Americans get stern holiday warning: 'No Christmas parties' due to COVID

[webfact]

Americans get stern holiday warning: 'No Christmas parties' due to COVID

By Susan Heavey and Maria Caspani

 

FILE PHOTO: A patient is wheeled across a bridge connecting buildings inside Mount Sinai Hospital during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Manhattan in New York City, New York, U.S., December 3, 2020. REUTERS/Mike Segar

 

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) -A top coronavirus adviser to President-elect Joe Biden delivered a stern holiday message to Americans on Thursday - "no Christmas parties" - and warned they face a COVID-19 siege for weeks to come despite the latest moves toward U.S. government approval of a vaccine.

 

"The next three to six weeks at minimum ... are our COVID weeks," Dr. Michael Osterholm, a member of Biden's coronavirus advisory board, told CNN. "It won't end after that, but that is the period right now where we could have a surge upon a surge upon a surge."

 

Osterholm stressed that it would be several months before the nation sees widespread availability of vaccines, the first of which cleared a key U.S. regulatory hurdle on Thursday.

 

A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration voted overwhelmingly to recommend emergency-use authorization of a vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and its German partner, BioNTech SE.

 

The FDA is expected to grant approval within days, paving the way for a mass inoculation campaign unparalleled in U.S. history to be launched as early as next week. The advisory panel is due to review a second vaccine from Moderna Inc next week.

 

Nevertheless, Osterholm said sizeable quantities of vaccines would not be available to the public at large before March or April. Healthcare workers and nursing home residents are likely to be designated as first in line for the shots.

 

Osterholm's blunt admonition came as COVID-19 caseloads soared higher, straining healthcare systems in cities and small towns across the country and leaving intensive care units in hundreds of hospitals at or near capacity.

 

He urged Americans to do their utmost to slow the contagion by limiting social interactions to members of their immediate households, and above all, "No Christmas parties."

 

"There is not a safe Christmas party in this country right now," he said.

 

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer took a moment on Thursday to remember the more than 3,000 Americans who perished from COVID-19 the day before, likening that single day toll to some of the deadliest events in U.S. history, including Pearl Harbor and Gettysburg.

 

DAILY DEATH TOLL EXCEEDS 9/11

On Wednesday the daily toll of COVID-19 deaths in the United States surpassed 3,000 for the first time, climbing to 3,253 fatalities. That exceeded the loss of life from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and pushed the total number of Americans killed by the virus since the start of the pandemic to more than 290,000.

 

A record 106,219 people were hospitalized with the disease as of Wednesday night, up 18% over the past two weeks, according to a Reuters tally of state-by-state data.

 

Pandemic hot zones abounded in rural areas and cities alike.

 

In California's San Joaquin Valley agricultural region, less than 2% of intensive care unit (ICU) beds remain unoccupied, the California Department of Public Health reported on Thursday. Available ICU capacity throughout the most populous U.S. state has fallen to just 7.7%.

 

Nursing home residents and staff have been especially hard hit by COVID-19, a highly contagious respiratory virus to which the elderly and individuals with chronic health conditions are most vulnerable.

 

"This is a pandemic that no one has ever experienced in our lifetimes," Stephen Hanse, president of the New York State Health Facilities Association and the New York State Center for Assisted Living, told Reuters on Thursday.

 

Besides the staggering human cost, the pandemic has shattered the U.S. economy, forcing millions out of work as state and local authorities imposed sweeping restrictions on social and economic activities to curb the virus. Many Americans, however, have resisted public health directives to wear face coverings in public and avoid large crowds.

 

On Thursday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a medical doctor, imposed a midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew among other measures that will kick in on Monday and last through at least Jan. 31.

 

"Case numbers have been rising for weeks. They're higher now than they've ever been during this entire pandemic, Northam told a news briefing.

 

Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio said he was extending his state's 10 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew until Jan. 2, and Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, who tested positive for COVID-19 this week, announced new mitigation measures to take effect on Saturday.

 

Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20 after defeating President Donald Trump in last month's election, has set a goal of vaccinating 100 million people - about a third of the nation's population - within the first 100 days of his administration.

Congress, meanwhile, has struggled to end a months-long stalemate over COVID-19 economic assistance.

