evilzenscientist | Nothing of Any Quincyquonce

COVID – week 70 – July 12 – July 18

by ezs | Jul 12, 2021 | evilzenscientist

Weekend – One day, probably before the end of summer, I’ll be writing about the variant that escaped, and the scramble to get a new vaccine to fight the new variant. Biden: “Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated.” In relatively vaccinated King County (>74% of 12+ fully vaccinated, >85% locally) there are pockets of low vaccination rates; that align almost perfectly with voting outcomes. In Seattle and the Eastside; it’s almost back to “normal”. Compare to areas of the south where it’s closer to 30% and raging cases.

Summary of COVID vaccination among King County residents – King County

More UK U turns on PM isolation.

Weekly snapshot of data from The Seattle Times. Note the slight uptick in new cases :\

Friday – my fears in a Guardian article. “England Covid unlocking is a threat to the world“

Thursday – 48,553 new delta variant cases in the UK. This is like late December. Hospitalisations and deaths are lagging; but because of vaccinations are at a lower rate than last year. Washington State finally reaches 70% of adults having one or more vaccine doses. US – Canada border may re-open for travel in mid-August.

Wednesday – Multiple locations returning to curfew and lockdown.

Tuesday – “Freedom Day” in the UK in a week; and an “Exit Wave”. Bold and daring; or incredibly short sighted and risky…

Monday – UK reopening full of confusion, mixed messaging and backtracking. Euro finals “devastating” for COVID transmission. Ramping cases, warnings of 1000 hospitalisations per day, 200 deaths per day. Great data on cases, admissions and deaths.

This time last year – UK predicting a “significant normality by Christmas” (it wasn’t). Restrictions returned to WA state. Work from home until 2021. Return to school in September up in the air.

	The Guardian	The Seattle Times
12 Jul	here	here
13 Jul	here	here
14 Jul	here	here
15 Jul	here	here
16 Jul	here	here
17 Jul	here	here
18 Jul	here	here

https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/coronavirus-live

https://www.seattletimes.com/tag/coronavirus/

COVID – week 69 – July 5 – July 11

by ezs | Jul 4, 2021 | evilzenscientist

Weekend – Much discussion over England soccer games and being super-spreader events. Good Twitter thread from Andy Slavitt https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/1413929409380110337?s=20 – “2021 is the year of the unvaccinated pandemic” – in developing nations, and in unvaccinated states.

Usual graph from The Seattle Times. Vaccinations are slowing. Cases are declining slowly.

Friday – “Worst over” for some says WHO. Discussion on third Pfizer/Moderna shot as a booster in the fall. NSW/Sydney lockdown continues.

Thursday – UK re-opens; vaccine take up for those unvaccinated (mainly under 30s) slows. 4MM deaths globally. Tokyo Olympics to be without fans.

Wednesday – I feel this is going to be the summer of “super spreader” events; especially in the states with lower vaccine numbers. Here’s a starter: 125 infected at a church camp in TX. UK reopening a “dangerous experiment” – daily cases looking a lot like December. Graph from The Guardian.

Tuesday – “2M UK cases, 10M in isolation” – on these numbers I’ll be commenting on Covid for years. “About 99.2% of recent COVID-19 deaths in the United States involved unvaccinated people.” Fauci.

Monday – UK lifting mask and distancing requirements – most rules to end by 19 July.

This time last year – runaway transmission, US cases were trending up; TX, AZ, FL hospitals overflowing; US gave notice to exit WHO.

	The Guardian	The Seattle Times
5 Jul	here	here
6 Jul	here	here
7 Jul	here	here
8 Jul	here	here
9 Jul	here	here
10 Jul	here	here
11 Jul	here	here

https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/coronavirus-live

https://www.seattletimes.com/tag/coronavirus/

Patching and thoughts

by ezs | Jul 3, 2021 | evilzenscientist

Another ransomware attack; this time via Kaseya who provide management tools for MSPs. A classic attack scenario – Friday afternoon, just before 4th July weekend here in the US.

Meanwhile home patching, webserver patching – and watching the impact of CVE-2021-34527 which is a vulnerability in the Windows print spooler.

COVID – week 68 – June 28 – July 4

by ezs | Jun 28, 2021 | evilzenscientist

Weekend – More huge case loads across Asia. Vietnam, Indonesia called out. Australia in lockdown. New Zealand carefully watching. Russia has five days of case spikes. UK warns of “variant factory” if restrictions are lifted too soon.

Weekend data from The Seattle Times.

Friday – While the US is reopening; the rest of the globe continues to suffer. Europe, South Africa, Australia.

Thursday – Interesting feedback from Europe – Pfizer or Moderna being recommended as follow on dose to the AstraZeneca for maximum protection.

Wednesday – second meeting in the office; everyone was vaccinated and we agreed to be distant but without masks. In person for these planning meetings is more productive. Washington State officially “reopened”. Mask requirements are “not coming back” – with >70% vaccinated in King County and >80% locally this might be a good call, except for the case of an exceptionally virulent variant that breaks out. State numbers are lower with only 50% of residents (60% of adults) vaccinated. UK clearly on the rising side of a fourth wave, driven by the delta variant.

Tuesday – digging into the variants again. Iota is the latest that is a potential breakout. Meanwhile King County, WA drops the mask mandate and the State is due to lift all restrictions tomorrow. Meanwhile the UK is running hot with Delta variant – and looking a lot like October 2020.

Monday – clearly the emergence of breakout variants is going to be the next concern; reports that >80% vaccination is needed to prevent escape.

This time last year – “too much virus in the US” and Dr Fauci predicted 100K cases per day. Start of the anti-science and anti-vaccine reporting. The cancellation of July 4th events.

	The Guardian	The Seattle Times
28 Jun	here	here
29 Jun	here	here
30 Jun	here	here
1 Jul	here	here
2 Jul	here	here
3 Jul	here	here
4 Jul	here	here

https://www.theguardian.com/world/series/coronavirus-live

https://www.seattletimes.com/tag/coronavirus/

COVID – week 67 – June 21 – June 27

by ezs | Jun 24, 2021 | evilzenscientist

Weekend – is the Delta variant the one that breaks out? Half of adults infected in Israel with Delta were fully vaccinated. WHO still recommending masks. Sydney NSW in lockdown. Delta variant may be outpacing vaccination.

Usual data from The Seattle Times.

Friday – the stories emerging about the pandemic response last year are incredible. Here’s another.

Thursday – AP: “Nearly all COVID deaths in US are now among unvaccinated“. That UK cases graph – wave four; vast majority is Delta variant; unvaccinated or single shot folk.

Wednesday – first large event

Tuesday – forecasts of record breaking heat in the Pacific Northwest, unheard of highs. Pandemic related? Tangentially: from last week “Drought is the next pandemic“. I read “When the Rivers Run Dry” by Fred Pearce many moons ago.

Monday – More thought on “when to stop” this summary. I think soon. This was always intended as a medium to document the personal and local impacts of COVID – and with >80% vaccinated locally – this is return to normal. Move just a few miles to more rural parts of the county – and vaccination rates are much lower. From The Seattle Times: “The lower rates in these areas likely reflect the more conservative political outlook of many residents, who may have a greater degree of vaccine skepticism.”

This time last year – I just noticed this was still “COVID – work from home” – with an expectation of a return to office at any point in the future. Huge surge in the US, UK re-opening too early.