Althouse: Christmas "Eve" sunrise at 7:17.

December 24, 2021

Christmas "Eve" sunrise at 7:17.

A silent, misty morning.

27 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Merry Christmas Everybody.; 12/24/21, 12:44 PM
madAsHell said...: You know what I fail to understand.......How can they distinguish the variant of the virus with the testing tools available??

I'm thinking they can't, but they can publish Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt in the newspaper.; 12/24/21, 1:06 PM
madAsHell said...: FJB was excited to learn there might be Pi.; 12/24/21, 1:07 PM
JZ said...: Glad you put “eve” in quotes. It is, after all, a sunrise.; 12/24/21, 1:08 PM
Joe Smith said...: 'It is, after all, a sunrise.'

Don't fall for it : ); 12/24/21, 2:41 PM
tim maguire said...: Blogger madAsHell said...You know what I fail to understand.......How can they distinguish the variant of the virus with the testing tools available??

I'm thinking they can't, but they can publish Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt in the newspaper.

Of course they can. The technology has been around for years. They don’t sequence every sample, but they do it for enough to know what’s going on in a population.; 12/24/21, 3:04 PM
madAsHell said...: Merry Christmas to all!!; 12/24/21, 3:04 PM
WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...: You'll always have the capitol building as a stand-in for the sun. or the moon.; 12/24/21, 4:50 PM
wildswan said...: So Wisconsin.; 12/24/21, 4:51 PM
tim in vermont said...: "You know what I fail to understand."

They have been sequencing bacteria since 1981 and have been sequencing viruses for nearly as long, think of the difference in computational power since that time. If you are really interested in understanding it, why not have a read at this old pre-covid article on the matter.

https://www.whatisbiotechnology.org/index.php/exhibitions/sanger/sequencing; 12/24/21, 5:07 PM
Lance said...: How can they distinguish the variant of the virus with the testing tools available?

They periodically sequence a few samples.; 12/24/21, 5:10 PM
Maynard said...: We are headed to Church for the first time in a while. Hopefully no masks are required.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!; 12/24/21, 5:24 PM
William50 said...: I thought this was cute and the actors did a good job lip sinking.

Christmas according to kids; 12/24/21, 5:43 PM
Howard said...: I hope no churches require masks. Plus, they must have lots of loud Christmas carol songs from the chorus. Enjoy your Omicron party. Meemaw and Poppop were going to die soon anyways. Now they get to spend even more time with Jeebus... It's a win-win.; 12/24/21, 6:22 PM
gilbar said...: Howard confusingly said...

die from WHAT, Howard? a head cold?; 12/24/21, 6:56 PM
FullMoon said...: Latest reports rumored to claim that going braless protects women 18-50 from virus.

I report, you decide.; 12/24/21, 8:37 PM
FullMoon said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/24/21, 8:39 PM
gadfly said...: "Merry Xmas Eve and a Happy Festivus to the restofus," from Steve Feiss over at Substack.; 12/24/21, 9:07 PM
Nice said...: Now, let's everybody gather 'round the tube and we'll all watch "It's a Wonderful Life" together, yes? C'mon it's tradition---have to watch.

I just had a thought: I wonder if Joan Didion ever reviewed that movie? I'm sure she had nothing good to say about it.; 12/24/21, 9:40 PM
Big Mike said...: Latest news from Texas is that the person who died with Omicron did not die from Omicron. Not clear what the poor individual did die from. Interesting, if true. Is it true? The news media, the Biden administration, Democrats in general, and the Texas and federal healthcare authorities are motivated to sow fear and doubt over Omicron, so the report is at least plausible. Ergo, we shall just have to see.; 12/24/21, 10:10 PM
madAsHell said...: They don’t sequence every sample, but they do it for enough to know what’s going on in a population.

I understand statistical models, but those reported in the newspapers are deliberately misleading.

I understand DNA sequencing technology, but we are not seeing that technology at the testing centers. It's a swab, and a litmus test. DNA sequencing is expensive.

In fact, now we have vaccinated people testing positive. This is political theater.

If Hillary Clinton had been elected in 2016, this would have been a really bad flu season. "Get over it you proles!!!"

I think a lot of Democrats are getting out because.......they don't want to die on COVID hill.; 12/24/21, 10:47 PM
madAsHell said...: Full disclosure.......We just watched the latest Bond movie with the kids on Christmas Eve. The flick has a COVID virus theme.; 12/24/21, 10:50 PM
walter said...: madAsHell said...You know what I fail to understand.......How can they distinguish the variant of the virus with the testing tools available??

--
Another issue is the "uneven" surveillance, which can influence rate.
"The problem is that the process takes time, especially when done in volume. The C.D.C.’s own sequencing process typically takes about 10 days to complete after it receives a specimen.
“We have really good surveillance in terms of quantity,” said Trevor Bedford, an expert on viral evolution and surveillance at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He added, “But by nature, it lags compared to your case reporting. And so we’ll have good eyes on things from two weeks ago.”
This kind of delay is not uncommon in countries that have a lot of samples to sequence, Dr. Bedford said.
In some states, the timeline is even longer. The Ohio Department of Health notes that, from start to finish, the process of “collecting the sample, testing it, sequencing it and reporting it can take a minimum of 3-4 weeks.”
But now that scientists know what they are looking for, they should be able to expedite the process by prioritizing samples that seem most likely to be Omicron, scientists said.
In one small bit of luck, Omicron generates a different genetic signal on P.C.R. tests than the Delta variant, which currently accounts for essentially all coronavirus cases in the United States. (In short, mutations in the new variant’s spike gene mean that Omicron samples test negative for the gene, while testing positive for a different telltale gene.)
Many labs are now expediting these samples, as well as samples from people who recently returned from abroad, for sequencing.
“All of the agencies that are involved with genomic surveillance are prioritizing those recent travel-associated cases,” Dr. Azarian said.
That may have been how the first California case was flagged so quickly. The patient returned from South Africa on Nov. 22 and began feeling sick on Nov. 25. The person tested positive for the virus on Monday and scientists then sequenced the virus, announcing that they had detected Omicron two days later.
“The quick turnaround by the U.S. genomic surveillance system is another example of how much better our system has become over the past few months,” Dr. Crawford said."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/02/health/omicron-variant-genetic-surveillance.html; 12/24/21, 11:00 PM
walter said...: FullMoon,
It's a Vitamin D thing.
Sun's out...you know the thing!; 12/24/21, 11:03 PM
walter said...: Triggered from Tim in Vermont's sequqencing history link:
Maybe it's time to come up a term to distinguish Epstein-Barr syndrome from that which infected multiple cameras and anesthetized guards.; 12/25/21, 12:31 AM
walter said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 12/25/21, 11:49 AM
farmgirl said...: Even through all that dark fog- the sun rising is still visible.
Such is the Light of Christ on Christmas morning.
There is Hope for the flowers…; 12/26/21, 4:23 AM