Daily Archives: December 29, 2021

How Disgust Explains Everything – The New York Times

Posted: December 29, 2021 at 10:43 am

The most important disgust accounts following Darwin come from a pair of Hungarian men born two years apart, Aurel Kolnai (born in 1900) and Andras Angyal (1902). I havent found any evidence that they knew each other, but it seems improbable that Angyal, whose disgust paper came out in 1941, didnt draw from his countrymans paper, which appeared in 1929. Strangely enough, the Angyal paper contains no reference to Kolnai. One possibility is that Angyal failed to cite his sources. A second possibility is that he was truly unaware of the earlier paper, in which case you have to wonder whether there was something so abnormally disgusting about Central Europe of the early 20th century that two strangers born there were driven to lengthy investigations of a subject no one else took seriously.

A third possibility is that Angyal started reading Kolnais paper and gave up midway through in frustration. While brilliant, Kolnais writing has the density of osmium. His paper is rife with scare quotes and clauses layered in baklava-like profusion. Nonetheless, Kolnai was the first to arrive at a number of insights that are now commonly accepted in the field. He pointed to the paradox that disgusting things often hold a curious enticement think of the Q-tip you inspect after withdrawing it from a waxy ear canal, or the existence of reality-TV shows about plastic surgery, or Fear Factor. He identified the senses of smell, taste, sight and touch as the primary sites of entry and pointed out that hearing isnt a strong vector for disgust. One would search in vain for any even approximately equivalent parallel in the aural sphere to something like a putrid smell, the feel of a flabby body or of a belly ripped open.

For Kolnai, the exemplary disgust object was the decomposing corpse, which illustrated to him that disgust originated not in the fact of decay but the process of it. Think of the difference between a corpse and a skeleton. Although both present evidence that death has occurred, a corpse is disgusting where a skeleton is, at worst, highly spooky. (Hamlet wouldnt pick up a jesters rotting head and talk to it.) Kolnai argued that the difference had to do with the dynamic nature of a decomposing corpse: the fact that it changed color and form, produced a shifting array of odors and in other ways suggested the presence of life within death.

Angyal argued that disgust wasnt strictly sensory. We might experience colors and sounds and tastes and odors as unpleasant, but they could never be disgusting on their own. As an illustration, he related a story about walking through a field and passing a shack from which a pungent smell, which he took for that of a decaying animal, pierced his nostrils. His first reaction was intense disgust. In the next moment, he discovered that he had made a mistake, and the smell was actually glue. The feeling of disgust immediately disappeared, and the odor now seemed quite agreeable, he wrote, probably because of some rather pleasant associations with carpentry. Of course, glue back then probably did come from dead animals, but the affront had been neutralized by nothing more than Angyals shifting mental associations.

Disgust, Angyal contended, wasnt merely smelling a bad smell; it was a visceral fear of being soiled by the smell. The closer the contact, the stronger the reaction. Angyals study is even more delightful when viewed in the context of its preface, which explains that the material is based on observations and conversations not collected in any formal manner, and that the method, if it may be called such, lacked objectivity and control. Reading the paper 80 years later, as a replication crisis in the sciences continues to unfold, Angyals humility takes on a refreshing flavor. Im just a guy noticing some stuff, he seems to say. Lets see where this leads.

I first met Rozin at a Vietnamese restaurant on the Upper West Side in midsummer. He arrived in a bucket hat the color of Tang and a navy shirt with pinstripes. After ordering, we sat at a blond wood table and ate rice crepes piled with diverse vegetable elements. Rozin had ordered a green-papaya salad to share, and while spearing papaya he noted that this, right now, is a form of social bonding eating from the same bowl. (He and a team did a study on it.) A fun thing about hanging out with a research psychologist is that he can usefully annotate all sorts of immediate lived phenomena, and in the case of Rozin, he may even have hypothesized the explanations himself. Our crepes, to take an example, were the width of basketballs enough to feed six, easily and yet we each polished off the jumbo portion. Unit bias is the heuristic that Rozin and his co-authors coined to describe the effect back in 2006. The idea is that humans tend to assume a provided unit of some entity is the proper and optimal amount to consume. This is why movie popcorn and king-size candy bars are treacherous, and possibly one reason French people with their traditionally small portions remain thin.

Rozin, who is now 85, was born in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn to Jewish parents who, though they hadnt attended college themselves, were cultured and artistic and pleased to discover that their son was a brainiac. He tested into a public school for gifted children, left high school early and received a full scholarship to the University of Chicago, where he matriculated just after his 16th birthday. Upon graduating, he took a joint Ph.D. at Harvard in biology and psychology, completed a postdoc at the Harvard School of Public Health and in 1963 joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where his initial experiments centered on behavior in rats and goldfish. As he quickly worked his way up from assistant professor to associate professor to full professor, Rozin decided that he was tired of animal studies and wanted to focus on bigger game.

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How Disgust Explains Everything - The New York Times

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Kansas governor breaks with Biden in appeal to GOP voters – The Detroit News

Posted: at 10:43 am

John Hanna| Associated Press

Topeka, Kan. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly spent 18 months sparring with Kansas legislative Republicans over COVID-19 measures. In the early days of the pandemic she imposed and then extended a stay-at-home order, issued a brief statewide mask mandate and tried to limit in-person worship services all while meeting growls of GOP protest.

Then in November, two days after Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe to become governor of reliably blue Virginia, Kelly expressed her first doubts about Democratic President Joe Bidens vaccine mandates. A couple weeks later, she signed a bill aimed at helping Kansas workers resist vaccine mandates, a proposal that even the GOP-friendly Kansas Chamber of Commerce opposed.

As Democrats shook their heads, Kellys moves signaled her efforts to appeal to moderate Republican and GOP-leaning independent voters who she will need to win a tough reelection race in a heavily Republican state next year.

Like Democratic governors in Michigan and Wisconsin, Kelly will try to win a second term against midterm political headwinds blowing in Republicans favor. But shes trying it in a state former President Donald Trump carried twice and where Republicans, energized in opposition to Bidens vaccine mandates, look likely to avoid a serious primary fight.

Her attempt to stake out ground in the political center has irritated some fellow Democrats in the short term. But others argue the tactic could work for her if she also hammers home a message that Kansas now has a stable budget and its public schools are considered fully funded.

