Key developments for Friday, November 27, 2020

The head of Iran’s military nuclear weapons program has been assassinated–tensions with Iran continue to grow:

Authorities in Iran suspect Israel is responsible for the assassination:

And, incidentally, the US is moving warships back into the Middle East (the decision to do this was reportedly made before tensions grew today):

The world has nearly 62 million cases.  The world has added nearly 4.9 million cases since last Thursday. Case growth is increasing. There have been over 1.4 million deaths in total. The US has over 13.4 million cases. The US has added over 1.4 million cases since last Thursday. Over 271,000 Americans have died—over 1,300 in the last 24 hours (and this is likely to be an underestimate due to the holiday impacting reporting). The US has gained over 162,000 new cases since yesterday. The US still leads the world in case growth.

The CDC director says he expects vaccine rollout to start in the US in mid-December. Nursing home residents will be among the first to receive it.

The CDC is reviewing evidence that indicates that people isolating at home after exposure to COVID may not need to isolate for a full 14 days if they test negative. Given how often false negatives are generated by various test kits, I’m not sure this is best idea. If the recommendation for isolation is reduced, it’s likely to be 7-10 days with a negative test.

Some AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine trial participants didn’t receive the proper dose, and these errors are muddying results data. The errors may preclude or delay Emergency Use Authorization in the US. Another trial is forthcoming:

COVID app data has been harvested by Australia’s intelligence apparatus. This is the kind of dystopian privacy intrusion that makes me weary of apps that might be helpful. The data was collected “incidentally” and apparently lawfully, and assurances have been made that the data will be deleted.

Deaths are climbing, and tough choices are being made in hospitals all over the country. There are only ~10,000 ICU beds left in the country, and although more can be made, will we have enough clinicians to staff them?

When a major PPE factory has to be shut down due to COVID-infected workers, one has to question safety practices in that facility. The downstream effects of the temporary factory closure are not yet known.

United is going to charter flights to help with vaccine distribution:

Convalescent plasma is not helping how we had hoped:

There are case reports of persistent hiccups in COVID patients. Could it be a sign of pulmonary embolism?

Transparency about vaccine side effects is important in creating a successful vaccine program. Most people will avoid very severe side effects. Here’s what you need to know.


  • 6 Comments

    • TraceContributor

      Stephanie thanks for keeping us up to date and continuing your timely blogs even over the holiday weekend. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving (all things considered). 

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      • Stephanie ArnoldContributor Trace

        Thank you! Had a great Thanksgiving day, but felt a little bummed to be stuck in the house yesterday (to be honest). I desperately want to travel but I choose to wait it out. Work like this keeps me busy and happy during this strange time. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving, too. 

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    • Cia

      What makes Deborah Fuller certain that serious reactions will not be permanent? How could she know? Charles Hugh Smith urges that tests be conducted in specific groups to measure safety and efficacy: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2020/11/vaccines-too-little-too-late.html?m=1

      He specifically mentions people with autoimmune problems in themselves or family members. Dr. Richard Moskowitz (Vaccination: A Reassessment) explains how permanent disabling vaccine autoimmune reactions play out over years, but are not immediately discernible. 

      The Pfizer and Moderna products are a brand-new technology, mRNA, not vaccines, and the term hijacking the host’s DNA is often used for what it does. At this time, authorities have been forced to admit that the experience is not a walk in the park, and people must be warned to accept severe reactions which in many may not be of as limited duration as they hope.

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      • Stephanie ArnoldContributor Cia

        It’s possible that very severe reactions could occur, but very severe reactions are generally vanishingly rare–one in many millions–compared to the death of 1 in ~100 by COVID. It’s true that mRNA vaccines are new, and there are concerns for those with autoimmune disorders. It’s known that the benefits greatly outweigh the risks, though, given how deadly COVID is proving to be. 

        Edit: and to be clear, benefits may not outweigh risks to those with autoimmune disorders. Physicians are already telling some patients with autoimmune diseases that the mRNA vaccines are not the best choice for them. 

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    • Stephanie ArnoldContributor

      There’s an error: I read 90,000 hospitalized in ICU, and that’s not the case. There are over 90,000 hospitalized in general with COVID. The American Hospital Association pins total number of ICU beds at around 100,000. ~20,000 are in ICUs in the US, so there are many more ICU beds available, though not in areas that have very high seroprevalence. 

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      • Greg P Stephanie Arnold

        Total census in the hospitals, especially ICU’s, is nearing capacity TODAY in Indiana where I practice as a respiratory therapist.  The non-COVID patients make up most of the ICU census currently as people persist in having heart attacks, strokes & getting into auto accidents.  The staff resources are already stretched thin.  When we get hit by the post-Thanksgiving surge of COVID we will be overwhelmed.  Even if we manage to repurpose areas into makeshift ICU’s we will NOT have the personnel to care for all the patients.  People will receive poor care and/or we will be forced to triage military-style and even more people will die.  My morbidity projection is that we will lose another 50-60K people by the end of December.  As I write these words I so hope I am wrong, but fear that I am not.   

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