The US just hit a record average of daily new Covid-19 cases

[left-of-center2012]

Source: CNN

The US hit a seven-day average of 254,496 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data -- blowing past the country's previous record of about 251,989 daily cases, reported on January 11.

The record comes amid a rapid acceleration of infections that the US -- and the rest of the world -- has seen since last month. Tuesday's seven-day average is still in progress and may rise when the day ends.

And experts predict that the Omicron variant -- the most contagious strain of coronavirus yet -- is going to make the start of 2022 very difficult.

"January is going to be a really, really hard month. And people should just brace themselves for a month where lots of people are going to get infected," said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN on Sunday he believes the US could "see half a million cases a day -- easy -- sometime over the next week to 10 days."

"A lot of people who have not gotten a vaccine are going to end up getting pretty sick, and it's going to be pretty disruptive," Jha said. "My hope is as we get into February and certainly by the time we get into March, infection numbers will come way down, and it'll also start getting (into) spring, and the weather will start getting better. And that will also help."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/us/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html

---

Most people who are vaccinated and boosted won't get severe illness, but that won't be true for the unvaccinated, Jha said.

[bhikkhu]

1. Daily count comes in at 312k.

Vaxxed and boosted myself, being rather fond of my lungs. Over half the guys at the shop where I work have gotten it. The last one is still moving slow, stopping to sit down and catch his breath fairly often. I might have put more work into trying to convince people that it made sense to get vaccinated, and that all the crap they were reading on facebook wasn't really science or anything that was in their best interests, but it's hard to do that with grown adults.

At this point infection numbers are likely to go down only when it's gone through the whole population. Not what I would have expected a couple years ago, when I still had some idea of basic human intelligence and competence, but so it goes.

[tclambert]

13. Worldometers says we had 465K new cases in a single day.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

[bhikkhu]

14. Biggest one day jump for sure

I was listening on the radio today on an interview with someone working with the CDC who said we'll probably hit the test results limit pretty soon, where there's just not the infrastructure to test and report to keep accurate numbers at that volume.

Every single person hospitalized in my county for Covid right now was unvaccinated.

[Renew Deal]

2. I know a lot of people that have caught it in the last two weeks.

And it seems like everyone I talk to either has it or knows someone that has it.

[cadoman]

15. ++

I had personally known only a couple of cases the entire pandemic, but now it seems like at least 50% of the people I know have it. Thankfully all very mild cases so far--pretty much the typical cold--even among the fucking worthless pieces of unvaxxed subhuman anti-science shits.

[Jon King]

3. Do you realize Omicron is a good thing long term?

Not sure why media is not reporting what the South Africa study is finding. Omicron is displacing Delta and is mild and is giving lasting immunity to all forms of Covid. So the only people being hospitalized are unvaxxed with other health conditions such as obesity.

Once this wave passes, the awful strain on our health care workers, we are in very good shape. The stubborn unvaxxed who are healthy will get through Omicron and have immunity. The vaxxed will have barely a sniffle and boost their immunity.

There is light at the end of the tunnel, Omicron and boosters mean in a few months we are going to be in very good shape. After that we will get boosters each year for whatever variant is dominant, just like we do for the flu.

[left-of-center2012]

4. It is being reported

Perhaps not widely enough

[progree]

8. Yes, instead scare articles like boosters protecting for only about 10 weeks

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216183280

and I don't think very many people are going to get a booster 4 or 5 times a year, even DUers.

[IronLionZion]

6. Same in Europe

A big initial spike in cases then it drops after a few weeks. It sucks right now but should better for us in a month.

[progree]

7. I'm seeing Western Europe continuing a sharp rise with the Dec 28 data included

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html
Looking at the Cases By Region section, just below the main graph -- the light blue line is Europe which is sharply increasing at as bad a rate as ever. (Odd that it is going straight up given that Germany and Eastern Europe have been declining for awhile)

Edit 12/30 1248 AM CT: Europe daily new cases per 100k, 7 day moving average:
. . . Dec 27: 60,   Dec 28: 65,   Dec 29: 71 End Edit

Then looking at all the individual countries that the New York Times covers, namely:

U.K., France, Italy - all 3 had a Christmas lull but with the addition of December 28 data are continuing the same very high upward pace of the 7 day moving average as before

Spain - had the Christmas lull but had a huge number of new cases added Dec 27 and half as many more added Dec 28 but all in all supporting a continuation of the sharp rise in the 7 day moving average

Caveat: holidays screw up 7 day moving averages, and 14 day comparisons (the 14 day comparisons compare the most recent 7dma with the 7dma ending 14 days prior), but right now the 7 day moving average covers December 22 through December 28, so it covers both the pre-Christmas, Christmas, and the catch-up testing and reporting afterwards.