What Democrats need to remember is that shes doing that to try to win reelection, said Mike Swenson, who has worked as a Democratic strategist and consultant in the Kansas City area for over four decades.

He added: We can appeal to the moderates absolutely.

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Kelly said throughout the pandemic that she would follow science in addressing it. But Republican lawmakers used their legislative supermajorities to force her to accept more local control over decisions about requiring masks and restricting businesses a move that allowed many communities to reject recommendations from public health officials. She weathered their criticism for making prison inmates an early priority for vaccines.

And so she surprised some Democrats and liberal activists by publicly questioning Bidens vaccine mandates and quickly signing Republicans bill. The new law provides unemployment benefits if workers lose jobs for refusing shots and allows them to claim religious exemptions, no questions asked.

Also, to some Democrats, she seemed closer to Republican leaders: Multiple Democratic lawmakers said they learned of her plans to sign the bill from GOP colleagues gloating texts.

Its a huge, huge gamble, said Christopher Reeves, a Kansas City-area consultant and former Democratic National Committee member.

She signed the measure less than a week after the state health departments head abruptly resigned. Dr. Lee Norman was visible early in the coronavirus pandemic, appearing with Kelly at news conferences, often wearing a white lab coat. Internal emails showed an internal conflict this past summer over pandemic messaging, and Norman also recently said Kellys administration ousted him because of COVID-19 politics.

Kelly positioning herself in the political center on vaccines contrasts with her strong support for abortion access and LGBTQ rights.

Kelly said during a recent Associated Press interview that her decision-making isnt driven by what voters its going to keep in my camp. She cited major bipartisan legislation on school funding and transportation funding as examples of her approach.

Its the only way to govern and govern well, she said.

Even as Kelly and GOP lawmakers sparred early in the pandemic, she praised Trumps response to outbreaks in meatpacking plants enough that he later said she was doing a fantastic job in handling the pandemic.

Environmental issues provide another example of appealing to Republican-minded voters. Her administration resisted Biden administration efforts to preserve the lesser prairie chickens habitat, which raises concerns that agriculture and energy production will be restricted. Kellys administration has also been skeptical of Bidens push to preserve 30% of the nations land by 2030, which critics call a land grab.

In addition, after forming a racial justice commission after the Minnesota killing of George Floyd last year, she didnt intervene this year when its proposals stalled in the Legislature.

And on Wednesday, Kelly proposed giving a one-time $250 rebate to every Kansas resident who filed a state income tax return last year, with $500 going to married couples who file jointly. The move came after Kelly vetoed three GOP proposals for permanent income tax cuts in three years, calling those measures fiscally irresponsible.

Its just the reality of being a Democratic governor in Kansas, said Bob Beatty, a Washburn University of Topeka political scientist. You have to be in the middle and sometimes you have to be in the middle-right.

While Democrats havent won a U.S. Senate race in Kansas in nearly 90 years, theyve been successful in trading the governors office back and forth with Republicans over the past half-century.

Swenson said the formula is simple: Run up votes in the states 10 most populous counties and avoid losing the other 95 by too much. Kelly essentially followed that path to victory in 2018.

It also helped Kelly in 2018 that her GOP foe was polarizing conservative Trump ally Kris Kobach, whose take-no-prisoners style alienated moderate voters. Kellys expected Republican opponent next year is Derek Schmidt, the states three-term attorney general.

Schmidt is running as an anti-abortion, small-government attorney general, but in the mold of Kansas Republicans like former U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts and the late Bob Dole pragmatic enough to avoid alienating moderates.

Kelly prepared for 2022 by hiring a reelection campaign manager who in 2020 led Democrats successful effort to flip a Republican congressional seat in Georgia. Shelbi Dantic was also the deputy campaign manager in Montana for U.S. Sen. Jon Tester when he was narrowly reelected in 2018.

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Kansas governor breaks with Biden in appeal to GOP voters - The Detroit News

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GOP Rep. Ken Calvert will seek re-election in new district that includes Palm Springs – Desert Sun

Posted: at 10:43 am

Palm Springs and other Coachella Valley cities will have a new representative in Congress in 2023and one hopeful already in the race is one of the countrys longest-tenured Republican congressmen.

U.S. Rep. Ken Calvert, a Republican from Corona who has represented pockets of the Inland Empire since 1993, will be running for re-election next yearin a newly drawn district that groups several Coachella Valley citiesincluding Palm Springs, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage and Palm Desertwith Menifee, Norco and Corona in western Riverside County.

Calvert likely won't face off against any other incumbents in the race. The Coachella Valley's current congressman, Democratic U.S. Rep. Raul Ruiz, said last week he will be seeking re-election in the valley's other district, which wasdrawn to includeCathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Coachella, Indio and Imperial County.

However, the new congressional map, which was finalized by the California Citizens Redistricting Commission on Dec. 20, is likely to result in a more competitive race for Calvert, who was first elected to the U.S. House in 1992 and has comfortably won his last five elections.

Dave Wasserman, a national redistricting expert, listed Calvert as one of the five biggest losers based on Californias newly approved map, with his district morphing from one that former President Donald Trump carried by 7 points in 2020 to one that Trump won by just 1 point.

But whether the districts shift which comes as polls show the Democratic Partyin trouble ahead of the 2022 midterms will result in Calverts defeat remains to be seen.

Calvert, who will be seeking election to his 16th term in Washington next year, makes no secret of his conservative voting record or his vocal support of Trump, who he backed during both of his impeachments. The Corona congressman, who has a real estate background, voted in line with the former president 97% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight data.

Calvert, who serves on the House Committee on Appropriations, told The Desert Sun that he sees inflation which has reached its highest rate in nearly 40 years as the top issue facing the country right now, arguing it should be a concern to everybody.

We got to get that back in the box as fast as we can, and that's not a simple process once inflation starts, it's difficult to stop, said Calvert. And I agree with what (U.S. Senator) Joe Manchin did, as far as bringing a halt to (the Build Back Better Act), because right now, that'd be like pouring gas on a fire.

