Obama may have begun the lowering of the oceans, but Biden has suddenly vanquished COVID…
…or at least redefined it.
Fancy that.
It just so happens that—on the very day Joe Biden took office—the World Health Organization also released new guidelines ratcheting up the diagnostic criteria for COVID-19…
For some reason, as of today, the organization decided that those tests for the virus we’ve been relentlessly assured are the gold standard for detecting infection are, in reality, just a mere “aid for diagnosis.”
Clinicians now, not only can, but “must” also consider a wide array of other factors, like “timing of sampling, specimen type, assay specifics, clinical observations, patient history, confirmed status of any contacts,” and even something called “epidemiological information”—whatever that exactly is—before diagnosing anyone with COVID-19.
WHO has also suddenly decided that, if you don’t show any symptoms, you’ll need to get a second test for confirmation as well…
if you look closely, you’ll notice these new tighter guidelines—though released today—were actually all typed up and ready to go on January 13.
Wonder why they waited a week?
Please read the whole thing.
Once the diagnostic criteria tighten, cases go down and deaths go down automatically. Hail to the chief!
[NOTE: In case you’ve forgotten, this is the reference in the title of this post.]
They still won’t loosen the authoritarian lockdowns though. Get vaccinated still have to wear a mask. My mom’s facility was entirely vaccinated a week ago (no problems BTW) and even after the second shot they have said nothing will change. Nothing. NOTHING. Not until the King deems it safe and who knows when that will be.
Crimes against humanity is the best description of all this at this point. Evil.
And of course our new ‘President’ signs an executive order on masks on federal property and then promptly violates it a few minutes later.
I called the line to schedule an immunization injection in Tucson AZ. Wait time for an answer=60 minutes.
I predicted that COVID would all but disappear on 1/20. My communication circle thought that I was kidding.
One thing for sure, it won’t soon disappear in California due to wide spread vaccinations. It is theoretically available if you are over 65. Today the available appointments were updated for my county. I was poised, and refreshing the web site continuously. As soon as it came up I started filling in the voluminous registration form–can’t do it in advance. When I finished the appointments were gone.
My PCP and my LA County health system daughter both told me yesterday that they expect things to loosen up quickly. I marveled at the timing.
One last thought. I see Amazon has now offered their extensive logistics system to help distribute the vaccine. Amazon and I have parted ways. (In true cut off your nose fashion I sold my stock back when they started their social justice posturing. Don’t care. I want nothing to do with those Cretins. How many died because people like them would not work with Trump?)
I predicted this a week ago or so on Althouse’s site- the cycle count for the PCR part of the process would be lowered to 30 eliminating at least half the positive results, and maybe more. I also predicted that every health office in the country would stop counting deaths via matching deaths with COVID positive lists- this will drop the death/day by at least half a day or two after it is enacted anywhere in any jurisdiction. They made sure to peak the deaths/day yesterday- I predict a week from now it will be half what it was yesterday.
Except in the real world, the US is currently experiencing a peak in cases needing hospitalization. Treatments are much better, so death isn’t as common, but COVID patients need more care than average hospital patients, so it is hard on nursing resources.
I write that not to disagree with Yancey Ward above. I agree actually. However, one is reporting and the other is what I know about my local hospital and is consistent with reports elsewhere.
The issue of PCR testing has been around since summer. I’ve brought it up several times here.
Yes. These people are evil. What other word can be used to describe someone who exploits an illness, increases the suffering of millions of people just to gain political advantage?
Many of the useful idiots I know reside in NC. Just today they were turning on their Dem governor for the FUBAR of the vaccine rollout there. A week ago they were saying how wonderful he is compared to DeSantis. But as we all know they’ll still vote for him next time around.
On Amazon: clever way to get their employees, whom most likely are younger than 65, to jump to head of the line ahead of vulnerable seniors.
My spouse is a work at home data wrangler for the major hospital in our area. She was vaccinated Monday (why is she at priority (heath care worker with no risk, as she is a remote worker who has no contact with patients). Now guess who is eligible for vaccination, me. Why? Spouse of a health care worker. Not an elderly person or someone my age or younger with comorbidities, or even a policeman.
Dept. of Health flunkies and King Jay are too stupid to be making any decisions about anyone’s health. But they have to get the vaccination numbers up! Will it lead to opening the economy? Like Griffin said, I doubt it.
Good catch physicsguy. I saw the Amazon news this morning and your point didn’t occur to me. So Amazon is acting like a nation unto itself. Never mind the big fines NY state purportedly levied against queue jumpers (to get vaccinated).
I wonder how the other queue functions. What happens when both Amazon and the state of California (for example) go to Moderna with cash in hand, and there are not enough doses to go around? Maybe the Washington Post can convince Moderna that making Jeff Bezos happy is in their best interest?
