A Neutralizing Monoclonal Antibody for Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19 (PDF) NEJM. I don’t imagine that NEJM reads NC, but in any case, this is an improvement over the BNT162b2 debacle. “Protocol” on first mention: “The TICO platform protocol (available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org) governs the testing of multiple candidate therapies in a multigroup, multistage, double-blind design…” Now embed the entire URL so the reader doesn’t to poke through the entire NEJM site, and even better, make the link clickable. Best of all, include the Supplementary Materials section in the PDF. Bytes are cheap.

* * *

I’m A Scientist. I Can’t Even Get My Own Family And Friends To Follow COVID-19 Rules. HuffPo. This is a must-read. (The author also has Strategies for Disseminating and Implementing COVID‐19 Public Health Prevention Practices in Rural Areas Journal of Rural Health, back in April.)

‘Mom’s worth it’: US holiday travel surges despite outbreak AP (Re Silc). Re Silc: Also her estate!

Let’s put the straw man of pandemic denial out of his misery STAT. Important:

The obsession with denialism isn’t just inaccurate. It’s corrosive for at least three reasons. First, it needlessly alienates the interested public with false accusations. Second, by conflating reasonable dissent with unreasonable misinformation, it stifles debate, even about issues that genuinely warrant discussion. Third, the myth of denial deflects blame from the policy failures of politicians, who use it to claim they’ve done all they could, leaving only the denialists (and cheesecake eaters) to blame.

Members of John MacArthur’s Church Say They’re Being Pressured Not to Report New COVID Outbreak The Roys Report. Gotta keep those collection plates moving.

* * *

Millions of U.S. vaccine doses sit on ice, putting 2020 goal in doubt Reuters (Re Silc). Last mile problems at the hospitals.

Sinovac Biotech’s CoronaVac vaccine above 50 per cent efficacy, says Brazilian institute South China Morning Post

The Mysterious Link Between COVID-19 and Sleep The Atlantic (MV).

* * *

Covid-19 has turned the spotlight on the uneven provision of oxygen—a stark health inequity British Medical Journal

Pulse Oximeters May Be Less Accurate for Black People. Should You Use One? NYT

Coronavirus in Plumbing Systems Contractor (Chris). Hong Kong. Building codes are not the same as in the US.

Coronavirus tracker: the latest figures as countries fight Covid-19 resurgence (free) FT. Handy chart:

Comparison of official COVID-19 death rates to those estimated by @FT from the number of excess deaths.

Some nations appear to have kept quite accurate death tolls, while others have had far more deaths than explained by their official tally.

Note: Dates of available data vary. pic.twitter.com/GHCU2ExHxz

— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) December 22, 2020

Interpretive thread:

A important thread on the excess death data has been provided by @FT data guru, @jburnmurdoch: https://t.co/vgPzkGACzB

— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) December 22, 2020

China?

China Looks at Cutting Inequality in Order to Boost the Economy Bloomberg

Civics lesson:

It says everything about Hong Kong’s self-sufficient population that this is what happens when there’s only one tiny bench at the bus terminus.👇 pic.twitter.com/20HWMdrYSb

— ClaraFerreiraMarques (@ClaraDFMarques) December 24, 2020

The think tank behind Australia’s changing view of China Australian Financial Review

Virus success helps Taiwan buck global downturn with enviable growth Agence France Presse. WFW = chips.

These Places Thought They’d Nailed the Virus. It’s Creeping Back Bloomberg. South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand.

Finding community at a COVID-19 quarantine centre in Myanmar Reuters

The Koreas

North Korean Party Congress Primer 38 North

India

‘This is all a facade’: Kashmiris vote in staged election FT

Democracy in Africa is in retreat FT

Brexit

On cusp of Brexit trade deal, EU and UK haggle over fish Reuters. Fish like:

pic.twitter.com/Kp4zbIszOC

— EU Painting Memes (@EUinPaintings) December 20, 2020

As of this writing….

UK/EU

Plans for 30-minute Covid testing in England halted amid accuracy fears Guardian

New Cold War

With Biden’s New Threats, the Russia Discourse is More Reckless and Dangerous Than Ever Glenn Greenwald

Russia Cries War As U.S. Tries To Kill Nord Stream 2 OilPrice.com

Russian and Chinese bombers fly joint patrol over Pacific AP

Trump Transition

Trump Vetoes Defense Bill, Setting Up Congressional Vote To Potentially Override Him NPR

Trump pardons Manafort, Stone and Charles Kushner in latest round The Hill

Trump lauded, then derided Barr. A look inside the attorney general’s tumultuous term. CNN

AHA seeks emergency relief to block enforcement of price transparency rule Healthcare Dive

Dozens Of Women Allege Unwanted Surgeries And Medical Abuse In ICE Custody NPR

Biden Transition

Biden Declares Political Center Alive and Well WSJ

To the doubters, he says: “I’m going to be able to get stuff done in the environment none of you are going to believe,” he said, citing in particular changing views within the business community. “I could not have gotten it done six years ago.”

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) December 23, 2020

“I”?

Where In The World Is Kamala Harris? David Sirota and Andrew Perez, The Daily Poster

Biden’s Pony Problem: Why The Hunter Biden Scandal Is No Dead Horse Jonathan Turley

Democrats en Dishabille

Investigator: DNC Was “Directly Involved” In Iowa Caucus App Development, Countering DNC Denial The Intercept. “The DNC’s meddling, which included a last-minute demand that developers of the Shadow app create a special software that would allow the DNC real-time access to the raw numbers before they went public, didn’t sit well with [Sanders supporter James] Zogby.” That seems odd. Why would the DNC need that?

The Democratic Divide in New York State Ross Barkan, Political Currents. I don’t think Yang knows what he’s getting into.

Health Care

The Fight for Medicare for All Must Log Off Aaron Thorpe, Space and Light

Retiree Living the RV Dream Fights $12,387 Nightmare Lab Fee KHN

Police State Watch

We should get rid of local policing. Ferguson shows why the system just doesn’t work. Sunil Dutta, WaPo. Dutta is a 17-year-veteran police officer in Los Angeles.

A Neighbor Describes What Happened When Law Enforcement Stopped Responding to an Armed Encampment in North Portland Willimette Week

XMas Pre-Game Festivities

TK Newsletter: Yuletide Edition Matt Taibbi, TK News

States Square Off Over Taxing Remote Workers’ Income WSJ

Class Warfare

Reddit Is A Window Into The American Nightmare The American Conservative

An Essential Worker’s List of Pandemic Chores for the Kids JAMA

Antidote du jour (NotBerlin):

NotBerlin writes: “Here is Magee, our one year-old puppy. She is an official “real” breed…. a Dandie Dinmont Terrier. Sir Walter Scott tagged this breed in a novel of his 🙂 My wife and I just love her, and she runs the show. End of story. She’s the sweetest girl on the planet.”

See yesterday’s Links and Antidote du Jour here