Calvert said he has some experience working on issues related to the Coachella Valley, pointing to his past work on issues at the Salton Sea alongside the late former U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono and others. He also noted his bipartisan bill introduced this year that would establish a massive wildlife refuge in western Riverside County as an example of the collaborative approach that he would bring to the desert.

I've developed a lot of bipartisan relationships over the years as a senior member, and working as an appropriator, you have to work with your colleagues, because that's the one bill that has to pass, Calvert said.

But in Palm Springs, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by a nearly 4-to-1 margin, Calvert is likely to face criticism for his voting record, particularly regarding LGBTQ issues.

Elle Kurpiewski, political director of the Democratic Headquarters of the Desert, said placing Palm Springs and other valley cities into Calverts district just doesnt make any sense, arguing they have little in common with areas of western Riverside County.

(Calvert) has no commonality or he has not shown any commonality with the constituents of those cities, Kurpiewski said. He has repeatedly opposed gay rights. He has repeatedly opposed voter rights. He has a very conservative record, and you're putting one of the most liberal cities into his district? … I dont understand that.

In February, Calvert was among the 206 House Republicans that opposed the Equality Act, which would amend existing civil rights laws to explicitly ban LGBTQ discrimination in housing, education and the workforce. When asked by The Desert Sun, Calvert did not explicitly explain his opposition to the bill, which has yet to pass the Senate, but indicated a willingness to engage with local LGBTQ communities.

I think all people should be treated equally. Ive never believed in any kind of prejudice or discrimination against any group of people, whether they're gay or Black or Hispanic, and the laws in our country should reflect that, Calvert said. I don't want to put fingers on the scale for any one group or another … I'm happy to talk to folks and listen to their perspective on issues and see where they land.

Although Palm Springs could provide a boost to Democrats hoping to unseat Calvert, other areas of the Coachella Valley included in the new district could bring more GOP supporters into the mix. La Quinta and Palm Desert both have a near-even split between registered Republicans and Democrats, while Indian Wells the valleys smallest city has roughly twice as many Republicans as Democrats.

Joy Miedecke, president of the East Valley Republican Women Federated, said she was loving the new districts extended boundaries, calling Calvert a wonderful man and a great legislator.

Whatever (Calvert) needs, we'll be here for him, Miedecke said. Well be absolutely thrilled to have him governing in La Quinta, where we're based.

Calvert, who has won many of his recent elections by double-digit margins, will face a crowded field of Democratic challengers in the coming months.

At least three Democrats former prosecutor Will Rollins, engineer Shrina Kurani, and teacher Brandon Mosely have announced their intention to challenge Calvert. Other Democratic candidates are likely to emerge in the coming months, according to Kurpiewski.

Calvert could also face some pushback from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which has issued statements blasting the congressman for some of his votes, such as his opposition to Democrats' $1 trillion infrastructure bill, in recent months.

But anyone hoping to contend with Calvert will need to generate substantial fundraising. As of late September, Calverts campaign account reported roughly $809,000 of cash on hand, according to federal campaign finance data.

While more details about the challengers finances will emerge in coming months as campaign season gets fully underway, Mosely and Kurani have both raised more than $130,000 in the initial months of their campaign, according to campaign finance data.

Meanwhile, Rollins campaign reported raising more than $100,000 in the first 24 hours after announcing his campaign in November.

While he hasnt had many close races in recent years, Calvert noted he has won some tightly contested races in the 1990s and 2000s, experiences that taught him how to engage with a wide range of ideological voters.

This (new) district, though its not as conservative as the district I'm representing today, its still about half the advantage that I have today, as far as registration is concerned, Calvert said, noting the valley has many non-party-affiliated voters. Obviously, you got to get out and convince people to vote for you … Its still a Republican district to some degree, but not nearly as Republican as the former one.

Several months remain before Californias June 2022 primary elections at which point Calverts top challenger wouldlikely face off against him in the November general election, with the help of liberals seeking to oust the long-time representative.

We Democrats are going to have to work very hard and very strongly to ensure that Ken Calvert does not go back to Washington, Kurpiewski said.

Tom Coulter covers politics. He can be reached at thomas.coulter@desertsun.com or on Twitter @tomcoulter_.

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Is there really no alternative to BJP & Modi? – The Indian Express

Posted: at 10:43 am

Even as the wheels are coming off the Republic of India, conversations in polite and not-so-polite circles now have a refrain that is the surest sign of an impoverished democracy. Whenever the topic of the BJP and Narendra Modis future comes up, the refrain is: There is no alternative. Some might concede to a few chinks in his armour, and are willing to acknowledge that the BJP might struggle in some state-level elections. But this is quickly followed up with the chorus, But at the national level there is no alternative. It is almost as if the conversation is like a bad nursery rhyme that goes something like this:

The prime minister is sowing the seeds of division, protecting poisonous speech, the coarsening of civil society and unleashing the furies of hate. This alone would disqualify him. But the refrain goes, There is no alternative.

There was a prime minister who kissed the floor of Parliament. It turned out to be the kiss of death for parliamentary democracy. But the refrain goes, There is no alternative.

There was a prime minister who promised strong national security. But the result was the loss of territorial access, being tied down on the land border and the prospect of a two-front war. So confident is the nation that even a parliamentary question on China was disallowed. Yet the refrain goes, There is no alternative.

There was a prime minister who promised strong internal security. Indeed this goal was achieved. Now that the Missionaries of Charity, human rights activists, environmental advocates, assorted journalists and writers can be hounded, we know the nation is safe. Did we not tell you, There is no alternative?

There was a prime minister who promised to secure our border states. Yet for the first time in more than a decade, by the governments own admission, the bogey of violence in Punjab has reared its head, the gains of peace are being rolled back in Northeast, and the deepening alienation and repression in Kashmir continues. But the chorus rises, We have no alternative.

There was a prime minister who made the stock markets rise. Like every government in the last 20 years, his government has also done a couple of schemes well. Perhaps the top 10 per cent of the population really flourished. But we are still not at a trend growth rate of eight per cent of the 2003-2009 period, youth unemployment is rising, the fall in poverty levels is arrested, inequality and deprivation are rising, exports are performing modestly, and wholesale inflation spiked to 14.3 per cent in November, the highest since 1991. But even after seven years, this must be the fault of the previous government, or the US Fed. You see, There is really no alternative.