 

Disagreements remain over business liability protections demanded by Republicans and aid to state and local governments, whose budgets have blown up by the pandemic, sought by Democrats before a final deal is reached on pandemic aid.

 

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Maria Caspani, Sharon Bernstein, Lisa Shumaker, Manas Mishra and Julie Steenhuysen; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Daniel Wallis)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-12-11

 

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[bkk6060]

Many will not listen and have parties.

January will be a very bad month for US Covid.

[PatOngo]

37 minutes ago, webfact said:

Americans get stern holiday warning: 'No Christmas parties' due to COVID

To which they replied.....Get Lost! We are the Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free!!!

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

 

Quote

On Wednesday the daily toll of COVID-19 deaths in the United States surpassed 3,000 for the first time, climbing to 3,253 fatalities. That exceeded the loss of life from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and pushed the total number of Americans killed by the virus since the start of the pandemic to more than 290,000.

 

A sad, tragic indictment of the Trump Admin. and the person a minority of Americans elected as their president in 2016.  He could have made a difference and offered leadership to set an example that could have avoided much of the carnage... But instead, he fiddled while the U.S. burns.

 

[spidermike007]

The question is, can Americans listen to Covid advice? Had they been listening, following advice, taking precautions, not buying into the insipid politicization of this virus, and using common sense, the death toll would be far lower, the US would likely not be experiencing the crazy caseload it currently has, the economy would not have been as drastically affected, and things would be looking alot better at this time. 

 

Trump has to shoulder the blame for alot of this. If you consider his handling of the top crisis situations since he took office, he has been a total failure. Hurricane Maria. Negotiations with North Korea. The Chinese trade war. And now Covid. Republicans have to take some of the blame too. Dismissing all common sense, for the sake of a dog whistle, and macho symbolism, is not sane behavior. Time to start behaving like there are some adults in the room. 3,000 deaths in one day? Is anyone paying attention? 

Edited December 11, 2020 by spidermike007

[rudi49jr]

The stats so far for the USA are abysmal: almost 300,000 deaths to date, record number of over 3,000 deaths in one day (Dec. 9), and more than one million people infected in just one week. Not to mention hospitals being swamped. And still millions and millions of people refuse to do the most basic things to avoid infection: social distance, wear a mask, wash hands. It’s really quite simple, but apparently it’s too much to ask. I’m predicting a big surge in infections in the first half of January.

[Thailand Forever]

While I do not feel the number of deaths from Covid warrant the level of alarm that exists world wide, I do feel that the only responsible thing to do is to follow the public health directives and be a good little sheep.  In the name of love of neighbor it seems the only logical thing to do no?

As for all these people who rebel against the health orders, as much as it pains me to see them suffer, many of them small business people who will most assuredly go under for loss of business, they must realize they are victims of the pandemic and look at it philosophically.

[RJRS1301]

2 hours ago, PatOngo said:

To which they replied.....Get Lost! We are the Home of the Brave and the Land of the Free!!!

Not to mention home of the dead, and counting

 

[RJRS1301]

6 minutes ago, Thailand Forever said:

While I do not feel the number of deaths from Covid warrant the level of alarm that exists world wide, I do feel that the only responsible thing to do is to follow the public health directives and be a good little sheep.  In the name of love of neighbor it seems the only logical thing to do no?

As for all these people who rebel against the health orders, as much as it pains me to see them suffer, many of them small business people who will most assuredly go under for loss of business, they must realize they are victims of the pandemic and look at it philosophically.

Cannot run a business when you are dead or living with longer term effects from the infection

 

[Thailand Forever]

Just now, RJRS1301 said:

Cannot run a business when you are dead or living with longer term effects from the infection

So true.

[ukrules]

29 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

he question is, can Americans listen to Covid advice?

They do listen, many simply ignore it.

 

Why is Biden opening his mouth, it's not Jan 20 yet, he would lock the whole country down if he could - I'm not so sure that he can though as governors tend to do whatever they want regardless of who's president.

 

February 2021 is going to be interesting.

[wombat]

59 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

 

A sad, tragic indictment of the Trump Admin. and the person a minority of Americans elected as their president in 2016.  He could have made a difference and offered leadership to set an example that could have avoided much of the carnage... But instead, he fiddled while the U.S. burns.