_____
Interesting om. It maybe makes sense that spouses can get vaccinated if the household has a real frontline healthcare worker at risk.
Personally, I think they should have have had a single high priority vaccination group (frontline healthcare workers and a few other related groups); give them 2 or 3 weeks to get vaccinated; then open it to everyone.
TommyJay:
The decision tree for Dept. Of Health and King Jay has very few branches it seems. Critical thinking and assessment of risks may not be a concept they are familiar with.
“Two legs bad, four legs good!”
om —
A friend of mine here in Seattle was in the first batch of people to be vaccinated since she’s a healthcare worker.
She’s a pharmacist.
Griffin —
And of course our new ‘President’ signs an executive order on masks on federal property and then promptly violates it a few minutes later.
He probably forgot.
Bryan Lovely:
Makes perfect sense for her (“sense” as decreed from Olympia).
Bryan Lovely,
Oh no he didn’t forget the press secretary was actually asked about the ‘President’ and his family not wearing a mask and the explanation was they were all from his household and they were celebrating so there.
This has to set the record for the fastest ‘rules for thee but not for me’ violation yet. Literally like hours after the order.
The Covid-19 virus is real. The ‘pandemic’ was never real, evidenced by less deaths overall in 2020 than in 2018 and 2019. This despite patients in serious need of treatment being turned away in 2020.
The purpose of the ‘pandemic’ was twofold; establish that a health ’emergency’ superceded constitutional guarantees and to facilitate the destruction of America’s middle class small business community.
And it was planned as the requisite precursor to The Great Reset.
The state of WA must be picking up the vaccination pace because three of my relatives between 65-70 got vaccinated today and none of them are healthcare workers or at any higher risk group other than a little older and apparently it was first come first serve if over 65.
Yancey Ward on January 21, 2021 at 4:42 pm said:
“I predicted this a week ago”
You were in good company with many other observers of the Political Theater.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/01/16/trumps-end-of-term-another-dead-cat-bounce-in-the-operational-sequence-of-events/
They’re gonna need a bigger bandwagon.
https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2021/01/21/dc-mayor-muriel-bowser-lifting-indoor-dining-ban-is-just-a-miracle-of-timing-and-not-at-all-evidence-that-covid-lockdowns-were-political-theater/
Yeah, you guys have much more faith than I do that these authoritarians are going to give up their power any time soon. Fauci was out there today saying the vaccine isn’t as effective against these supposed new strains and they are all saying that masks are required even after vaccination for the first time in history.
So whoop de damn do restaurants maybe open at 25%.
Have we reached the point that we are grateful that these power mad idiots are throwing us a few crumbs?
Leland, you point is valid.
I am skeptical of much. but not that it is a real issue. How much was avoidable is another question.
Talked to my oft mentioned daughter this evening. She was driving home from her LA hospital at 4:30pm, and I remarked on the early hour. She told me that she had gone in at 4:30AM to make rounds with the Director of Nursing, because some of her Physical Therapy staff are working the night shift assisting the Nursing staff and she wanted face time with them. Other Doctors of Physical Therapy are working the day and evening shift as Nursing Assistants. Sadly, PT patients are not highest priority at the moment. They are strapped.
I think that LA and California have screwed it up; but, nevertheless it is damn serious.
Griffin:
Well when Saint Fauchi is right or truthful it will something historic and unprecedented; a first.
I had wondered why monoclonal antibodies weren’t being used to stop the high rate of deaths and hospitalizations from Covid-19. Guess what? Apparently the medical community doesn’t know about them. Or, they don’t want to set up clinics where the drug can be infused – about a 3-4 hour procedure. Read all about it:
https://tinyurl.com/y2gedh7v
If you are diagnosed as positive for the virus and over 65, demand to be treated with monoclonal antibodies.
Case rates and hospitalizations have dropped here in Snohomish County in the last week. Vaccinations are proceeding at a glacial [pace. Three sites in the county for drive through shots do about 300 people per site each day. At that rate it will take about 900 days to vaccinate the whole county. They’re working five day weeks and 8 hour days. I thought this was an emergency. Apparently not. Well, it is government you know.
Kipling spoke to a spirit which I hope to God we still possess.
@Cap’n Rusty:
Kipling? You raycissss or something?
🙂
Next step will be to reclassify deaths from COVID-19. Miraculously the number of deaths will decline under Plugs Biden, simply by tightening the requirements for attributing the deaths to COVID.
Oldflyer on January 21, 2021 at 4:36 pm: “How many died because people like them [Amazon, et al.] would not work with Trump?)” I say 273,219. Prove me wrong!
Geoffrey Britain on January 21, 2021 at 8:54 pm: I was not intending to disagree with you on “less deaths overall in 2020 than in 2018 and 2019”, but I was preparing to ask you for a supporting link and then went looking for the data myself.