There was a prime minister who promised you will see less corruption. Even as capital concentration rises, norms governing electoral finance regress, the machinery of the state is used to send a signal that some capital is more equal than others, so long as they bow their head to the right ideology. Perhaps, you indeed see less corruption. The state is so efficient that it will not let you see it or even talk about it. That is why the refrain goes, There is no alternative.

And on it goes. Every single institution has been decimated. But you see, There is no alternative. Instead of the moral and spiritual regeneration of Hinduism, you are getting the venting of its dark and crass communal impulses. But still, There is no alternative. Forget official circles. The broader prestige of Indias democracy, its culture and hopes for its future are at their lowest ebb in the last two decades. But the Ribbentrops of the establishment can convince the world otherwise. Perhaps they have even convinced our own leader that the more you beat up on your own people, the more your global stock will rise. Truly, There is no alternative. The state makes everyone feel so secure: It can snoop on everyone, threaten anyone, and control the information order. But But But, the chorus still rings out, There is no alternative.

Like all refrains, this There is no alternative needs to be decoded. It can be readily admitted that some citizens may have received benefits or been beneficiaries of schemes. But the attribution of performance to this government far exceeds its actual achievement. Even if we concede success in some areas, that success pales in front of the litany of foundational crises facing the republic.

The There is no alternative chorus is helped by the conduct of the Opposition. The Congress is unable to shed the baggage of its past mistakes. Many Opposition state governments are not exactly models of institutional probity or principled defenders of liberal and democratic values. But what hurts the Opposition most is this duality. On the one hand, it wants to say that the Republic of India is facing an existential crisis. On the other hand, it is not acting as if there is an existential crisis for the republic. It is not uniting around the agenda of saving the republic. Its passions are spent on the scraps of internal infighting. The old guard is not letting new faces emerge. But even if we concede all this, the idea that there is no alternative is preposterous.

This idea is premised on an immense amnesia about recent history: The workability of coalition politics, the complexities of reform, and the delicate capillaries that hold this country together. If nothing else, in a democracy facing both deep communalism and repression, political competition and a little fragmentation of power is by itself the alternative. Not each constituent of the Opposition needs to be fully virtuous for less concentration of power and more competition to make democracy secure.

So one has to wonder what lies behind this pervasive refrain. There is no alternative. It is likely that this refrain is a symptom of three things: An aestheticisation of politics that is trapping Indias elites in a land of unreality, refusing to acknowledge dangers in plain sight. There is perhaps a will to simplification, a suspension of thought, in the face of hero worship. Or perhaps, There is no alternative is just a euphemism, a different way of saying We are just fine with communal poison and authoritarian repression. If you say There is no alternative when the current course is heading towards disaster, you are not describing a reality. You are saying you hate democracy, for a democracy in which There is no alternative is already dead.

This column first appeared in the print edition on December 29, 2021 under the title There is no alternative. The writer is contributing editor, The Indian Express

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Dallas County Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates and Information

Posted: at 10:41 am

Case Totals

As of 4:00 pm December 28, 2021 Dallas County Health and Human Services is reporting 1,619 additional positive cases of 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Dallas County, 1,377 confirmed cases and 242 probable cases. There is a cumulative total of 358,807 confirmed cases (PCR test). There is a cumulative total of 66,889 probable cases (antigen test). A total of 5,488 Dallas County residents have lost their lives due to COVID-19 illness. Todays report includes data received on Thursday, December 23rd. Tomorrows reporting will include data from Friday the 24th through Tuesday the 28th.

Numbers are updated daily.Note: Does not include positive results from persons who reside out-of-state or outside of Dallas County.

Residents are asked to help prevent spread of the virus by practicing non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) such as social distancing (avoiding close contact with other people, especially those who are sick), covering coughs and sneezes, and hand hygiene. Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces, and avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands. If you are sick, stay home.

Current travel advisories can be viewed at the U.S. Department of State and CDC. The CDC recommends that travelers defer all cruise travel worldwide.

With the exception of the Summary Table of Cases, the below are only periodically updated.For weekday updates please visit the PCCI site here.

Dallas County Confirmed COVID-19 Cases by Zip CodeClick here to view and downloadthe Confirmed COVID-19 Cases by Zip Code map shown below.

Click here to view an interactive version of the Zip Code Map, updated daily.

This is exclusive for Dallas County. MyPCI is free to register and use. It is a secure, cloud-based tool that doesnt require personal health information and doesnt track an individuals mobile phone data. Instead, it is a sophisticated machine learning algorithm, geomapping and hot-spotting technology that uses daily updated data from the Department of Public Health on confirmed positive COVID-19 cases and the population density in a given neighborhood. Based on density and distances to those nearby who are infected, the MyPCI App generates a dynamic personal risk score.

We all know that proximity matters and its even more important now than ever while we work hard to get people vaccinated. Were very excited to put this information in the hands of Dallas county citizens so they have contextual awareness of whats happening around them and serve as a reminder of the things they can control: social distancing, face covering and hand hygiene.

Follow these steps to register and use - it's free!

High-Risk Individuals Are People That Meet Any One of the Following Criteria:

Click here to read the full guide.

Personas De Alto Riesgo Son Personas Que Cumplen Cualquiera De Los Siguientes Criterios:

Haga clic aqu para leer la gua completa.

Click here for information on how to apply.

COVID-19 Mental Health Resources are available for Dallas County Residents.

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Dallas County Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates and Information

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Dallas County Increases COVID-19 Threat Level to Red NBC …

Posted: at 10:41 am

Dallas County health officials have raised the COVID-19 threat level to red -- the highest on the county's scale -- due to a sharp increase in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the county, Judge Clay Jenkins says.

Jenkins said the county's public health committee made the recommendation Tuesday night.

A letter sent from the Public Health Committee to Judge Jenkins stated that "a dramatic increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and the hospital census in Dallas in the past week. We do also know that we have clusters of COVID-19 associated with social events, increased outbreaks in congregate settings and Dallas County is seeing a significant impact on the health care staffing and with pressure on emergency departments."

