Octopus Overlords

Massachusetts will distribute more than 2 million at-home COVID-19 tests to some of the state's most vulnerable communities as the region braces for a winter spike in cases, Gov. Charlie Baker (R) said Monday.

Baker said his administration has secured 2.1 million over-the-counter rapid tests from iHealth Labs that will be delivered to the 100 towns with the highest percentage of families below the poverty level. Those municipalities account for nearly 3.7 million Massachusetts residents.

Massachusetts is paying $5 per test, and the tests come in packs of two.

Baker said the commonwealth is also finalizing plans to allow municipalities and other public entities to directly purchase tests from test manufacturers at fixed, state-negotiated prices beginning in Januar

Other states, including Colorado and neighboring New Hampshire, have also worked to distribute free rapid tests to residents. But rather than mailing tests to individuals, the free tests will be sent to cities and towns for distribution to the public.

Daveman wrote: Mon Dec 13, 2021 10:06 pm "glass dome igloos for folks to gather with a snack and warm beverage" Apparently you have to pay and reserve a time to use one. Since they went up we've been calling them "COVID-domes".

Breakthrough infections are expected, though Omicron seems to cause more than we've seen with earlier variants—severity of infection remains to be determined. The virus has adapted. We must adapt too by protecting ourselves better, including with vaccines, masks and ventilation.

Cornell University is shutting down its Ithaca, New York, campus and moving to "alert level red" after what the school described as a "rapid spread" of Covid-19 among students.

There were 469 active student cases as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Cornell's online Covid dashboard, and an overall positivity rate of 3.01% for the week of December 6, among the students tested.

President Martha Pollack said that the university's Covid-19 lab team detected evidence of the Omicron variant "in a significant number of Monday's positive student samples."

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 6:51 pm First I'm seeing - Cornell is having problems:

"New data out of the CDC today will demonstrate that we are now detecting it in our genomic surveillance here at the rate of about 3% across the nation and about 13% here in New Jersey and New York," Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb.

Harvard has been averaging 52 cases a week all semester. There were 46 yesterday alone. The 178 in the last week is 30% above the previous record. This really looks like the beginning of a major campus outbreak here too

Smoove_B wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 9:18 pm Oh, and it's happening at Harvard too:

https://twitter.com/baym/status/1470917928748994569

Harvard has been averaging 52 cases a week all semester. There were 46 yesterday alone. The 178 in the last week is 30% above the previous record. This really looks like the beginning of a major campus outbreak here too

I'd say...get ready to change whatever holiday plans you think you currently have. Things might get...nutty again.

The Meal wrote: Tue Dec 14, 2021 11:24 pm Non-sports followers wouldn't realize it, but all the active pro leagues right now are absolutely getting hammered with athletes testing positive. One wonders what results would look like if one were testing the genpop multiple times a week right now...

LordMortis wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 11:16 am Local radio are also talking about hockey and basketball player spread. Locally the Red Wings have had players off and I want to say one of the NY basketball teams are running an 8 man roster right now.

Zarathud wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 11:16 am My Ohio based law firm just cancelled its January firm retreat and all holiday parties. More than half of the lawyers are in Red States, so this is real enough. The calculation was the January event risked 25% of attendees having a significant risk of contracting COVID, which means real money lost.

Remus West wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 11:28 am

LordMortis wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 11:16 am Local radio are also talking about hockey and basketball player spread. Locally the Red Wings have had players off and I want to say one of the NY basketball teams are running an 8 man roster right now.

The Lions had something like 8 players in CoVid protocol Sunday. After all the to-do around last year's season, I'm thinking this one is more in danger of cancelation due to virus.

Roman wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 11:21 am My company instituted a mandatory 3 days in the office 2 days at home back in September.
They just rescinded that 'rule' for the remainder of the year based on case data here in Ontario AND the fact that Christmas and family get togethers are just around the corner. They want us to be safe for the Holidays.

I suspect that we are headed for another lockdown here either in Toronto OR Ontario with the #s of Omicron doubling every week.

Ontario reported 1,808 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, ahead of an expected announcement on booster shots from Premier Doug Ford.

Ford plans to hold a news conference on the topic at 2 p.m. ET, alongside Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Kieran Moore, Health Minister Christine Elliott and Solicitor General Sylvia Jones. You'll be able to watch it live in this story.

