First, it says bizarrely: “The claim that B.1.1.7 is more transmissible is based on primarily epidemiological evidence and data on increased viral loads”
NO: The reason we know it is more transmissible is that it dominates other variants over time. 1/
Second, having a more rapidly transmitting variant like this in a country means cases increase more rapidly even when people are wearing masks and avoiding contact. Getting cases to go down is much harder, with stronger restrictions and more social and economic impacts.
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The relative spreading rate to the normal strain is doubling every 10-15 days. So if your actions are just holding the line with the usual variants it will double every 10-15 days. Horrendous.
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So we don’t want it to get to new places, we want to stop it. Taking strong measures to stop transmission works with preventing it from getting to new places.
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Just like in Australia, stoping the recent outbreak in Victoria went along with preventing cases from getting to NSW and other Australian states so that they didn’t have to take such strong measures (or any!).
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The way to fight an outbreak is to defeat it. Doing half measures, allowing new variants to get to new places, is accepting defeat.
Travel bans are an effective response to outbreaks, they let you have no cases in some places, they give you a chance.
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Divide and conquer the virus in different places. Don’t let it bring in reinforcements, especially not ones with supercharged new capabilities to defeat you.
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What we need now:
1. Limit non-essential travel and require all incoming travelers to quarantine in designated isolation centers for 14 days upon arrival.
Banning flights from just the UK and South Africa will be insufficient.
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2. Limit all non-essential interaction in shared indoor spaces to drive down transmission.
3. Strengthen widespread adoption of isolation, testing, contact tracing, and quarantine.
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4. Adopt a “Zero Covid” strategy to eliminate the virus as rapidly as possible, followed by opening up areas where community transmission has been eliminated (a “Green Zone” exit strategy).
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5. These actions must be accompanied with support from the federal, state, and local governments to meet the financial and other needs of citizens during this challenging period. This will require monetary support for people who can’t work during lockdowns;
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..housing and other necessities for those who must isolate or quarantine; access to masks and other pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions; and mental health support for individuals and groups.
African countries combined now average more than 20k daily cases and continue to set new highs. Not only South Africa, which is quickly approaching previous highs, several other African countries are also experiencing new outbreaks.
Eritrea reported a new high of 74 yesterday, from a daily average of 6 cases just a week ago.
Egypt reported 1,021 cases yesterday. Over the last week, daily cases have been growing at 10% daily.
COVID Action Group to the CDC: Extend the temporary eviction moratorium in order to protect the health and wellbeing of families during the COVID-19 pandemic
In order to protect public health during the pandemic, the CDC has implemented a moratorium to stop evictions. That
moratorium is set to expire on December 31, 2020. While the stimulus bill that has been passed by the House and the Senate includes a provision to extend..
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.this moratorium, it is unclear whether that bill will become law by the end of the year. Failure to do so would place Americans struggling to pay their rents to lose their homes, exacerbating the already devastating impacts of the pandemic across the country.
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Is there a practical strategy for return to the normal life as we knew it, or did we yield to the coronavirus invasion?
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Waiting for mass vaccination would be a passive acceptance of 100,000s more deaths, millions hospitalized, long covid quality of life, and severe economic consequences.
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Imposing restrictions to combat transmission (shut downs, stay at home orders) appears in some places politically suicidal, still the question whether to close or keep open becomes mute. Once hospitals overflow, and deaths are out of control, there is no choice but to close.
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South Africa and its encircled countries continue to see new highs. Yesterday Lesotho reported 179 cases and Eswatini reported 153 cases, from averages of 14 and 31, respectively, two weeks ago. The UK announces a travel ban on South Africa.
Bolivia reports a rapid increase in daily cases. Yesterday they reported 1,005, compared to less than 100 at the beginning of this month. Testing positivity is also soaring.
Japan reported a new high of 3,275 daily cases. Besides Tokyo, Kanagawa also sees cases surging recently, overtaking Osaka to be the second-highest prefecture in terms of daily cases.
South Africa reported 9,501 cases yesterday, as the daily average reaches the highest since August. The new variant first identified in South Africa (different from the one identified in the UK), is now detected in cases in the UK.
The US reported 195,033 new cases with 3,401 deaths. Currently, hospitalizations see new highs, approaching 120k. Hospitalizations are increasing by about 4k per day for two weeks.
As they reach 1M total cases, Peru's daily average cases and deaths are currently accumulating much slower than during its peak, which occurred around August.