Hoosier

Today's data from Florida is absent from worldometers for some reason. They usually get up there fairly early in the day.

BFF storm (big fat fail)

Buffets are even tougher than other restaurants. A lot of movement from the table/booth to the food area and kinda hard to social distance.

Buffet place around here has shut down permanently. They had been closed since March.

No guarantees if you're in the wrong part of the restaurant at the wrong time Infected after 5 minutes, from 20 feet away: South Korea study shows coronavirus’ spread indoors https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-12-09/five-minutes-from-20-feet-away-south-korean-study-shows-perils-of-indoor-dining-for-covid-19?fbclid=IwAR0G3toxOn0Uitp1GNf6-5DH1AEZo-H2A262lYA3Vp4DAObzS56fr5RUokg

It is indeed a bad look. The EUA is coming very soon anyway and now if it comes today, it will look like it was jammed through under threat. If the administration wants to be able to take credit for the vaccine rollouts beginning in their term, that's fine. But you can't pick and choose what aspects of this to own. If you want to own the vaccines, then you own all of your policy decisions and rhetoric over the past several months -- good and bad. We have seen former presidents say they would be willing to get vaccinated on camera. I would hope we also see Mr. Trump get vaccinated on camera, given how much he has been touting the vaccines. And he shouldn't hide behind the fact that he just had covid a couple months ago, because it appears that people who have had covid are also going to be advised to take the vaccine.

Not that you're suggesting such, but peaking does not necessarily mean a quick fall is on the way. I fear we could be in ~200k+ case plateau hell for a while, especially at this time of year with seasonality factors working against us.

I realize there could be local differences, but in general, what is the percentage allowed in restaurants/bars in NY?

IHME model updated and came in with lower deaths by April 1... now just over 500k. The problem is that current deaths are running above the model projection, so I'm not sure how much stock to put in this run.

We still generally aren't running more than 2 million tests a day though.

17-4 in favor of approving the Pfizer vaccine. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/10/pfizer-covid-vaccine-fda-panel-recommends-approval-for-emergency-use.html Curious about the reasoning by the 4 no voters.

Based on your standards of a good winter, of course. Total snow should be the thing that is most resistant to big changes in a warmer climate. You can have a good 2 week run and already be at half or more of the entire snowfall average at ORD.

Nope. Lowest that ORD has been is 25. In all seriousness, I don't expect the snowfall futility to go on throughout winter. At least I hope not.

Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. I now proudly present the latest installment of Chicago Snowfall Futility. With the current date of December 10, you may think it is too early to be commenting on snowfall futility. But oh no, it is never too early, and futility must be discussed at any and all opportunities. With 0.7" so far, the snow season has not had a worse start at ORD since 2012. I may present more stats in the coming days, but we'll see.

The part below seems awfully optimistic, if he literally means zero infections. I think it will fade into the background over time, but complete eradication seems tough. I also want to see this 95% efficacy number hold up after millions of vaccinations across all age groups and vulnerabilities. "But due to imported cases and localized clusters, it is unlikely that new infections will drop to zero until 2022."

Do we know the bolded part for a fact yet? That somebody who was vaccinated can't transmit? I mean, it seems quite plausible that they wouldn't.

I do wonder how the general public would perceive this part. It could easily be misinterpreted imo, unless someone explains it to them.

Where have you seen about Bell's Palsy and pregnancy complications?

I'll go with an inch or less for 75%+ of the metro area.

That is true. Only the next few weeks are already "baked in" so to speak. What we do now could have an impact beyond that.

The next few months or so are going to be unlike anything that almost anybody alive has seen. We had 2000+ deaths a day for about a month back in April/May. We will have it for multiple months this time around and who knows how high the peak may go. There is indeed light at the end of the tunnel, but it's a slog to get there.

Even that map would be overdone in Chicago. It is in the mid 30s near the lake until like hr 75.

Even hit it at Covid Tracking, which tends to run a bit lower. Over 106k hospitalized.

The snowfall to date maps are going to look funny after the upcoming storm passes by. A few snow zones with significant screw zones in between. Though come to think of it, that's probably not all that rare.

Because our government sucks. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, and there hasn't been enough done.