1) found this, which claims 12% increase in 2020 over 2019 (3.2M vs. 2.8 or 2.9M; based on still prelim data): https://usafacts.org/articles/preliminary-us-death-statistics-more-deaths-in-2020-than-2019-coronavirus-age-flu/
2) the chart in the middle of this CDC web page suggests 2020 was also higher than prior two years (I did not do any deep dive into the explanatory paragraphs). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
3) it appears most sources use CDC weekly data and projections of same, but assert the “no increase in 2020” claim is not really true.
But even getting a truer measure of the pandemic death impact does not necessarily support the lockdown and other business/economic damaging measures taken. Better studies of aerosols or other transmission modes in subways, bars and parties, etc. vs. exposure from shopping and outdoor recreation might still show masks, shields, and/or distancing were quite adequate.
Given our conservative faith in the merits of the free market vs. government control, I do wonder if a plan based on initial rollout to private sector actors (Walmart, CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens, et al., maybe along with Amazon, Target, Kroger, K-mart, etc. — beyond what was already agreed to) would not have been a better approach than going through the federalist state government approach for allocation, or at least for actual distribution and injections. Even if the federal or state governments were to specify the prioritization criteria for “fairness”, the private actors were much better placed to set up or expand appointment web sites and phone call banks, staff the injection sites/ facilities, etc. Give them a nominal profit per injections (say $5 or $10) and there would have been no holding back a successful maximized rollout.
My perception is Warp Speed not only increased PPE related availability for pre-vaccine healthcare efforts, but also incentivized the vaccine suppliers to ramp up production in the Oct.-Dec. (?) period based on promising test results in the Apr.-Aug. (?) time frame. Building and storing inventory based on the hope and expectation of obtaining emergency CDC approval by Nov.-Dec. I don’t see how Biden enacting the Defense Production Act can really add to that inventory any faster than the normal profit motive would (along with the moral value of getting us protected as a nation and a global population). Maybe increase availability of deep cold storage equipment via production or reallocation to vaccine use?
During the pandemics of 1968 (the Hong Kong Flu) and 1958 (Asian Flu, N2H2 virus) , if someone died of the flu and had other pre-existing conditions, was the cause of death listed as the flu or was it listed as the pre-existing condition?
Reason I ask is that I read that “only” about 6% of Covid deaths occur in people who do NOT have any other pre-existing conditions.
So has the method used to classify the cause of death the same as it has always been , or has it been “modified” to account for Trump?
Anybody have any thoughts?
The thing about yearly all causes deaths is you have to look over a period of years. What seems likely is 2020 is going to have a huge ‘pull ahead’ of deaths of very elderly people that may have died in say 2021 or 22 but instead died in 20 instead therefore total deaths may be lower in future years.
Also I believe I’ve seen somewhere that the previous flu year was very weak meaning there may have been a lot of people that made it an extra year and were very susceptible to death from COVID.
When the Media adds 2 + 2, they get 7 and 9/8ths.
Because that’s just not ENOUGH.
Griffin on January 22, 2021 at 2:19 pm:
You make two very good points. And they add further complexity of any analysis trying to assess merit, limits, and blame for what happens. But then the media is not really interested in a true assessment, just a leftist supportive one.
J J – Amazon can fix that slow rate of vaccination for us.
https://notthebee.com/article/amazon-ceo-extends-offer-to-help-biden-administration-with-covid-vaccine-distribution-and-im-sure-the-timing-is-just-a-coincidence
Meanwhile, Joe will collect his Nobel prizes in all six categories.
https://babylonbee.com/news/joe-biden-wins-the-nobel-peace-prize-for-his-incredible-first-day-as-president
Remind me again which of these is the satire site.
“Next step will be to reclassify deaths from COVID-19. Miraculously the number of deaths will decline under Plugs Biden, simply by tightening the requirements for attributing the deaths to COVID.” – Wes
I understand that’s already started.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/one-hour-after-biden-inaugurated-who-changes-covid-testing-criteria
The foregoing post was relatively restrained.
https://pjmedia.com/columns/stacey-lennox/2021/01/20/the-who-finally-updates-its-covid-19-testing-policy-1-hour-after-bidens-inauguration-n1398857
They aren’t even trying to be subtle anymore.
AF–“They aren’t even trying to be subtle any more.”
Any more??
That election steal back in November was pretty far from subtle!
My father in law, in his 80’s, through Kaiser got a Covid shot after a Dr appointment, the next day.
Biden’s callous indifference has led to more deaths in the first 3 days of his term than in the first 3 years of Trump.
Lee – I’m counting “any more” starting from November 2016 and crescendoing for four years, with kettle drum rolls in November 2020 and the grand cymbal clashes this month.
Not sure what they can do for an encore to reveal any more blatant perfidy than is currently exposed.
Mikesixes – “Biden lied, people died” sort of thing?