# Covid-19 Thread: 2023 Breaking News
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone
**Tags:** covid-quarantine
**Created:** [January 3, 2023, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610 "2023-01-03T23:12:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2023, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/1 "2023-01-03T23:12:31Z")
Since we have a new year, perhaps a new Covid-19 Breaking News edition. Previous editions were started by Snowboarder\_Bo, but he seems to have left Straight Dope.
> [@Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2022 Breaking News](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2022-breaking-news/957022):
>
> Here we go again. In case anyone wants to easily find the previous threads: [Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2020 Breaking News](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2020-breaking-news/847758)[Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2021 Breaking News](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428) As I did last year, when I update tonight I’ll use the stats I posted in the old thread but here are the stats as I found them at 12:01am on 1 January 2022: 288,538,474 total cases 5,453,217 dead 253,714,393 recovered In the US: 55,696,500 total cases 846,905 dead 41,502,739 recovered That…
A new variant [XBB.1.5] rapidly increasing:
> **[Covid’s winter surge is poised to exceed summer peak](https://www.statnews.com/2023/01/03/covid-winter-surge-to-exceed-summer-peak/)**
>
> Even if Covid will be little more than a nuisance for many on an individual level, others who may not realize the virus remains a threat to them — particularly older people — might also be shrugging off the risk.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/2 "2023-01-04T14:01:41Z")
China is about to drop all their COVID-related border controls, limitations on flight, ship, and passenger counts, mandatory quarantines, etc.
The Chinese economy will have been heavily separated from the world for 1,019 days when this change takes full effect next week.
It will be interesting to see what that does to the economy / supply chain problems we all know about.
It will also be _verrry interestingggg_ to see what it does to both Chinese and non-Chinese COVID numbers as the two populations mix in significant quantity for the first time in almost 3 years.
IIRC a stat was published just before the border slammed shut in 2020 that roughly 15,000 people traveled between just the US and China every single _day_. That volume isn’t going to ramp back up overnight, but IMO it’ll still rise pretty rapidly to a bunch. And even half that number will afford a lot of mixing. Given that travelers in both directions are overwhelming likely to be urban dwellers going to urban places in the other country, it’s lighting quite a thick fuze attached to quite a lot of fuel. We shall see.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [January 8, 2023, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/3 "2023-01-08T16:11:14Z")
This is a free article:
> **[New variant XBB.1.5 is ‘most transmissible’ yet, could fuel covid wave](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/01/08/new-covid-variant-xbb15/)**
>
> A recent swirl of misinformation linking the rise of new coronavirus variants to vaccination has cast a spotlight on XBB.1.5, raising concerns that it could limit booster uptake.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2023, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/4 "2023-01-16T14:45:31Z")
Thanks for starting this. May we have less news to put in it than in the previous ones.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/5 "2023-01-16T18:25:29Z")
> It found that 1.9% of the study participants who received the original booster became infected. Among those who got the updated bivalent vaccine – the one that scientists hoped would work better – a higher percentage, 3.2%, became infected. Both versions of the shot were found to be safe.
>
> This infection data was far from complete. The number of study subjects who became infected was very small, and both the patients and the researchers were aware of who was getting the original shot and who was getting the new booster.
[https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/11/health/moderna-bivalent-transparency/index.html](https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/11/health/moderna-bivalent-transparency/index.html)
Yet:
> Moderna has not settled on a price yet, but Bancel has said that a range of $110 to $130 a dose for the vaccine once the United States moves to a commercial market for the shots is reasonable given the value they create.
[https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/sen-sanders-asks-moderna-not-hike-covid-vaccine-price-2023-01-10/](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/sen-sanders-asks-moderna-not-hike-covid-vaccine-price-2023-01-10/)
This is about 4 times current price.
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### Author:  [@Win\_Place\_Show](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Win_Place_Show)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/6 "2023-01-18T20:10:46Z")
Well here’s the latest “we told you so” coming from the anti-mask and anti-vaccine Republicans. You all might remember this doctor Leana Wen who was a regular contributor to CNN throughout at least most of 2020. Turns out that now she’s written a column where she hypothesizes that perhaps we are overcounting the number of deaths directly related to Covid.
