CDC Changes Booster Guidelines (Again) As US Reports Record Cases

Public health authorities reported another 1M+ new COVID cases on Tuesday, bringing the 7-day average to a new record of 485,363, a new record high for what has historically been seen as a key measure of the pandemic’s severity.

Source: Bloomberg

However, focusing on cases is no longer the clickbait ratings-gatherer that the MSM hoped for as the divergence between cases and deaths is dramatic…

But that hasn’t stopped the CDC from deciding to change the timeline for receiving a booster shot to five months, down from six, serving to further confuse the public about the government’s rules.

The CDC is also recommending that moderately or severely immuno-compromised 5-to-11-year-olds receive an additional primary dose of the vaccine 28 days after their second shot, introducing a whole new jab to the equation.

Several prominent Democrats have also been infected in what are believed to be “breakthrough” cases of the virus, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

In terms of case numbers, the worst areas are the nation’s capital, New York, Puerto Rico, New Jersey and Florida.

Of that group, only Washington DC and New Jersey have more people in the hospital with confirmed COVID than they did during last winter’s surge.

In New York, hospitalizations are approaching the year-ago level of 9K but are still half of where they were at their peak in April 2020. New Jersey has more than 4.7K patients, compared with about 3.6K a year earlier.

State health department officials said emergency departments are seeing large numbers of people asking for home tests.

While the US suffers with record case numbers, Russia is bucking the global trend with case numbers that are falling, not rising.

Russia reported the lowest number of new cases since the middle of September with 18.2K new cases in the past day, according to the government’s reporting center. The number of deaths declined to 811, the lowest tally in more than three months.

Cases have finally stopped climbing in the UK, but COVID-related absences among hospital staff have jumped to nearly two thirds in the post-Christmas period, according to reports in the British press that cited NHS data. Regionally, the situation is even worse, with parts of one London hospital closed because half of the nursing staff were off sick. Nurses and other staff have also faced difficulty accessing COVID tests.

Yet again the rampant alarmism of the fear merchants in charge was utterly incorrect…