The letter continued, "At this point data from Dallas County demonstrate 1. A sustained increase in the % positivity among symptomatic and asymptomatic tested individuals (up to 40% in some healthcare settings); 2. An increase in emergency room visits for COVID-19 like illness, with over 25% of ED visits the last few days being for suspected COVID; 3. Increasing reports of inadequate testing facilities and access to testing (and testing kits) throughout the community (it appears that the healthcare facilities do have adequate supplies); 4. Increased reports of workforce and staffing challenges in acute care and long-term care facilities; 5. An increase in the hospital census, up to 333 as of 12/27, a 50% increase in the last week. 6. Rapidly rising COVID cases, with PCCI reporting a 76.3% week over week increase to 5541 through 12/23. 7. Elevated pediatric hospitalizations for COVID."

Full coverage of the COVID-19 outbreak and how it impacts you

The recommendations suggested by the health committee include: 1. Increasing the vaccination rates in Dallas County residents. We must get our population vaccinated and boosted to provide stronger protections against severe illness and hospitalization. 2. Enhancing testing capacity and access to testing to help our residents identify cases so that the affected can isolate and prevent further transmission. 3. Reinforcing and using tools available to them to implement universal masking and physical distancing in public areas. 4. Limiting the size of public gatherings to allow for physical distancing. 5. Encouraging the use of masking, physical distancing and vaccination together to combat this current variant.

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Where To Get Tested For COVID-19 In North Texas CBS …

Posted: at 10:41 am

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) This is list of COVID-19 testing sites throughout North Texas as well as information on other useful resources. The list is sorted by county in alphabetical order, and each county has a search page of its own.

Collin County Covid Testing Sites: https://tdem.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=1e91fb79fa44417898738e5bff31a3d8

COVID Testing Location Resources: COVID-19 testing is available at local health centers, clinics and select pharmacies often at no-cost. Please always call ahead to verify availability, insurance coverage, or make an appointment as necessary.

Denton County Covid Testing Sites: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/99c08bf4e29e46e2bdfac707e9bb9dc6

UPCOMING DENTON COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH COVID-19 DRIVE-THRU TESTING SITES

The following are free drive thru testing clinics provided by DCPH. Please remain in your vehicle for the duration of your testing appointment. Principle Health Systems will administer a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to detect for current COVID-19 infection. Appointments are required.

ELIGIBILITY

Eligibility for free COVID-19 testing through the DCPH partnership with Principle Health Systems includes individuals currently experiencing one or more COVID-19 symptom(s) OR a recent exposure to someone who has COVID-19. Individuals with a recent exposure should be tested no earlier than 5 days after their latest exposure.

TESTING PROCESS

A clinician will use a swab to collect a specimen from your nose. The specimen will then be sent to a laboratory. Patients can access their results online approximately 48 hours after testing.

If you have any questions, please call the DCPH COVID-19 Hotline Monday-Friday 8 AM 5 PM at 940-349-2585.

LOCATING OTHER TESTING SITES

Additional PCR and antigen testing sites can be found at local pharmacies, doctors offices, and additional testing centers. Please call or verify cost, availability, insurance coverage, and/or eligibility prior to seeking testing elsewhere.

Dallas County Covid Testing Sites: https://www.dallascounty.org/Assets/uploads/docs/covid-19/testing/Dec7-TestingLocationsUpdate-Website.pdf

Dallas College Drive-Thru Locations:

Mountain View Campus4849 W. Illinois Ave., Dallas, Texas 75211Ends Friday, December 24thOpen to all individuals experiencing symptomsMonday-Thursday, 7:30am 6pmFree, with or without insuranceNo appointment requiredDrive-thru testing

Richland Campus12800 Abrams Rd. Dallas, TX 75243Ends Friday, December 24thOpen to all individuals experiencing symptomsMonday-Thursday, 7:30am 6pmFree, with or without insuranceNo appointment requiredDrive-thru testing

Parkland

City of Dallas Mobile Testing

City of Dallas provides mobile testing to residents who do not have transportation means to get to a testing site. To be eligible for COVID-19 Mobile Testing, residents must:

Tarrant County Covid Testing Sites:

https://www.tarrantcounty.com/en/public-health/disease-controlprevention/COVID-19/covid-19-testing-in-tarrant-county.html

Testing Locations:

Beginning on Wednesday, Nov. 29 the following, TCPH contracted sites will begin operating seven days a week. They will be closed Saturday, Jan. 1, in observance of New Year Day.

Ben Thanh Market

1818 E Pioneer Parkway Ste., 100

Arlington, TX 76010

Monday to Friday: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.,

Saturday and Sunday: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Northeast Annex

837 Brown Trail

Bedford, TX 76022

Wednesday to Friday: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.,

Saturday and Sunday: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Resource Connection Parking LOT D

1500 Circle Drive

Fort Worth, TX 76119

Wednesday to Friday: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.,

Saturday and Sunday: 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The following TCPH Brick and Mortar locations will also offer testing as per schedule posted here.

Arlington Adult Health Services

2596 E. Arkansas Lane

Arlington, TX 76014

Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Bagsby-Williams Public Health Clinic

3212 Miller Ave

Fort Worth, TX 76019

Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Northwest Public Health Center

3800 Adam Grubb Road

Lake Worth, TX 76135

Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Southwest Public Health Clinic

6551 Granbury Rd

Fort Worth, TX 76133

Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Watauga Public Health Center

6601 Watauga Road

Watauga TX 76148

Monday to Friday: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

COVID-19 causes respiratory illness with cough, fever and shortness of breath and may lead to bronchitis and severe pneumonia. For more information CLICK HERE or call the Tarrant County Public Health information line, 817-248-6299, 8 a.m. 6 p.m., Monday Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. 2 p.m.

City of Fort Worth New Locations, Expanded Hours

The City of Fort Worth is making sure that access to COVID-19 testing remains available by opening new testing sites on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Fort Worth ISDs Scarborough-Handley Fieldhouse, as well as the Como Community Center. These sites are in addition to the current testing site at the TEXRail North Side Station, 3001 Decatur Ave.

These sites are all hosted by the City of Fort Worth and are open to everyone. The city is partnering with Vault Health. Saliva tests will be administered at no cost, with or without insurance, and appointments are not needed.

Here are the days and times for the Citys new locations:

Tuesdays

FWISD Scarborough-Handley Fieldhouse, 6201 Craig St., 8-11:30 a.m.