The announcement comes just days after people aged 50 and older became eligible for the third vaccine shots. On Tuesday, public health units collectively administered 108,579 booster doses.

Calls have been growing for the province to expand booster access further to the protect against the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.

Moore has said the variant will become dominant soon and all cases should be treated as Omicron going forward. A new report from Public Health Ontario found that an estimated 80 per cent of all new cases on Dec. 13 were caused by Omicron.

During a Tuesday news conference, Moore also said that he would make recommendations to Ford's government on provincewide policies that account for the unprecedented transmissibility of the variant.

Today's case count is the most on single day since May 21, during the third wave of the pandemic in Ontario, and marks a 79 per cent jump over Wednesday last week.

The seven-day average has risen to 1,514, and a 50 per cent increase over the same time last week. The metric is on pace to double every 12 days or so.

The UK has recorded the highest number of daily Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with 78,610 new cases on Wednesday.

Whatever variant is called response is: Public Health measures that work - Masks, Testing, Ventilation, Isolate if infected & support, Reduce mixing indoors when possible, Vaccination & Clinical Care. All countries please watch what is happening in SA & UK & use time to prepare

Should remember that UK has possibly the highest immunity of any country in the world (natural & vaccine) plus access boosters & the NHS. In countries with limited access to all the tools the impact will be far greater

Remus West wrote:

Zarathud wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 11:16 am My Ohio based law firm just cancelled its January firm retreat and all holiday parties. More than half of the lawyers are in Red States, so this is real enough. The calculation was the January event risked 25% of attendees having a significant risk of contracting COVID, which means real money lost.

Glad they based it on money lost and not something silly like potential lives lost and damage to health. Sheesh.

stessier wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 1:57 pm It's odd that we are seeing very little uptick here in South Carolina. Our other waves all started with charts that went vertical for weeks. We've seen a slight uptick since Thanksgiving, but it's already leveling off. It has been unseasonably warm here, though.

Is Omicron intrinsically less severe than other variants? @BillHanage and I argue that it's still too early to say, despite what appear to be early signs of milder impact in SA than past waves.

Much of our case comes down to this figure

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 5:34 pm

stessier wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 1:57 pm It's odd that we are seeing very little uptick here in South Carolina. Our other waves all started with charts that went vertical for weeks. We've seen a slight uptick since Thanksgiving, but it's already leveling off. It has been unseasonably warm here, though.

It seems like it is hitting the bigger cities first. I imagine we'll see our own spike soon into the new year if not before. Or maybe everyone here has already gotten Covid enough times that we're practically immune....

New York reports 12,944 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase since January, of which 5,084 are in New York City

Smoove_B wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 9:04 pm https://twitter.com/BNODesk/status/1471250776966189062

New York reports 12,944 new coronavirus cases, the biggest one-day increase since January, of which 5,084 are in New York City

The window to stop this from getting much, much worse is closing.

noxiousdog wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 9:30 pm This time last year it peaked as well, went down a little and then had a Christmas spike. That was without any vaccines.

Smoove_B wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 9:49 pm

noxiousdog wrote: Wed Dec 15, 2021 9:30 pm This time last year it peaked as well, went down a little and then had a Christmas spike. That was without any vaccines.

The problem is, we don't know. So once again, sounding the alarm and asking for leaders to do *something* makes us sound like lunatics, but then when cases rise dramatically ~3 weeks from now, everyone is asking why we didn't do anything to stop it. downplaying how bad it is and asking us do we really need to do more.

malchior wrote: Thu Dec 16, 2021 8:23 am

but then when cases rise dramatically ~3 weeks from now, everyone is asking why we didn't do anything to stop it. downplaying how bad it is and asking us do we really need to do more.

I don't know if more accurate but what it feels like to me.

For Omicron, we might be mixing two populations: immune (through vaccinations or natural immunity) vs. naive (ie they have neither). Maybe Omicron is *more lethal than Delta* for both groups.

But because those immune have grown dramatically since Delta, mixing both groups appears to lower fatality rates

I cannot stress this enough: The healthcare system cannot take any more. Don’t ask if Omicron will overwhelm it. It *is already overwhelmed.*

As one doc told me, “The level of care that we’ve come to expect in our hospitals no longer exists.” 7/