> **[CNN analyst slammed after writing COVID deaths are being overcounted: ‘TWO AND...](https://nypost.com/2023/01/14/dr-leana-wen-writes-that-covid-deaths-are-being-overcounted/)**
>
> CNN medical analyst and Washington Post columnist Dr. Leana Wen admitted in a column, Friday, that the medical community is “overcounting” the amount of “COVID deaths and hospital…
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2023, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/7 "2023-01-18T20:42:28Z")
Let’s go straight to Dr. Wen’s original op/ed in the _Washington Post_:
> **[Opinion | We are overcounting covid deaths and hospitalizations. That’s a...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/13/covid-pandemic-deaths-hospitalizations-overcounting/)**
>
> Deaths with incidental covid need to be distinguished from deaths due to covid.
(_No paywall, but page requires either an email entry or a non-cookie-collecting browser window for free reading_)
Dr. Wen is not doing a 180, or now claiming that “_It was all lies from the get-go! Lies!_” Succinctly – she’s instead saying that new data requires new guidance and planning. Y’know … just doin’ science.
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### Author:  [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2023, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/8 "2023-01-18T21:25:54Z")
USA has been overcounting since hospitals get funding from counting a death as a Covid death.
China is likely undercounting.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [January 18, 2023, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/9 "2023-01-18T22:09:25Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#):
>
> USA has been overcounting since hospitals get funding from counting a death as a Covid death.
Cite for this often argued point? What funding specifically?
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### Author:  [@Jay\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jay_Z)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2023, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/10 "2023-01-19T00:25:37Z")
> [@Telemark](#):
>
> Cite for this often argued point? What funding specifically?
A friend who works in a hospital specifically mentioned they were to record people dying who happened to have Covid as Covid deaths for funding purposes. That’s all I know.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2023, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/11 "2023-01-19T02:26:58Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#):
>
> That’s all I know.
It’s a big nuanced, but no, hospitals aren’t getting paid more if they report a death from COVID-19.
> **[Are Doctors and Hospitals Paid More for COVID-19 Patients?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/medicare-hospitals-covid-patients/)**
>
> Questions were raised on cable news about whether hospitals have financial incentives to diagnose patients with COVID-19.
> **[No, hospitals don’t get more money when they list COVID-19 as a patient’s...](https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/coronavirus-verify/covid-19-coronavirus-hospital-deaths-funding-medicare-fact-check/536-74efc62c-e1c6-43fa-8a22-0ff482593afd)**
>
> Hospitals don’t get more money for listing COVID-19 as a cause of death, but they do get a bump in payment from Medicare if a patient has a COVID-19 diagnosis.
> **[Hospital Payments and the COVID-19 Death Count - FactCheck.org](https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/hospital-payments-and-the-covid-19-death-count/)**
>
> Q: Are hospitals inflating the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths so they can be paid more? A: Recent legislation pays hospitals higher Medicare rates for COVID-19 patients and treatment, but there is no evidence of fraudulent reporting. FULL...
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### Author:  [@tofor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofor)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2023, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/12 "2023-01-19T12:26:19Z")
> [@Jay\_Z](#):
>
> A friend who works in a hospital
Unless this friend is the one doing the reporting and has been explicitly told by a supervisor to do this (i.e. first-hand information) then they are just as likely to be subject to rumor as anybody else on this matter.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/13 "2023-01-19T12:43:19Z")
My mother died of covid. But it’s one of 4 causes of death listed on her death certificate, because she had other health issues that were contributing factors. This is normal, and standard practice, and has been for years prior to the covid pandemic. Someone told me the average number of causes of death listed is about 2. If covid is a contributing factor in a death, it ought to be listed, even if some other issue was more important.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2023, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/14 "2023-01-19T13:08:16Z")
My gf’s 94 year old aunt was in a personal care home, with death imminent. They were testing everyone weekly and she had a positive test, without any clinical signs. We were unable to visit her and she died the day after the test.
I’ve never seen the death certificate.
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### Author:  [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2023, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/15 "2023-01-23T23:25:46Z")
[FDA Outlines a Plan for Annual COVID Boosters](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/health/covid-boosters-fda.html)
> [@](#):
>
> There was little research to support the suggested plan, some advisers said. . . .
