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January 13, 2021

An informed guide to the pandemic, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment.

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The New York Times

By Jonathan Wolfe

Johnson & Johnson expects to release results from its one-shot coronavirus vaccine trial in as little as two weeks, but production is lagging.
The total number of cases in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic has surpassed 23 million.
More than 10 percent of the U.S. Congress has tested positive since the pandemic began.
Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and vaccines in development.

The scramble to meet vaccine demand

As Americans focus their attention on the fallout from the Capitol siege and the debate over another presidential impeachment, the pandemic is reaching what only a few months ago was considered a nightmare scenario.

Yesterday’s death count — at least 4,406 people — set another daily record, and represents at least 1,597 more people than those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. The U.S. death toll, already the highest in the world by a wide margin, is soaring toward 400,000 — only one month after the country crossed the 300,000 threshold.

From the beginning, the country’s coronavirus strategy relied heavily on quickly making a vaccine. Multiple candidates were developed in record time, and if given out quickly, could rein in the pandemic and save thousands of lives. But so far the rollout has been slow, and riddled with challenges.

After the federal government yesterday abruptly reversed course and cleared vaccinations for people over 65 and adults with certain medical conditions, states have been scrambling to meet a surge in demand for doses.

Local officials have struggled to set up phone and online sign-up systems. Many of the oldest Americans, who are most vulnerable to the disease, are encountering byzantine online registration sites, error messages and crashing servers. Appointments are snatched up as soon as they become available, and some in the highest priority group have only managed to book their shots weeks from now.

As of this morning, the federal government has delivered almost 30 million doses, and more than 10 million have been administered. The Trump administration originally said that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by Jan. 1.

In Georgia, a man spoke to Atlanta’s Channel 2 Action News about how he had repeatedly called his county’s hotline to try to make an appointment for his mother.

“No one’s ever picking up,” Eric Moore said. “I promise you, I called 134 times.”

It apparently started with a small outbreak at a village wedding party.

After a handful of coronavirus cases emerged this month in a province surrounding Beijing, the Chinese authorities locked down more than 17 million people in two cities, Shijiazhuang and Xingtai.

The new rules froze transportation and canceled weddings, funerals and a Communist Party conference. The government also ordered the testing of every resident there, which was wrapped up in a few days.

This week the restrictions were expanded to Langfang, a city on the edge of Beijing, and to some districts inside Beijing, the Chinese capital. They now apply to 22 million people, more than twice as many as the lockdown in Wuhan last January.

The move comes at a time when the Chinese economy was surging back after last year’s slump and when residents, many who felt like the pandemic was a thing of the past, were getting used to something close to normal life. China, a country of 1.4 billion people, has reported an average of 109 new cases a day over the past week. (For some perspective, the U.S. is averaging a quarter-million a day.)

Since the outbreak in Wuhan, Chinese authorities have created a playbook for outbreaks that includes sealing off neighborhoods, conducting widespread testing and quarantining large groups — measures that were seen as extraordinary when they were applied in Wuhan last year.

Officials have appeared especially worried about Beijing, home of the Communist Party’s central leadership. After a taxi driver there tested positive over the weekend, the authorities tracked down 144 passengers for additional tests, according to The Global Times, a state tabloid. Now anyone getting in a taxi or car service in Beijing has to scan a QR code from their phone, allowing the government to quickly trace them.

Resurgences

At the end of November, Ireland had one of the lowest rates of the virus in Europe. Now, after coming out of a six-week lockdown in December, the country has one of the highest rates of infection in the world, the Irish Times reports.
Oklahoma, which has no statewide mask mandate, is grappling with a surging caseload, the worst it has seen and one of the worst this winter in the U.S.
Japan expanded its state of emergency to seven more prefectures, citing rising new coronavirus infections and strains on the medical system.
Germany’s cabinet agreed to tighten the rules for entering the country, in an attempt to limit the spread of new coronavirus variants. The country’s health minister said the planned end of the country’s lockdown on Feb. 1 was “not possible.”

Here’s a roundup of restrictions in all 50 states.

What else we’re following

Researchers in Ohio found preliminary evidence of two virus variants that may be more contagious.
Indonesia’s president received a Chinese-made vaccine that produced disappointing trial results.
Health authorities are investigating the case of a Florida doctor who died from an unusually severe blood disorder 16 days after receiving the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine.
The House approved fines for members who refuse to wear masks on the chamber floor, The Hill reports. There will be a $500 fine for a first offense, and $2,500 for the second.
The Los Angeles Times reports that children are apologizing to their parents and grandparents on their hospital death beds for infecting them with the coronavirus.
A new study found that when intensive care unit beds fill up in hospitals, the survival rates of patients drop.
The U.S. military said the first 100 members of the prison staff at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, have received initial vaccines against the coronavirus, though it declined to say whether any of the 40 wartime prisoners at the detention center were offered or received vaccines.

What you’re doing

I have adopted what I call my Jane Austen hour. In the spirit of the Victorian-era tradition of “morning correspondence,” each day I spend an hour writing emails or texts to friends and family, many of whom I haven’t been in touch with for years. I have reconnected with old college roommates, high school friends, long-lost cousins, and all sorts of acquaintances I had lost touch with. I just send a short note saying that I was thinking about them and hoping they were managing OK in these crazy times, and then I share a treasured memory about them. The resulting reconnection and renewed correspondence has been a great antidote to pandemic isolation.
— Shelley Hammond Hoffmire, Oxford, U.K.

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