What's going to make it whacky is when Christmas and Dec 26 drops off the back end of the 7dma and so the Christmas lull isn't included but the catch-up reporting and testing is -- that will create an artificial 7dma spike; then when the catchup days fall off the back end, an artificial weakening of the uptrend or even a down trend.
End of Caveat

Germany - this one is fortunately in a completely different pattern -- it has been in decline since Nov 26 (7 day moving average).

Hovering the mouse over European countries on the world map, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/covid-cases.html ,
a lot of eastern European countries are in the same good pattern as Germany.

U.K.: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/united-kingdom-covid-cases.html
France: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/france-covid-cases.html
Italy: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/italy-covid-cases.html
Spain: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/spain-covid-cases.html
Germany: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/world/germany-covid-cases.html

[Javaman]

5. this is the variant that will burn through the unvaccinated.

I can bet you that there are now are a lot of anti-vaxxers that are getting their shots on the sly but still claiming the unvaxx cred.

this is going to be very ugly.

[IronLionZion]

9. The FoxNews hosts and congresspeople are definitely vaxxed

they just won't admit it. Asking them is a hippo violation

[Javaman]

16. actually it's not. you can ask...

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/guidance/hipaa-covid-19-vaccination-workplace/index.html

HIPAA, COVID-19 Vaccination, and the Workplace1
1. Does the HIPAA Privacy Rule prohibit businesses or individuals from asking whether their customers or clients have received a COVID-19 vaccine?

No. The Privacy Rule2 does not prohibit any person (e.g., an individual or an entity such as a business), including HIPAA covered entities and business associates, from asking whether an individual has received a particular vaccine, including COVID-19 vaccines.

First, the Privacy Rule3 applies only to covered entities4 (health plans, health care clearinghouses, and health care providers that conduct standard electronic transactions) and, to some extent, their business associates.5

Second, the Privacy Rule does not regulate the ability of covered entities and business associates to request information from patients or visitors. Rather, the Privacy Rule regulates how and when covered entities and business associates are permitted to use6 and disclose7 protected health information8 (PHI) (e.g., PHI about whether an individual has received a COVID-19 vaccine) that covered entities and business associates create, receive, maintain, or transmit. Thus, the Privacy Rule does not prohibit a covered entity (e.g., a covered doctor, hospital, or health plan) or business associate from asking whether an individual (e.g., a patient or visitor) has received a particular vaccine, including COVID-19 vaccines, although it does regulate how and when a covered entity or its business associate may use or disclose information about an individual’s vaccination status.

Additional examples. The Privacy Rule does not apply when an individual:

Is asked about their vaccination status by a school,9 employer, store, restaurant, entertainment venue, or another individual.
Asks another individual, their doctor, or a service provider whether they are vaccinated.
Asks a company, such as a home health agency, whether its workforce members are vaccinated.

[IronLionZion]

17. Your post is a hippo violation

mine was obviously a joke since I wrote hippo not HIPAA

Link to tweet

[RussBLib]

10. Worldmeter shows 465,000 new US cases today

I believe they run on GMT, and Central time hits 0:00 GMT at 7pm Central.

335,000 yesterday
465,000 today

deaths today damn
2,017 yesterday
1,674 today

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/in

[progree]

11. Thanks for ur post. Your link doesn't work - try this one

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Usually, even at this time in the evening (715 P.M. Central), the New cases and new deaths for Today are not complete yet, i.e. the there are likely more to come of both. As an example, I notice just now that new deaths is 1,776 for Today, up a bit from your 1,674.

Edit 724 PM Central - both numbers up a little more already --

It will be real interesting seeing the NY TImes update -- the update between 1030 PM and 1100 PM Central or thereabouts
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

[RussBLib]

12. and thank you for the heads up

I guess we should be grateful that the number of deaths is not keeping pace with the rapidly increasing number of new cases. But they say deaths will lag the new cases.

I recall Fauci saying that new cases in January could top 1 million per day. yikes.