COVID-19 News and Discussions

[Yuli Ban]

[wjfox]

WTF?

[Yuli Ban]

[caltrek]

Court Allows Biden Employer Vaccine Mandate to Take Effect
December 17, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/court-al ... ke-effect/

Introduction:

(AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Friday allowed President Joe Biden's Covid-19 vaccine mandate for larger private employers to move ahead, reversing a previous decision on a requirement that could affect some 84 million U.S workers.

The 2-1 decision by a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati overrules a decision by a federal judge in a separate court that had paused the mandate nationwide.

The mandate from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration was to take effect Jan. 4. With Friday's ruling, it's not clear when the requirement might be put in place, but the White House said in a statement that it will protect workers: "Especially as the U.S. faces the highly transmissible Omicron variant, it's critical we move forward with vaccination requirements and protections for workers with the urgency needed in this moment."

Republican state attorneys general and conservative groups said they would appeal Friday's decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Twenty-seven Republican-led states joined with conservative groups, business associations and some individual businesses to push back against the requirement as soon as OSHA published the rules in early November. They argued the agency was not authorized to make the emergency rule, in part because the coronavirus is a general health risk and not one faced only by employees at work.

[weatheriscool]

Omicron may sideline two leading drugs against COVID-19
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12- ... ovid-.html
by Matthew Perrone

As strained U.S. hospitals brace for a new surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the fast-spreading omicron variant, doctors are warning of yet another challenge: the two standard drugs they've used to fight infections are unlikely to work against the new strain.

For more than a year antibody drugs from Regeneron and Eli Lilly have been the go-to treatments for early COVID-19, thanks to their ability to head off severe disease and keep patients out of the hospital.

But both drugmakers recently warned that laboratory testing suggests their therapies will be much less potent against omicron, which contains dozens of mutations that make it harder for antibodies to attack the virus. And while the companies say they can quickly develop new omicron-targeting antibodies, those aren't expected to launch for at least several months.

A third antibody from British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline appears to be the best positioned to fight omicron. But Glaxo's drug is not widely available in the U.S., accounting for a small portion of the millions of doses purchased and distributed by the federal government. U.S. health officials are now rationing scarce drug supplies to states.

"I think there's going to be a shortage," said Dr. Jonathan Li, director of the Harvard/Brigham Virology Specialty Laboratory. "We're down to one FDA-authorized monoclonal antibody" with omicron because of the reduced effectiveness of Regeneron and Lilly's drugs.

[Cyber_Rebel]

WTF?

Saw this posted in that thread, could/seems to be the reason why:

Cyberattack Hits Maryland Department of Health; Government Agencies Increasingly Targets of Hackers
BALTIMORE (WJZ) https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2021/12 ... f-hackers/

The Covid-19 infection metrics on the Maryland Department of Health website have not been updated in days with a warning that “MDH is experiencing a server outage. Data will be updated as soon as possible.”

One health care executive tweeted that people are having trouble getting key Medicaid information because of the hack.

--------

Healthcare is often a target of hackers. A CBS News investigation found more than one thousand hospitals were attacked last year alone—with some hackers even shutting down equipment—and blamed for patient deaths.

In 2020, hackers hit Greater Baltimore Medical Center affecting some of their information technology systems.

Pretty despicable thing to be doing and especially terrible timing, but perhaps the timing seems perfect for ransoms to take place in the minds of such people. The hospitals have to end up "negotiating" to save patients' lives despite the loss of resources, and the general chaos that Covid brings already stretches said hospitals' resources thin.

Reads like something out of an 80s dystopian Cyberpunk fiction, where the hackers want to exploit the cracks in the system no matter who gets hurt.

[raklian]

^ There is a special place in Hell for those hackers.

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Anti-vaxxers block-book appointments to stop people getting life-saving Covid jab

19 December 2021 • 8:27pm

Anti-vaxxers are block-booking appointments at mass vaccination centres, it has emerged, in an apparent attempt to prevent others receiving the life-saving jab.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/1 ... ting-life/

[raklian]

Anti-vaxxers are block-booking appointments at mass vaccination centres, it has emerged, in an apparent attempt to prevent others receiving the life-saving jab.

Fu*king psychopaths.

[caltrek]

Silly me, I thought that U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa were there to protect Japan.

Okinawa Fears Link Between 1st Omicron Case and Base Cluster
by Shogo Mitsuzumi

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14505250

Introduction:

(Asahi Shimbun) NAHA--Prefectural authorities in Okinawa announced the first known case of a local resident confirmed infected with the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus.

The Dec. 17 disclosure came on the heels of a report from U.S. military authorities that close to 100 personnel recently arrived in Okinawa were found to have COVID-19.

Prefectural government officials requested that those individuals be tested for the Omicron variant to determine if a causal relationship exists.

U.S. military officials have refused to cooperate with the prefectural government.

The infected resident, a man in his 50s, worked at Camp Hansen in Kin, Okinawa Prefecture, and lived in Uruma.

[caltrek]

Japan PM Kishida Speeds Boosters and Secures Pfizer Pills Amid Omicron Fears
December 17, 2021

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14504471

Introduction:

(The Asahi Shimbun) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he had spoken with the head of Pfizer Inc on Friday to secure oral treatments for COVID-19, and that vaccine boosters for the elderly would be accelerated as concerns swirl about variants.

Kishida told reporters he had arranged to secure 2 million doses of Pfizer's antiviral pill in a call with CEO Albert Bourla.

Japan will aim to get boosters to about 31 million healthcare workers and high-risk elderly people within six months from their initial inoculation instead of eight, Kishida said. From February, other elderly people will get boosters within seven months, he said.

Although COVID-19 cases have fallen dramatically since a deadly wave in August, there is growing concern about the Omicron variant, which has been found more than 30 times in Japan, mostly during airport screening and quarantine.

[caltrek]

Here is an interesting CDC site:

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracke ... rate-total

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-roo ... icials-74/

Wait, it's real!

[Yuli Ban]

[Xyls]

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]