"We're doing everything we can to minimize civilian deaths." Where have I heard that before? Oh right...

https://twitter.com/justinbaragona/status/1719412278351507487

THREAD: Another day of letting the virus get its way. Ups and downs, but the broad stokes are still crap. NEBRASKA: LaVerne Mueller, 79, of Norfolk, Nebraska, died Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023, at Faith Regional Health System from COVID-19. legacy.com/us/obituaries/…

THREAD: 24 more hours in the US. Some encouraging drops in hospitalization and wastewater numbers in a few places; on the flip side, rebounds in COVID and flu case numbers in some spots too.

Lots of woods to get thru yet this winter. MARYLAND: There were 833 people hospitalized in Maryland with COVID-19 Tuesday, up 31 people from a day earlier, and 27 deaths. While the total hospitalized is less than 1/4 of the total at the pandemic peak a yr ago, the # is the highest since February. thebaltimorebanner.com/community/publ…

THREAD: 24 Hours in the US, winter 2023. MICHIGAN: Dr. Nefcy, with Munson Healthcare, said cases of COVID-19 & influenza have been increasing steadily for ~3 wks. Across all Munson facilities, the # of flu patients admitted rose from 18 to 55 & the number of COVID-19 patients rose from 38 to 55.cadillacnews.com/coronavirus/co…

helpfully weighing in on what's unhelpful re: COVID

https://twitter.com/apoorva_nyc/status/1612925552070987776

let us not be ridiculous by naming subvariants things people can remember

let us not be overblown by naming subvariants associated with clear increases in hospitalization & death

and nhl teams

after mythical sea beasts

THREAD: Spread. WASHINGTON: From mid-November to mid-December, the COVID-19 case rate increased by 163% and hospitalizations went up by 233%. Additionally, there were seven deaths related to COVID-19 last month, which is more than the previous three months combined. yaktrinews.com/covid-19-cases…

In early November, the 27-year-old said she noticed her daughters started developing fevers, and for two weeks, her girls were in and out of multiple hospitals while Cayson had to receive treatment in a pediatric intensive care unit in the Houston area. wsjm.com/2022/12/13/mom… “It got pretty scary because before she got better, she got worse,” Murray added, explaining that she went back on family medical leave as a high school teacher to care for her daughter just after returning to work after giving birth in September. wsjm.com/2022/12/13/mom…

THREAD: Another 24 hours of wtf are we doing? Schools closing, hospitals overwhelmed, masking optional. WISCONSIN: The Oshkosh Area School District had 913 students recorded as absent due to illness on Monday -- nearly 300 more than a week before when 645 students were absent. Daycares have also been affected. "We’ve had a lot of kids out with croup & RSV." fox11online.com/news/local/tri…

THREAD: Instead of mask mandates, we get recommendations, even as viral spread empties schools and fills hospital beds. MAINE: Conners Emerson School in Bar Harbor has canceled Monday’s classes. Principal Heather Webster says 30% of their students and 20% of their staff were absent on Friday.
wabi.tv/2022/12/12/bar…

THREAD: Another 24 hours of unmitigated viral spread in the US. Lots of shrugs and handwringing, lots of "deep cleaning" and handwashing, lots of rationalizing and theorizing, but far too few people willing to say we should be masking. COLORADO: Respiratory illnesses are spreading so fast in the Grand Valley that one Mesa County school is canceling classes on Friday. 11 Mesa County schools are at 10 percent or higher for illness absentee rate.
nbc11news.com/2022/12/10/inc…

"The 1st positive coronavirus test in our household occurred Oct. 26. 5 days later, I tested positive. Then our preschool-aged daughter did. Then our toddler was diagnosed with RSV, which devolved into a terrible cough, which turned out to be pneumonia." washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022… "After 20 days trapped at home together, my son at last returned to day care. He lasted 2 days before contracting a new virus, this one accompanied by the sudden appearance of red welts all over his body, which sent him to urgent care just before midnight."washingtonpost.com/parenting/2022…

