Local COVID-19 updates - sorta

[edschweppe]

The good news is that Massachusetts actually did report data today (the dashboard link is here and the raw data file link is here). The bad news is that at first glance deaths, cases, hospitalizations and percent-positive are all up compared to last Thursday. The more frustating news (for me, at least), is that there have been a whole bunch of changes to their data layouts, and it's going to take more work than I expected to try and get my custom data loader to work with these new changes. Once I do get it working, of course, I'll need to do a backdated entry for last Thursday (which I didn't do at the time because I was on Star Island and didn't want the hassle then.)

The very quick summary, though, is that today the state reported 42 newly confirmed deaths over seven days (6.00 deaths per day) compared to 31 newly confirmed deaths over six days last Thursday (5.17 deaths per day). The state reported 10,250 newly confirmed cases over seven days today (1,464.69 cases per day) compared to 7096 newly confirmed cases over six days last Thursday (1,182.67 cases per day). The state's current hospitalization count (as of July 19) is 589; that's up from 552 from the previous update (as of July 12).

I am personally of the opinion that when case, death and hospitalization counts are all rising, it is a bad time to reduce your reporting frequency, if the goal is to keep people updated on trends. But I don't get to run the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, so I don't get a vote.

Meanwhile, President Biden tested positive for the coronavirus following his visit to Massachusetts yesterday:

WASHINGTON — President Biden was feeling fine on a quick trip to Massachusetts Wednesday, delivering a nearly 20-minute speech in scorching heat outside a shuttered power plant in Somerset then cheerfully working the crowd in his aviator sunglasses before flying back to the nation's capital.

But some fatigue set in later that night, and after sleeping restlessly, he woke up with a runny nose and a dry cough, White House officials said. A regularly scheduled test Thursday morning delivered the news that has seemed inevitable despite the administration's efforts to protect the oldest US president in history: Biden has COVID-19.

"We knew this was going to happen," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

But unlike former president Donald Trump's bout with the disease before vaccines were available in 2020, Biden's diagnosis triggered much less drama and concern. Biden is fully vaccinated and double boosted, was experiencing mild symptoms, and, after he started immediately on Paxlovid, an antiviral drug designed to reduce the severity of the disease, White House doctors and outside physicians said his prognosis was good despite his age of 79.

"Most elderly vaccinated people do really well with COVID," said Dr. Shira I. Doron, hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center. "The chance of Biden doing really well is really, really high."

None of the Massachusetts politicians who traveled with Biden Wednesday or appeared with him at the Somerset event had tested positive as of Thursday. And the White House sought to downplay the impact of Biden's illness, which comes as the BA.5 variant has caused a sharp jump in infections — though notably not deaths — nationwide. Although his travel was canceled for at least five days, Biden tweeted a photo of himself working at his desk and later a video of him outside on a balcony, shot by a socially distanced videographer who the White House said was wearing an N95 mask.

[ ... ]

The relative calm was a striking difference to the reaction to Trump's positive COVID test in October 2020, before vaccines were available and when treatment options were limited. When his blood oxygen levels fell dangerously low, Trump, then 74, was rushed by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Center, where he was hospitalized for three days.

In contrast, Biden's blood oxygen level was normal Thursday, Jha said, and the president was set to isolate in the White House residence under close monitoring. Jean-Pierre promised daily updates on his condition.

"We worry most about immunocompromised and older patients," said Dr. Camille Kotton, an infectious disease specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital. "With respect to COVID-19, the majority of people do quite well with outpatient treatment. I would be cautiously optimistic that with good treatment he would do quite well and hopefully won't be sick too long."

White House officials said they did not know when or how Biden caught the virus. But with the new variant spreading rapidly and Biden out in the public, they saw this outcome as inevitable. In recent months, many top officials in his administration, including Harris and multiple Cabinet secretaries, have tested positive for COVID, as have dozens of members of Congress.

"Let people know that none of us is immune from it, including the president of the United States, and we really have to be careful," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The 82-year-old California Democrat contracted COVID this spring and said Thursday she had a "light" case of the disease.

[ ... ]

Biden was extremely cautious about COVID during the 2020 presidential campaign and during his first year in the White House, frequently wearing a mask and keeping social distance. But as virus case counts fell this year, the White House dropped its mask mandate for vaccinated people and Biden has spent more time unmasked and in the public.

"The president wants to get out there and meet the American people and engage, and we always said this was a possibility," Jha told reporters, adding that the White House protocols had helped stave off an infection until now. "The good news is his immune system is very well protected given the four vaccine shots he's gotten. He's getting treatment. He has mild symptoms. He's feeling fine — his words."

I'm certainly glad that Biden is doing well. But apparently the plan was to run around maskless and just let the President get infected? Whiskey, tango, foxtrot, over?

The town of Acton's current Google Data Studio dashboard is showing 26 active and 3,743 cumulative cases as of July 20. In the most recent "newsflash style update" at 7PM on December 21, 2021, the town reported 1538 cumulative cases with 89 individuals in isolation, 1417 recovered and 32 fatalities.

Comments

[edschweppe]

I did generate a wall-o-text finally for the 21st here.