Como Community Center, 4660 Horne St., 1-4:30 p.m.

Thursdays

FWISD Scarborough-Handley Fieldhouse, 6201 Craig St., 8-11:30 a.m.

Como Community Center, 4660 Horne St., 1-4:30 p.m.

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Washington, DC, is the worst place for COVID-19 infections right now – NPR

Posted: at 10:41 am

A line forms at a walk-up COVID-19 testing site last week at Farragut Square, just blocks from the White House. Jacquelyn Martin/AP hide caption

A line forms at a walk-up COVID-19 testing site last week at Farragut Square, just blocks from the White House.

Washington, D.C., is experiencing a major pandemic surge making it the highest-risk place for COVID-19 infection in the nation.

D.C. experienced an average of 1,192 new cases per day over the past seven days, and 169 cases per 100,000 people as of Monday, according to data from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Despite relatively high vaccination rates, D.C. is experiencing a surge because of several factors, according to Dr. Neil J. Sehgal, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.

"I suspect what we are seeing in D.C. is the collision of increased opportunity for transmission due to the demographics of the District, a missed policy opportunity to prevent transmission, and the transmission dynamics of omicron while vaccinated people are less likely to contract or transmit, with omicron, clearly both are happening," he told NPR.

Demographically, the D.C. area skews younger than the rest of the country; about 50% of residents of the District are between the ages of 20 and 49.

"Before vaccines were available, we learned that transmission in the United States was largely driven by adults 20 to 49 years of age," Sehgal said. "People age 20-49 are simply more transmission-efficient."

That's thanks to an increased likelihood of in-person work, a greater likelihood of household transmission due to raising young children and a greater chance of socializing outside the home, particularly during the holidays, he said.

Nardos Amare checks in people at a COVID-19 testing site outside Benning Stoddert Recreation Center last week in Washington, D.C. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption

Nardos Amare checks in people at a COVID-19 testing site outside Benning Stoddert Recreation Center last week in Washington, D.C.

Like many places across the country, the hunt for an at-home COVID-19 test in the District meant long lines. The city started distributing free test kits to residents prior to the holidays as COVID-19 case numbers reached new highs, alongside offering on-site testing.

The testing program, which includes daily distribution of rapid test kits at public libraries, stands out against surrounding areas where tests can be harder to come by.

D.C. COVID-19 public testing sites are set to be closed on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, but the city will still be distributing test kits at select locations.

An indoor mask mandate would have helped cut down on transmission before it got so bad, Sehgal said. But the city dropped the requirement in November (it had a mask and social distancing advisory in place instead).

Sehgal said he and other health experts called on Mayor Muriel Bowser to bring the mandate back when cases began rising in the District just after Thanksgiving.

"We know now that omicron was circulating alongside delta at that time, and the reluctance to keep reasonable, science-based precautions in place seeded the transmission that we are seeing today," Sehgal said. "At that point we were on the 'flat' part of the exponential growth curve, but with every infected person passing the virus on to more than one other person on average, you can see how cases would continue to climb."

Now, the city has again cracked down on requirements for masks and vaccines. On Dec. 21, the city brought the mask mandate back through at least Jan. 31. At the time, Bowser said that she did not regret having dropped the mandate earlier and that "as conditions warranted, we've changed our interventions, and we are changing them again."

Starting Jan. 15, D.C. businesses including restaurants, bars, gyms, and music venues and certain meeting spaces will be required to ask patrons ages 12 and older for proof of vaccination to enter. When enforcement begins, patrons will only need to show proof of one shot to enter. By Feb. 15, two shots will be required for entry.

For the latest on the coronavirus in the D.C. area, follow member station WAMU's coverage here.

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Thailand warns of spike in COVID-19 cases after "super-spreader" event – Reuters

Posted: at 10:41 am

A nurse closes a bag that contains a sample collected from a passenger as it's mandatory to check all arriving passengers to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the international airport in Phuket, Thailand November 29, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

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BANGKOK, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Thai health authorities warned on Wednesday that residents should brace themselves for a potential jump in coronavirus cases after classifying the country's first cluster of the Omicron variant as a super-spreader incident.

The Omicron cluster identified in the northeastern province of Kalasin on Christmas eve has been linked to a couple who had travelled from Belgium and visited bars, concerts and markets.

The ensuing cluster had infected hundreds, with cases spreading to 11 other provinces, said senior health official Opas Karnkawinpong, citing how one of the bars linked to the cluster had been packed and did not have good ventilation.

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"During the New Year, if you visit any place and it does not look safe, just don't go," Opas told a briefing.

Up to now, Thailand has reported 740 cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant, including 251 in people who had come into contact with foreign arrivals, said Opas.

After coronavirus infections peaked in August above 20,000, daily case numbers have fallen to around 2,500 in the past week.

But the health ministry's planning scenario indicated that by March daily infections could hit 30,000, with more than 160 deaths, without a faster rollout of measures like vaccinations and testing, as well as greater social distancing.

If restrictions were tightened, daily cases could peak at 14,000 in February, with fewer than 60 daily deaths, the scenario showed.

In the first two weeks of January, government employees have been advised they can work from home, coronavirus taskforce spokesman Taweesin Wisanuyothin told a separate briefing, where he urged the private sector to follow suit.

After detecting the first local Omicron infection last week, Thai authorities reinstated mandatory quarantine for foreign arrivals and suspended a "Test & Go" programme that allowed vaccinated travellers to avoid quarantine.

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Reporting by Chayut SetboonsarngEditing by Ed Davies

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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10 lessons I’ve learned from the Covid19 pandemic – STAT

Posted: at 10:41 am

On the afternoon of New Years Eve, just hours from when 2019 was going to segue into 2020, I read an email about some unusual pneumonia cases in Chinas Hubei province. Over the past couple of decades, China has been a wellspring of dangerous zoonotic diseases SARS, H5N1 bird flu, and H7N9 bird flu. Better keep an eye on this, I thought to myself.

