a 2022 for anywhere close to that…
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### Author:  [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/31 "2022-01-04T05:26:50Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#):
>
> I don’t dare look but I get the feeling that the right-wing spinning this as “Why bother trying to escape?”
Would that be wrong?
Covid is not going to disappear. It becoming less serious is great news. I expect to encounter the virus at some point in my life. If it’s asymptomatic or the sniffles, it’s really not that big a deal.
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### Author:  [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/32 "2022-01-04T05:34:41Z")
> [@squeegee](#):
>
> Holy crud, Worldometer has 933k US cases in one day
Yup, but no need to panic about case numbers, as Dr Fauci and many others have been saying.
With Omicron, case numbers are decoupled from hospitalizations and deaths. Deaths are remaining flat. Hospitalizations are up, but not at the same levels as early last year.
US trends from the [NYT](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html):
[ ](https://i.ibb.co/jZfm6Vr/data02.png)
[ ](https://i.ibb.co/qydHJQ7/data04.png)
[ ](https://i.ibb.co/NjKg37z/data03.png)
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/33 "2022-01-04T05:47:56Z")
You have a point, but I am _seriously_ not complacent about 1400 US covid deaths a day, every day.
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### Author:  [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/34 "2022-01-04T05:53:52Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#):
>
> Covid is not going to disappear. It becoming less serious is great news. I expect to encounter the virus at some point in my life. If it’s asymptomatic or the sniffles, it’s really not that big a deal.
I agree. What will happen is that case numbers (and deaths) will start dropping soon, simply because there will be fewer and fewer people either unvaccinated or unexposed to covid. Exponential growth is not sustainable for long.
The situation in the US is that delta has not yet been displaced by omicron, but that’s happening fast. It’s a good thing because omicron is milder.
We are gradually moving towards a situation where the pandemic will be over. I expect that by this time next year, or maybe even within six months, we will be more or less back to normal.
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### Author:  [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/35 "2022-01-04T06:21:46Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#):
>
> _But_ what happened was that the promotions entities were pressured to try and sell it as the destination _where you no longer needed to be worried_ .
This may help explain why some friends of mine on the Gulf coast suddenly decided to go to Puerto Rico two weeks before Christmas. I was really surprised to see them posting pictures of all the great places they were going and hanging out maskless in a bar with “these really cool people we just met”. I couldn’t figure out what the hell they were thinking. Fortunately, they didn’t get sick.
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/36 "2022-01-04T06:26:26Z")
Hawaii is topping 3000 new cases every day now. Just a month ago, it was low double digits. The wife works part-time in a condominium office, and a property manager she often deals with recently came back from Vegas and promptly tested positive. He was not in close proximity to her since returning though.
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### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/37 "2022-01-04T09:57:39Z")
> [@squeegee](#):
>
> # Holy crud, Worldometer has 933k US cases in one day
Don’t get so excited. Much of that is just catch-up from the holidays. A weekend effect squared, shall we say.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/38 "2022-01-04T10:22:30Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#):
>
> > [@Skywatcher](#):
> >
> > I don’t dare look but I get the feeling that the right-wing spinning this as “Why bother trying to escape?”
>
> Would that be wrong?
>
> Covid is not going to disappear. It becoming less serious is great news. I expect to encounter the virus at some point in my life. If it’s asymptomatic or the sniffles, it’s really not that big a deal.
_ **Yes it is wrong.** _
Omicron may be less severe, but it still can cause severe disease and death. Hospitals all over the country are being pushed to the brink. **Not everyone just gets the sniffles.** It’s actually possible that omicron is more deadly (i.e. causes more deaths when left unchecked) due to how well it spreads.
It is very obviously not the time to stop trying to fight the virus and let it infect everyone. And I do not understand why anyone is suggesting it. You don’t know you’ll just get the sniffles, and, even if you do, you don’t know if you’ll pass it on to someone who will get worse.
Fortunately, early signs from places like South Africa suggest that the surge will blow through quickly. So it’s very possible we won’t have to do it for long. And, even if not, we know that everyone is working hard on omicron vaccines, meaning we have an tunnel in sight to avoid actually getting it.
I literally just got through writing a post how to stay safer to post on my Facebook page, because I know that’s where a lot of people get their news. It never even occurred to me that I’d need to combat the idea that we should just all let ourselves get infected, while making sure I don’t actually give people that idea.
Please do not spread this idea that we should just give up and let ourselves get infected. Omicron is overwhelming hospitals when we’re actually trying to stop it.
@GreenWyvern
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### Author:  [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/39 "2022-01-04T11:13:19Z")
> [@BigT](#):
>
> Please do not spread this idea that we should just give up and let ourselves get infected.
I didn’t say that. I think people should take reasonable precautions. I don’t agree at all with the lax attitude towards mask wearing in the US, and I think people should get vaccinated and boosted.
I only said things will improve.
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### Author:  [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2022, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022/40 "2022-01-04T12:17:15Z")
China:
> **[In locked down Chinese city, some complain food hard to get](https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-winter-olympics-sports-health-business-5837199c372d60220ca58408ecd7d9b2)**
>
> BEIJING (AP) — Residents of the Chinese city of Xi'an are enduring a strict coronavirus lockdown, with business owners suffering yet more closures and some people complaining of difficulties finding food, despite assurances from authorities that...
The Beijing Winter Olympics are set to begin 4 February.
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