 

just asking...whats the guy taking over doing about covid?

[RJRS1301]

12 minutes ago, wombat said:

just asking...whats the guy taking over doing about covid?

He is at least attending meetings about, informing himself from a scientific point of view, using his abilty to understand and learn. Listening.

Possibly even engaging with sociologists for plans to assit the general population

 

[RJRS1301]

12 minutes ago, wombat said:

just asking...whats the guy taking over doing about covid?

He is at least attending meetings about, informing himself from a scientific point of view, using his abilty to understand and learn. Listening.

Possibly even engaging with sociologists for plans to assit the general population

 

[Emdog]

Tell it to Trump: he has at least 26 Holiday parties being held & most (if not all) of the attendees haven't worn masks, or distanced. Supposed to be a party for Congressional members tonight

As we've seen, this reckless senseless behavior has led to many many cases among staff and supporters. Think of that SC nominee garden party and what followed. And that was outdoors.

Sadly, most of these people have already had kids, so "Darwin effect" will have no impact on lowering amount of stupid in that crowd

[Jingthing]

36 minutes ago, ukrules said:

They do listen, many simply ignore it.

 

Why is Biden opening his mouth, it's not Jan 20 yet, he would lock the whole country down if he could - I'm not so sure that he can though as governors tend to do whatever they want regardless of who's president.

 

February 2021 is going to be interesting.

Biden is opening his mouth because someone is needed to act as president as the current sitting president certainly isn't.

[Ireland32]

41 minutes ago, ukrules said:

They do listen, many simply ignore it.

 

Why is Biden opening his mouth, it's not Jan 20 yet, he would lock the whole country down if he could - I'm not so sure that he can though as governors tend to do whatever they want regardless of who's president.

 

February 2021 is going to be interesting.

Well-of course he has too Trump has done Nothing , But Golf , and President Biden has to raise taxes because Trumpers can’t pay their fair share of Taxes , Clueless 

[placeholder]

26 minutes ago, wombat said:

just asking...whats the guy taking over doing about covid?

Not as much as he could given how uncooperative the Trump administration is being. The question you should be asking is Trump doing anything at all except sulk and rage.

[spidermike007]

52 minutes ago, ukrules said:

They do listen, many simply ignore it.

 

Why is Biden opening his mouth, it's not Jan 20 yet, he would lock the whole country down if he could - I'm not so sure that he can though as governors tend to do whatever they want regardless of who's president.

 

February 2021 is going to be interesting.

I have never once heard Biden talking about locking the country down. Only lying Republicans are uttering that drivel. 

[honu]

conservative Americans' response:  muh freedoms!

[natway09]

It really does show what Americans think of their elderly population,,,,,,,, disposable ?

Horrible

[DavisH]

1 hour ago, Thailand Forever said:

So true.

And the flow-on effect of overloaded hospitals casing collateral deaths. Once all ventilators are in use, and all ICU beds are taken, that's it. Imagine turning up at hospital and needing an ICU after an accident? This is going to get very bad in the next few months in the US. 

I'm no Trump supporter, and his handling of the pandemic response is deplorable, but people really had all this information about this virus all over the internet. Many people really jut have themselves to blame if they get infected (the elderly,excepted). 

[honu]

4 minutes ago, natway09 said:

It really does show what Americans think of their elderly population,,,,,,,, disposable ?

Horrible

 

It's not fair to put that on all Americans.  If one fourth of all Americans really didn't care if there was a pandemic going on, and the real number may be one third, that would probably still be enough to cause continued exponential growth.  Far too many people made an exception to observe Thanksgiving by gathering, for sure.

 

If you multiply out Germany's case and mortality rates to match the population difference (80 million versus 330, so times 4) the stats are about the same.  Do Germans also not care about their elderly, or foolishly reject to take any precautions?  A close friend is German but he doesn't tend to break down his description of practices there as I would in the US, openly addressing perspective problems.  He was just in the process of booking a vacation trip when this spike occurred not so long ago, citing mental health as also of importance, needing to get out.

 

England isn't far off, or lots of other places, it's partly the population difference making the numbers stand out.  Not that I'm rejecting that many Americans are idiots; that's also a main cause.