Fast-forward two years. Were entering the third year of the Covid-19 pandemic. So much has happened in the intervening months. Some things have gone surprisingly well, notably the rapid development of Covid vaccines and some therapeutics. But far more things have gone horribly wrong.Multiple commissions and panels have been set up to learn the lessons of this pandemic so that we dont repeat the same mistakes next time. (Yes, sadly, there will be a next time.) More commissions and panels are likely to follow. But already, some things have become abundantly clear.

Here are 10 lessons Ive learned in the past two years.

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You gotta act fastFor reasons I may never understand, in January and February of 2020 much of the world seemed not to grasp that the new virus that was spreading so rapidly in China wouldnt stay in China.

Some experts I spoke to early on thought that the new coronavirus would be controlled because two others in that family the SARS virus from 2003 and MERS, a camel virus that sometimes spreads to people didnt manage to ignite pandemics. But by late January, early February the virus had been found in a number of other countries. If the world ever truly had a chance to contain it, the moment had passed.

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The guiding principle of outbreak response is hope for the best but prepare for the worst. It has felt too often in this pandemic that people are forgetting about the second part of that maxim. Were seeing it even now with responses to the surging wave of Omicron cases.

It is true that public health authorities can get hammered if they sound the alarm for something that turns out not to merit it. The World Health Organization was pilloried by the European Parliament after the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic ultimately proved not to be particularly deadly.

But with fast-developing disease outbreaks, if you wait until youre sure that something is going to be a disaster before seizing every opportunity to alter its trajectory, youve made the outbreak much, much worse.

Simplicity rules

In the summer and early autumn of 2020, when Phase 3 clinical trials of Covid vaccines were still underway, two groups in the United States set out to determine who should have first access when vaccine doses became available. The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine established an expert panel that created a priority list. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, an independent group that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccine policy, devised its own. Both groups prioritized health care workers and the elderly, who were at the highest risk of dying if they contracted the new virus. The schemes were not identical, but both emphasized that people with serious health conditions and essential workers people whose lives were at risk because they were doing jobs that kept society functioning should have early access to vaccine doses.

But who were essential workers? Does everyone who works in a hospital qualify as a health care worker? Could we realistically expect people administering the jabs to check whether the person before them actually had diabetes? Or that they taught elementary school, not spin classes? (In a word: No.)Though well-intentioned, the schemes were too complex to operationalize. A number of states junked them in favor of calling people forward by age strata, after theyd vaccinated health care workers.The same problem arose with the rollout of Covid boosters this fall, which happened in a stepwise fashion where eligibility was linked to age, health status, and the level of individual risk, because of where people lived or worked. Eventually Nirav Shah, president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, pleaded with ACIP to simplify the system, saying it was hampering booster shot uptake because people couldnt figure out whether they were eligible.

The calculus for kids is just different

One of the few blessings of this pandemic is that Covid-19 isnt nearly as hard on children as it is on adults, at least not in terms of illness and deaths. (It has been terrible for children in myriad other ways, particularly the disruption of in-person schooling and the educational and social consequences of that.) To date, there have only been 790 Covid deaths in children 18 years old and younger in the U.S., data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest. Children and teens make up only 0.1% of the more than 800,000 deaths the country has incurred.

Covid has been seen to induce a post-infection condition in some children called MIS-C short for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. According to the CDC, there have been nearly 6,000 reported cases in the U.S. Most children who develop MIS-C recover, but there have been 52 deaths.

In the main, though, children experience milder disease when they catch Covid. And because of their far lower risk of death, the WHO has suggested children should be vaccinated later, after health workers and older adults the world over have been protected.

Logically, the WHO is correct. Prioritizing vaccine doses for older adults would save more lives. But the agencys pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

Societies may accept large numbers of deaths in the elderly, but even small numbers of deaths in children are deemed to be too many. There was never a meaningful debate in this country about the ethics of vaccinating American kids before vaccinating African health workers. There were no public proponents arguing for putting kids here behind adults elsewhere.

Even in the face of a deadly pandemic, politics override public health

Call me naive, but it never occurred to me before this pandemic that political leaders would put the lives of their citizens at risk by downplaying or downright lying about a disease outbreak, just because telling the truth might jeopardize their political fortunes.

It never dawned on me that political leaders would oppose policies designed to save the lives of their citizenry and mitigate the personal and economic damage an outbreak was causing things like rules about wearing masks or getting vaccinated.

If that thought had occurred to me, I would have assumed such leaders would have been punished by their followers when it became clear a path taken for political expediency was costing tens of thousands of lives. I wouldnt have dreamed that instead, those same followers would embrace the bad advice and reject public health guidance.

I didnt anticipate the havoc polarized politics would wreak on a pandemic response. I thought everyone would have the same goal: Keep as many people from dying as possible.But so much of the U.S. response has broken down along political lines. Uptake of vaccine is higher in blue counties than it is in red. Mask mandate opposition is higher in parts of the country that vote Republican. The virus doesnt vote and it doesnt care how we do. Its only looking for respiratory tracts to infect. I assumed wed all understand that.

Most people have no clue how science works. And thats a problemScience education in this and a number of countries is woefully inadequate. As a result, people do not understand the iterative nature of science. With a brand new pathogen, it takes time to figure out things like how infectious it is or the means by which it best spreads. When vaccines are developed and first put into use, it takes time to see how well theyll work and for how long theyll protect. Some vaccines protect for years, others only months. (Im thinking about flu vaccine here.) The only way to determine where Covid vaccines fall on the spectrum is to give them and watch for breakthrough infections to start to occur. Theres no way around this, but people have found it frustrating.

We saw the lack of understanding of how science works in calls from some quarters to use prototype vaccines before theyd even been tested for safety and efficacy. (The risks would have been huge, and such a move would have been ethically indefensible.) We saw it repeatedly when new knowledge was acquired and WHO or CDC guidance was updated accordingly. Instead of recognizing changes as a reflection that more had been learned about the virus, many people seemed to feel theyd been deliberately misled by the earlier advice. At a time when there is so little trust in public figures and institutions, this lack of understanding contributed to the erosion of confidence in agencies and authorities leading the pandemic response and further undermined support for the Covid control measures they recommended.

Downplaying what lies ahead helps no one

In early 2020, country after country followed Chinas lead and instituted some form of lockdown to try to slow spread of a virus that was rapidly overwhelming hospitals wherever it went. When then-President Trump followed suit on March 16, he announced that if people stayed home for 15 days, that would be enough to slow the virus spread. Trump spoke of a return to normal by Easter, which fell on April 4.