THREAD: Hospitals overrun, schools closing, sports seasons upended, as most political, public health, and school leadership shrug and tell us mask mandates would be no use. Another 24 hours across America: MICHIGAN: Thursday evening a school source told FOX 2 a whopping 75 percent of the administrative staff were out sick with Covid and about 20 percent of the student population stayed home sick. wxyz.com/news/macomb-co…

The "Learning Loss" outrage --stoked by wealthy white academics & media figures claiming to speak on behalf of low-income children-- has disappeared as multiple viruses force rolling school closures around the country. We know that uncontrolled *viral spread itself* disproportionately threatens the health of low-income kids, who have, for unaddressed systemic reasons, higher rates of asthma, diabetes, etc. inquirer.com/health/inq2/ph…

THREAD: Unmitigated viral spread is still filling ERs and emptying schools. Another 24 Hours of local news: MARYLAND: Dr. Louis Damiano, president of Holy Cross Health Acute Care for Maryland, said its hospitals in Silver Spring and Germantown have seen some 500 hospitalizations a month for upper respiratory tract infections. wtop.com/montgomery-cou…

THREAD: Another 24 hours of rampant airborne virus spread, hospitals overwhelmed, schools forced to close; heading into another winter with even less coherent messaging coming from national political/public health leadership. NEW MEXICO: Las Vegas (NM) City Schools has announced the move to remote learning for the rest of this week. The school district says there are a high number of absences among students and staff due to increasing numbers of respiratory illnesses in schools.koat.com/article/las-ve…

THREAD: So yesterday, @CDCDirector "encouraged" masking to prevent respiratory disease transmission/infection, "especially" in areas with high "Community Levels."

Encouragement = too little.
Using COVID "Community Levels" as guide = too late.

Here's another 24 hours of news: WASHINGTON: "In their column, Schrier & Seattle Children’s chief executive Jeff Sperring call on Biden to declare a public health emergency, similar to the one declared for COVID-19." (Biden has ignored the same call from @AmerAcadPeds for weeks already). ncwlife.com/news/rep-schri…

So yesterday in liberal Park Slope, a guy had set up a table on his own, to hand out fliers calling for a negotiated end to what has become a proxy war in Ukraine. A handful of locals were shouting at him, calling him "sick" and screaming that this wasn't a proxy war. Acknowledging what has already been acknowledged in the pages of Slate & the Washington Post -that this is plainly a brutal, dangerous proxy war with no end in sight- is considered heresy by well-off liberals, who see calls for diplomacy as "sick." slate.com/news-and-polit…

THREAD: Sigh. CALIFORNIA: COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased 50% from their recent low in early October, Alameda county said.

(Vaccines and cleanliness in the headline, masking gets a mench in the last paragraph.) independentnews.com/news/regional_…

Rarely is the question asked, in the Age of Keeping Schools Open No Matter What: "is our children learning?"

https://twitter.com/DavidpStein/status/1599449522647617537

We are losing teachers, staff, school bus drivers - temporarily and long-term
Many schools are experiencing (individually, mostly) rolling closures/NTI/"remote" instruction
And parents are still just playing whackamole with wave after viral wave

"Mon Health & WVU Medicine reported increases in COVID-19 positives & hospitalizations. Although @CDCgov shows most counties still have low community levels, 15 counties are seeing moderate community levels."

The old CDC community *transmission* map:
wvnews.com/news/wvnews/fl… Community "Levels" lag too far behind to be useful for targeting public health measures when they can help most to undercut spread.

THREAD: This winter, we're facing another wave of mass infection, but with even less mitigation in place, and federal, state, and local leadership politically unwilling to step in to slow spread via mask mandates. ALABAMA: Alabama's COVID-19 positivity rate is up to 9.8%, which means nearly 10 percent of all COVID tests are coming back positive. COVID-19 hospitalizations have also been on the rise with 246 people in the state hospitalized with the virus right now. wvtm13.com/article/health…