Day 721 Retrospective: With COVID

On Friday the truth came out about Massachusetts COVID stats: only half the patients usually reported as hospitalized for COVID are actually sick from the disease. The numbers are still a bit wonky, though:

To identify patients admitted for COVID-19, the Baker administration is using the drug dexamethasone as a proxy. The powerful steroid, used to quell the inflammatory storm in severely ill COVID patients, is also commonly used to treat other conditions, such as septic shock or swelling in the brain.

On the Godwin's Law front, the pet owners of Hong Kong appear to be hiding their hamsters from the genocidal government, perhaps under the floorboards.

Massachusetts cases were up just over a percentage point.