There was no talk about the fact that the need to reduce transmission of the virus wasnt a one-time thing that there was nothing miraculous about a 15-day pause. If people returned to life as normal immediately thereafter, the gains of the pause would quickly evaporate.

Which is exactly what happened. People thought theyd done their bit, taken their lumps only to find out much more sacrifice lay ahead.

Winning the vaccine race really does matter. So does experiencePfizer and BioNTech were the first of the Western pharmaceutical companies to prove they had produced an efficacious Covid-19 vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration granted it an emergency use authorization on Dec. 11, 2020 11 months after the genetic code for the SARS-2 virus was shared with the world.Hot on their heels was Moderna, a brash Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech, with an equally efficacious vaccine that was made the same way, using messenger RNA. The FDA granted it an EUA one week later, on Dec. 18.No one has ever accused the leadership of Moderna of being shrinking violets. But Pfizer has been speedier and, well, pushier in the vaccine development race, consistently beating competitors to become the first and in the U.S., still the only vaccine that is fully licensed.

The Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine in this country that can be used in teens under the age of 18. It is the first to be authorized for use in children; it is now available for kids aged 5 and up. It was the first to be granted an EUA for a booster shot. Its currently the only vaccine recommended as a booster for people who were vaccinated outside the U.S. with a vaccine not authorized for use here (in other words, a vaccine like the AstraZeneca jab) or for people who took part in U.S. trials of vaccines that havent been authorized here (AstraZeneca, Novavax).

By dint of its many firsts and its eye-popping initial vaccine efficacy, Pfizer has created the perception that it is the premier Covid vaccine, even though Modernas vaccine, which uses three times the antigen contained in the Pfizers shot, may in the end be the better vaccine.But Pfizers success is not just about being first. The company has a deep well of experience in commercial-scale production and in navigating regulatory processes something Moderna, which had never commercialized a product before, did not. The differences in regulatory experience may explain why Pfizer was awarded a full license for its vaccine 3.5 months after initiating its application for one. Moderna, on the other hand, took 2.8 months just to complete its application for a full license; four months later, it is still waiting for the license.

Being first on its own might not have positioned Pfizer to be the dominant vaccine provider of the pandemic; by all practical measures, Moderna tied with the Pfizer vaccine getting across the initial finish line. And the vaccines were virtually identical in efficacy outcomes 95% (Pfizer) and 94% (Moderna) against symptomatic Covid infections. But being first and having the know-how to turn a good prototype into massive amounts of vaccine while at the same time successfully navigating regulatory processes has been a winning combination for the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership.

In a pandemic, its pretty much every country for itself

I hate that this is true. But I fear that it is.

The world has suffered from the fact that we are not working together to try to end the pandemic. Rich countries buying up most of the available vaccines, pharmaceutical companies refusing to share vaccine formulas and production know-how, countries blocking exports of oxygen and personal protective equipment all this has drawn out the pandemic and made it more difficult to endure. Its no surprise that vaccine nationalism has reigned, or that borders have closed, often on scientifically indefensible grounds. (See: The Biden administrations month-long ban on travel from eight southern African countries, even though the Omicron variant is already the dominant virus in this country.) Next time, it will be worse. Borders will close more quickly, keeping people out and critical matriel in, because countries will know what lies ahead.

Its ugly and its counterproductive but it may be inevitable. I would like to be wrong on this.

Conducting clinical trials during a pandemic is doable, but it takes coordination

It is enormously challenging to plan and conduct clinical trials during a disease crisis especially trials large enough to come to a solid conclusion about whether the drug or vaccine being tested actually works. Time and again, trials conducted during previous outbreaks were too small, were conducted without a control arm (i.e. the thing being tested wasnt compared to a placebo), or were still struggling to reach an answer when the outbreak ended.This time has been different. Sort of.In a true story fit for the big screen, Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, and British scientist Martin Landray mapped out a plan for what has proven to be an enormously successful trial of Covid treatments while riding a London bus.

The Recovery trial, as it came to be called, told the world the steroid dexamethasone improved survival in people seriously ill with Covid. It proved two HIV drugs, lopinavir and ritonavir, didnt change Covid outcomes. It also showed that hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, was ineffective against the new virus.

Recovery harnessed the power of the United Kingdoms single-payer health care delivery system, the NHS, to enroll sufficient numbers of Covid patients in the early days of the pandemic to come up with much needed answers rapidly. In a separate endeavor, the WHOs Solidarity trial arrived at some needed answers by drawing in data from around the world.

In the U.S., Operation Warp Speed helped design and run some clinical trials that quickly tested the efficacy of Covid vaccines it helped to fund.But when it came to testing existing drugs to see if they could be repurposed for Covid, much of the U.S. effort was a bust. Scores and scores to too-small studies came to inconclusive results. Lack of coordination meant that trials continued to study whether hydroxychloroquine acted against Covid even after there was a wealth of evidence that it did not.

Americans are willing to put up with a lot of deathThe official Covid death toll in the United States is nearing 820,000, a figure that is certainly an underestimate, though by how much remains unclear. A truly stunning fact about those deaths is that more of them occurred in 2021 than in 2020. Covid vaccine doses were in short supply in the first quarter of 2021, but soon thereafter anyone who wanted to be vaccinated could get jabbed. And this fall, anyone 16 years and older who wanted to get boosted could get a third shot.

And still, more people died from Covid in 2021 than died from Covid in 2020. In 2021, swaths of the country fought mask mandates, opposed vaccination mandates, objected to any measure designed to slow the spread of Covid that they perceived as an impediment on their ability to resume pre-pandemic activities. This insistence on returning to life as normal came at an unfathomable cost the loss of hundreds of thousands of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents. Aunts and great-aunts, uncles, and great uncles. Cousins. Friends. Coworkers and supervisors. And still, big chunks of the population refused to get vaccinated, refused to wear masks, insisted SARS-2 was a hoax, or was no more threatening than the flu. It almost is inexplicable, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told me when I asked him about this last month.

For me, it is incomprehensible.

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10 lessons I've learned from the Covid19 pandemic - STAT

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