week 36 and week 37

Because the Trump administration has abandoned any attempt to get the virus under control we are poised to repeat the wave of last spring. Wednesday November 25^th saw 2,300 deaths almost reaching the record set on April 15 of 2,752 deaths, 4 million infections in November alone with over a million in just the last week, hospitals are at or near capacity, our health care workers are exhausted and dying themselves with no one to replace them, one in 1,000 have died in N. Dakota governed by a republican, people are still refusing to believe they have covid until they are in the ICU and sometimes not even then (we can thank Trump and the republicans for that), and while our health care workers have learned how to better treat patients over the last 7 months reducing the death rate the sheer volume of infections happening now and overwhelming our hospitals means not only are the number of deaths but the death rate is climbing as well. Back during the spring surge, infections were localized in certain states and parts of the country so that hospitals could import health care workers from other states and cities to help but that is no longer true as the virus has now infiltrated every part of the country.

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And because so many people refused to take the advice of staying home for the Thanksgiving holiday, spurred on by certain republican lawmakers like our senator Ted Cruz who sneered and scoffed at the whole idea, the next two weeks are likely to see another surge in infections that our already overwhelmed system will have to absorb. Or not. In some places people are already being sent home to die freeing up beds for those that can be saved.

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ProPublica reports that the rapid result test is less accurate than the government will admit since it was promoted as a way to get people back to work and businesses back open but the fact is that it gives false positive and false negative readings. 

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It's not all bad news. Moderna's vaccine is testing out as over 95% effective and another vaccine candidate from the UK is on the horizon. However it's important to understand what they mean by 'effective'. Moderna's and Pfizer's vaccines do not give complete or sterilizing immunity from infection meaning that getting the vaccine will not prevent you from becoming infected. What they do do is protect against the virus' serious consequences. It is possible that the vaccine does in some cases provide immunity from getting infected as upwards of almost half of those infected are asymptomatic but the trials were not testing for that. 

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Because Trump is still a vindictive asshole, last Sunday, the head of the White House's Operation Warp Speed admitted that he had been instructed to not share any information with Biden's transition team though that has been remedied since last Monday Emily Murphy who had been refusing to sign off on the transition finally allowed it to formally begin. 

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Another article from the NY Times reports New York is closing schools again, the CDC has deleted previous school opening recommendations, the FDA gave an emergency authorization for an at home rapid result test for the virus but needs a prescription and will cost about $50, and other general information. 

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The NY Times reports on a study, not yet peer reviewed or published in a scientific journal, that found that blood samples from recovered patients suggest a long lasting immune response. 

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CNN reports that mask mandates do slow the spread of the virus according to new research by the CDC. The masks not only protect others as previously reported but also protect the wearer by reducing the amount of viral material inhaled. 

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NPR reports that over one million children have been infected with the virus. That's one out of eleven confirmed cases. 

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NPR reports that Dr. Fauci warns of a surge on top of a surge after millions of people traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday against the advice of health care professionals as 91,500 people were hospitalized last Saturday. 

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And of course republicans took New York's ban on large gatherings at church services to the Supreme Court and of course the new Supreme Court blocked restrictions for religious services ruling that it violated the 1^st Amendment's protection of free exercise of religion with Gorsuch wrongly equating opening places of worship with opening 'liquor stores and bike shops' (no one spends an hour or two with a crowd singing and reciting in liquor stores or bike shops) when in fact the ban had nothing to do with religious freedom and everything to do with large gatherings in an attempt to control the spread of the virus since it's a ban against all large gatherings not just worship services.

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For data geeks, here's the Covid Tracking Project. 

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Current US statistics as of today 11/29/20, 23:34 GMT: cases – 13,742,807; deaths – 273,049. Texas is still claiming the #1 spot for total number of cases at 1,251,532 and the #2 spot for total number of deaths at 21,968.