[RJRS1301]

5 minutes ago, DavisH said:

And the flow-on effect of overloaded hospitals casing collateral deaths. Once all ventilators are in use, and all ICU beds are taken, that's it. Imagine turning up at hospital and needing an ICU after an accident? This is going to get very bad in the next few months in the US. 

I'm no Trump supporter, and his handling of the pandemic response is deplorable, but people really had all this information about this virus all over the internet. Many people really jut have themselves to blame if they get infected (the elderly,excepted). 

I wonder if a USA wide count of the deaths of scientists, social workers, medicos, paramedics, nurses , teachers has been done.

The effects of those people being taken from community will be immeasurable 

[teacherclaire]

The next three to six weeks at minimum ... are our COVID weeks. Alea Iacta Est.

 

The next three to six years at minimum ... are our COVID years. Who knows it? 

[Natai Beach]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

The question is, can Americans listen to Covid advice?

Nah. 
The advice has been the same since January.

They are killing themselves, but also ruining millions of people’s businesses and livelihoods worldwide. Why is that Mike?

 

it seems they are overly self conscious and shy to wear a mask. It isn’t difficult. Even after 300,000 dead they still refuse to wear a mask or socially isolate. Or is there more to it?
 

Me, me, me culture?

[DavisH]

1 minute ago, Natai Beach said:

Nah. 
The advice has been the same since January.

They are killing themselves, but also ruining millions of people’s businesses and livelihoods worldwide. Why is that Mike?

 

it seems they are overly self conscious and shy to wear a mask. It isn’t difficult. Even after 300,000 dead they still refuse to wear a mask or socially isolate. Or is there more to it?
 

Me, me, me culture?

Mnay in the US complain and till protest about lockdowns. Now, if they took it seriously at the start, got the numbers close to zero, and maintained mask wearing, socila distancing, etc, they would not be in this predicament. Covid fatigue seemed to set in fast there. My students still must sit separately and wear masks all the time, but I can see they are tired and irritable (not to mention, ALL activities were cancelled -xmas activities, sports day (err...week), etc. I'm tired too, as I'm teaching way more periods than I normally do (activities cancel many of my classes). 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, wombat said:

just asking...whats the guy taking over doing about covid?

 

Just in case you're actually interested in knowing:

 

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/politics/biden-100-million-vaccines-100-days/index.html

Biden details plan to combat coronavirus pandemic in first 100 days

"The plan, announced as he introduced the team he has designed to get the pandemic under control, would aim to get at least 100 million Americans vaccinated in his initial 100 days in office, his pledge to sign a face mask mandate on his first day in office and efforts to get kids back to school safely.

...

Last week, in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, the President-elect said he will ask Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days after he takes office.
...

While the President can't unilaterally require every American to wear a mask, under the law Biden said he could require masks in places like federal buildings and on planes, trains and buses for interstate travel....and said he would work with governors and mayors to pass masking mandates in communities across the country."

 

Not to mention pledging to listen to and follow scientific and medical advice from experts on the coronavirus, instead of ignoring it, and nominating experts with experience and credentials to the various top public health positions in the federal government.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2020 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[placeholder]

12 minutes ago, Natai Beach said:

Nah. 
The advice has been the same since January.

They are killing themselves, but also ruining millions of people’s businesses and livelihoods worldwide. Why is that Mike?

 

it seems they are overly self conscious and shy to wear a mask. It isn’t difficult. Even after 300,000 dead they still refuse to wear a mask or socially isolate. Or is there more to it?
 

Me, me, me culture?

Trump made it a political issue.

[spidermike007]

1 hour ago, Natai Beach said:

Nah. 
The advice has been the same since January.

They are killing themselves, but also ruining millions of people’s businesses and livelihoods worldwide. Why is that Mike?

 

it seems they are overly self conscious and shy to wear a mask. It isn’t difficult. Even after 300,000 dead they still refuse to wear a mask or socially isolate. Or is there more to it?
 

Me, me, me culture?

Nearly everyone I know wears a mask in the US. It appears the ones who do not wear a mask are nearly all Republicans. It is a demonstration of loyalty to the orange guy. So, in a sense the Covid acceleration and scourge, is a GOP sponsored virus. Trump is largely to blame for this. His rhetoric is hugely dangerous.