>
> The F.D.A. advisers said they would like to see detailed information regarding who is most vulnerable to the virus and to make decisions about future vaccination strategy based on those data.
>
> “How old are they? What are their comorbidities? When was the last dose of vaccine they got? Did they take antiviral medicines?” Dr. Offit said. At the moment, the national strategy seems to be, “‘OK, well, let’s just dose everybody all the time,’” he said. “And that’s just not a good reason.”
The reason I only quoted critical comments above is that they are in the paywalled New York Times story, but omitted but non-pay-walled articles like this:
> **[US proposes once-a-year COVID shots for most Americans](https://apnews.com/article/health-immunizations-covid-cdd627b7daee5c2f7ebc984a3d9357db)**
>
> U.S. health officials want to make COVID-19 vaccinations more like the annual flu shot. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed a simplified approach so that most adults and children would get a once-a-year shot.
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### Author:  [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2023, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/16 "2023-01-28T01:18:55Z")
> **[FDA pulls Evusheld authorization as coronavirus evolution quashes another...](https://www.statnews.com/2023/01/26/fda-evusheld/)**
>
> Evusheld is the latest antibody therapy to be rendered ineffective by coronavirus mutations.
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### Author:  [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)
#### Post date: [January 28, 2023, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/17 "2023-01-28T17:15:43Z")
> [@bordelond](#):
>
> Dr. Wen is not doing a 180, or now claiming that “_It was all lies from the get-go! Lies!_” Succinctly – she’s instead saying that new data requires new guidance and planning. Y’know … just doin’ science.
This is a real challenge, because the public does not understand the process of science.
If a scientist changes their mind because new data comes in, this is a feature, not a bug. This is rather the whole point.
But many members of the public are confused by this. They want black and white thinking. They want certainty. They want unchanging dogma. Altering one’s opinion or thinking is an anathema to them. They distrust anyone who changes their minds in the face of conflicting data.
They want someone who doubles down on being wrong, and stands firm in the face of facts.
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### Author:  [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)
#### Post date: [January 29, 2023, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/18 "2023-01-29T13:52:04Z")
But i have to wonder when the number that gets the emphasis is 10%, (fraction of people who have covid whose primary reason for being hospitalized is covid) but the data says that it’s about 30%, and “on some days as low as 10%”. That suggests that on other days it’s more like 70%.
And the article points out that the 30% is an undercount, because it misses the people whose primary issue is something else, but for whom covid exacerbated that and sent them to the hospital. It mentions people with kidney disease pushed into kidney failure. It doesn’t mention that heart attacks and strokes are also more common in people “with covid”.
So yes, the total number of people who test positive for covid shortly before dying is an overcount. But 30% is an undercount, and the 10% is just clickbait.
(The 30% comes from Massachusetts, which tracks what fraction of hospitalized people who have covid are being treated with steroids for covid pneumonia, and published that number as a proxy for those who are hospitalized primarily for covid.)
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### Author:  [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2023, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/19 "2023-01-30T22:06:25Z")
Lol @ “asked.” Would make more sense to figure out the vaccine, start manufacturing it and tell Moderna they have ONE chance to drop the price or they get undercut. Same with the other manufacturers. Dunno about anyone else but I’m very tired of pharma companies producing something for a dollar and charging a thousand for it. I have no problems with a reasonable profit, but the way they use publicly funded research to generate privately held profits is shameful and needs to be broken once and for all. If Moderna wants to sue the US government well, good luck with that.
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### Author:  [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)
#### Post date: [January 31, 2023, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/covid-19-thread-2023-breaking-news/977610/20 "2023-01-31T01:56:30Z")
Winding down the public emergency in the US, which mostly seems to revolve around financial impacts right now. (It’s projected that far out, apparently, because of commitments to give certain notice before stopping some programs.)
> **[Biden administration will end COVID-19 emergencies on May 11](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/biden-administration-end-covid-19-emergencies-11/story?id=96335640)**
>
> The Biden administration plans to end both the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency on May 11, the White House has informed Congress
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