week 32 and week 33

In one bit of good news the chance of dying from covid has dropped from 25.6% to 7.6%. Better understanding of the disease, better standard care, and mask wearing which reduces the amount of virus that initially infects a patient have all contributed to the decline.

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According to the CDC, nearly 300,000 more Americans have died this year than in a typical year. The official coronavirus death toll is around 224,000 so it's likely covid deaths are being undercounted. 

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Well, yay Texas! Like they say, everything's bigger in Texas. A week ago the Worldometer reported Texas having the most confirmed cases of any state in the country at 896,241. Today we are still #1 with 960,579 confirmed cases.

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This past week the US has recorded its worst week ever in coronavirus cases as covid surges in at least a third of the states. October 23 and 24 reported the highest and second highest cases a day breaking the record set last July with nearly 100,000 on last Friday alone and hospitals are beginning to get strained again.

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Trump is going around telling people at his rallies, falsely, that he has conquered the virus. I guess he means 'he' as in his administration's response. He even repeated his accusation at his rally in Michigan that doctors are exaggerating the threat because they get paid more if a death is listed as covid. And he's lying about a vaccine being available 'momentarily' (sort of like his health care plan that will be published in two weeks that never comes) when it is, in fact, months away. One of his big mouth sycophants (I forget which one) is going on the air telling people that no one dies of covid anymore which is another big lie. While the death rate has declined, it's still over 7% and even when you recover many people are developing continuing health problems.

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The Independent reports that as many nurses caring for covid patients have died of covid as died during WWI.

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A study from Stanford estimates that Trump rallies caused 30,000 new infections and upwards of 700 deaths. Doesn't seem like a very astute campaign strategy.

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Scientists knew early on that the virus enters the intestinal system and shows up in sewage. People start shedding the virus pretty quickly after the initial infection and before symptoms show up so paying attention to the viral content in sewage is a good way to predict where the next outbreak is going to occur. Fortunately, the virus breaks down pretty quickly in poop so it's not an infectious threat. You can read more here. 

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A while back, Trump moved the collecting of data on the virus from the CDC to the HHS. Now NPR reports that the government department is indeed holding back data, as we feared they would, from the agencies that need it to be able to make sure hospitals and medical centers have what they need to treat people. 

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The Independent writes that the Trump administration is funneling millions of dollars to small unheard of companies connected to big republican donors and former senators in a series of contracts  like Plasma Technologies LLC that operates out of the founder's luxury condo despite concerns over their proposals by government scientists. “Others include a $21 million study of the heartburn drug Pepcid as a COVID therapy, and more than a half-billion dollars to ApiJect Systems America, a startup with an unapproved medicine injection technology and no factory to manufacture the devices. In addition, a government whistleblower claimed that a $1.6 billion vaccine contract to Novavax Inc. was made over objections of scientific staff.” 

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Last Saturday, White House pandemic advisor radiologist Scott Atlas, who reads x-rays and does not see patients or have an epidemiology background or any experience whatsoever in pandemics, gave an interview to Russian state media on the White House grounds telling lies and trashing public health experts

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Current US statistics as of today 11/1/20, 23:48 GMT: cases – 9,472,858; deaths – 236,469.