Coronavirus, week 85: Bits and pieces

Just a few minor things in this week's roundup while hoping you have a happy Thanksgiving in the USofA. (Hope you already had one, Canadians.)

Speaking of?

Your Local Epidemiologist explains how to best use antigen tests for Thanksgiving.

Let's then go to a Twitter thread by Dr. Scott Gottlieb on surging recent rates in Germany and elsewhere and what the US can learn. Biggie? They're even better vaccinated than us on senior citizens, but it tails off after that. Second? They've got their own set of antivaxxers. You have to remember that the modern-ish back to nature movement in the West started in pre-World War I Germany. Third? Less infection-based immunity than the US. Fourth? Lower test rates than the US and UK.

On Face the Nation, Gottlieb predicted a post-Thanksgiving spike. He also supports vax mandates and expects that sometime next year, the CDC will say it's three shots (or two if you started J&J, I presume) to be "fully vaccinated." St. Anthony of Fauci warns of a spike, too.

Per Worldometers, cases have indeed already started spiking back up, at their highest since late summer.

As a result, US deaths, at approximately 800K (and surely undercounted in COVID's early days) could hit 1 million by spring.

At the same time, even in big cities? It's time to (smartly) start moving forward, says Dave Leonhardt. Personally, I figure after we get through this winter, dining indoors at a sit-down restaurant will likely start again in spring of 2022 for me.