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Weekly coronavirus-related chat, questions, and minor updates - week of December 6
This thread is posted weekly, and is intended as a place for more-casual discussion of the coronavirus and questions/updates that may not warrant their own dedicated topics. Tell us about what the situation is like where you live!
How to get the free at-home Covid tests promised by White House
cool, so...basically, there's a plan, or really a plan to release details of the plan...in mid-January.
(I've been rewatching Veep, and it continues to be a documentary about how the US federal government works)
that "more guidance" will come two weeks after a ton of people will be travelling for the holidays. so these free-with-reimbursement tests will be just in time to test for the big wave of resulting covid cases. not in time to be effective at preventing any cases by making it easy for people to find out they're covid-positive before they travel.
today, White House press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about this, and why they're doing this reimbursement crap instead of just making them free.
her response was to ask, mockingly, "should we just send one to every American?". and the journalist responds, "uh...maybe?"
(as that tweet points out, the UK will send you a pack of 7 at-home tests for free, with the only limit that you can make 1 order per day)
back in 2020: Trump administration scrapped plan to send every American a mask in April
Biden is handling covid better than Trump, but...that's a low bar. perhaps the lowest bar in the history of using "low bar" as a metaphor. Biden's handling of covid has still been atrocious.
Hard-Hit New Hampshire Snaps Up Free Home Covid Tests as U.S. Dawdles
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In Colorado, we get [rapid tests] for free. The country should follow our lead. (Slate)
Biden health team ruled out free Covid tests for all over cost, logistics
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Local case rates are starting to get really bad for me. They are back up to where we were this same time last year (we we had a huge December - January spike).
The good news is that hospitalizations and death rates aren’t tracking with that — a testament to the vaccines guarding against the worst outcomes — but I’m not going to lie, seeing the chart for cases spike up for my area is making me nervous in a way I haven’t felt in a while.
Michael Mina on Twitter has some testing advice
Also, apparently recently expired tests should work though not recommended.
Denmark sees ‘concerning’ jump in omicron cases — a warning sign for Europe
Large field hospital study shows rapid COVID-19 test compares solidly with PCR detection
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Federal investigation records obtained by BuzzFeed News show how one of the most pivotal mistakes of the pandemic fell on an overburdened CDC lab with only three full-time employees
Over 300 new COVID-19 cases found among Cornell community, including Omicron variant (The Ithaca Voice)
Unrepresentative big surveys significantly overestimated US vaccine uptake
I shared a link to another article explaining the "Big Data Paradox."
This paper only goes to May 2021, but they shared a graph showing what's happened since then on Twitter.
Covid-19 patients at this hospital are dying 'at a rate we've never seen die before' -- and it's taking a toll on health care workers
Canada's first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine shows high efficacy
An estimated 44,000 people attend the rally in Vienna as Austria introduces mandatory coronavirus jabs.
UK Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid's oral statement to Parliament on COVID-19 and Plan B made on 8 December 2021
For more data on doubling times, here is Trevor Bedford on Twitter
Interview: Colorado Gov. Polis leaves mask mandates to local officials, says the state shouldn’t ‘tell people what to wear’