COVID-19 News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

California Votes To Continue Requiring Masks At Work If Anyone Is Unvaccinated

(By Carolyn Said, 12 hrs. ago). If anyone in a workplace is unvaccinated, all colleagues must wear masks when in the same room, according to a new California workplace standard passed Thursday. But the standard allows workers to ditch masks when everyone in a room is vaccinated.

The standards board for California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, passed the new rules as a stopgap measure after a marathon meeting Thursday, minutes after it initially rejected the same rules by a 4-3 vote, swayed by business groups' arguments that they are too strict.

The board said it considers the measure temporary and will act quickly to craft a replacement. If the board had rejected the new rules, the existing standard, which requires everyone to wear masks at all times, would have remained in place.

The group decided to revisit its original vote and pass the proposal with the understanding that a three-person subcommittee would meet with agency experts to revise it as soon as possible. Meanwhile the new proposal takes effect June 15 if it passes legal muster with the state...

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... ar-AAKGlYp

[Time_Traveller]

COVID-19: Boris Johnson to call on G7 to vaccinate world against coronavirus by end of next year

Sunday 6 June 2021

The prime minister will call on G7 leaders to pledge to vaccinate the world's population against COVID-19 by the end of 2022.

Boris Johnson is planning to use the UK's presidency of the group to push for global vaccination coverage within the next 18 months.

When he meets fellow G7 leaders face-to-face on Friday - including President Joe Biden for the first time since his election win - Mr Johnson will call on them to "rise to the greatest challenge of the post-war era" to stop the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected at least 172 million people and killed more than 3.7 million worldwide.

Mr Johnson said: "The world is looking to us to rise to the greatest challenge of the post-war era: defeating COVID and leading a global recovery driven by our shared values.

https://news.sky.com/story/pm-to-call-o ... r-12325783

[caltrek]

France Tackles Virus Variants as It Readies for Tourists

https://www.courthousenews.com/france-t ... -tourists/

Introduction:

(AP) — French health authorities are racing to contain scattered cases of the more contagious delta virus variant, as France prepares to reopen its borders to vaccinated visitors and celebrates plunging Covid-19 infection and hospitalization rates.

Health Minister Olivier Veran said Sunday that France has multiple clusters of the variant, first identified in India and believed to be fueling a rise in infections in neighboring Britain, notably in the southwest Landes region. Speaking on BFM television, Veran said the variant hadn’t spread widely into the community and that health investigators are working to track cases.

Overall, he insisted, “the epidemic situation continues to strongly improve around the country,” but said the government isn’t preparing to lift mask requirements anytime soon. With growing numbers of people packing into Paris’ sidewalk cafes, parks and riverside quays, Veran warned that it’s too early for people to let down their guard, notably until more are fully vaccinated.

The French public health agency’s latest weekly epidemiological report shows a sustained drop in virus infections, hospitalization rates and deaths even after France started reopening schools, stores, and restaurants last month. More than half the adult population has had at least one vaccine dose, and 23% are fully vaccinated.

[weatheriscool]

Genome sequencing of COVID ''seemingly proves it was made in a lab'
Andrew Court For Dailymail.com
12 hrs ago
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ge ... ar-AAKM69K

Two U.S. experts have penned a damning essay saying the genome sequencing of COVID-19 strongly suggests that the virus was manufactured inside a Chinese laboratory.

Dr. Stephen Quay and Richard Muller, a physics professor at the University of California Berkeley, made the claim in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, amid growing speculation that the coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

'The most compelling reason to favor the lab leak hypothesis is firmly based in science,' the experts wrote, stating that 'COVID-19 has a genetic footprint that has never been observed in a natural coronavirus.'

[Time_Traveller]

COVID-19: Vaccinations extended to people over 25 in England

Monday 7 June 2021

People aged 25 to 29 in England will be able to book their coronavirus vaccination from tomorrow morning.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the extension to the country's COVID-19 vaccination programme in a statement to MPs in the Commons.

Will England's 'freedom day' go ahead? Live updates on the COVID-19 pandemic

He also said it was "still too early" to say whether step four on England's roadmap out of lockdown would go ahead on 21 June.

"From this week we will start offering vaccinations to people under 30, bringing us ever closer to the goal of offering a vaccine to all adults in the UK by the end of next month," Mr Hancock said.

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-vac ... d-12327129

[weatheriscool]

New COVID-19 model reveals effectiveness of travel restrictions
https://phys.org/news/2021-06-covid-rev ... tions.html
by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

More strategic and coordinated travel restrictions likely could have reduced the spread of COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic. That's according to new research published in Communications Physics. This finding stems from new modeling conducted by a multidisciplinary team of scientists and engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The researchers evaluated the distance between countries in terms of air travel, a more complex measurement than simply mapping physical distance. For instance, while China and Thailand may be geographically more proximate to one another, if there are significantly more flights between China and the United States, the chance of disease spread may be higher.

"This is considered a global problem," said Mamadou Diagne, an assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer, "so we wanted to know if coordinated action could be taken to mitigate contamination rates all across the world."

By mapping and analyzing the global mobility network through air traffic patterns, the researchers were able to determine the level of connection between various nations and develop a model that can predict which countries are closer to one another in terms of disease spread. The model was able to successfully predict when the virus arrived in the United States.

[wjfox]

Genome sequencing of COVID ''seemingly proves it was made in a lab'
Andrew Court For Dailymail.com
12 hrs ago
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ge ... ar-AAKM69K

Two U.S. experts have penned a damning essay saying the genome sequencing of COVID-19 strongly suggests that the virus was manufactured inside a Chinese laboratory.

Dr. Stephen Quay and Richard Muller, a physics professor at the University of California Berkeley, made the claim in The Wall Street Journal on Sunday, amid growing speculation that the coronavirus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

'The most compelling reason to favor the lab leak hypothesis is firmly based in science,' the experts wrote, stating that 'COVID-19 has a genetic footprint that has never been observed in a natural coronavirus.'

COVID-19 is natural, not man-made
(not an essay, but a peer-reviewed and published study in the journal Nature Medicine).

https://www.futuretimeline.net/blog/202 ... n-made.htm


A joint WHO–China investigation into the source of the outbreak deems a Wuhan laboratory leak to be "extremely unlikely", with a "natural reservoir" in bats being a more likely origin.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55996728

[caltrek]

In some ways, the article below could arguably be more appropriate for a thread in the history section. Yet, the controversy rages on and appears in news articles of the present. The full article cited below is pretty lengthy, but the controversy is complex enough that a lengthy treatment is needed.

The Origin of COVID: Did People or Nature Open Pandora’s Box at Wuhan?

https://thebulletin.org/2021/05/the-ori ... -at-wuhan/

Extract:

(Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives the world over for more than a year. Its death toll will soon reach three million people. Yet the origin of pandemic remains uncertain: The political agendas of governments and scientists have generated thick clouds of obfuscation, which the mainstream press seems helpless to dispel.
…
The virus that caused the pandemic is known officially as SARS-CoV-2, but can be called SARS2 for short. As many people know, there are two main theories about its origin. One is that it jumped naturally from wildlife to people. The other is that the virus was under study in a lab, from which it escaped. It matters a great deal which is the case if we hope to prevent a second such occurrence.
…
Where we are so far. Neither the natural emergence nor the lab escape hypothesis can yet be ruled out. There is still no direct evidence for either. So no definitive conclusion can be reached.

That said, the available evidence leans more strongly in one direction than the other. Readers will form their own opinion. But it seems to me that proponents of lab escape can explain all the available facts about SARS2 considerably more easily than can those who favor natural emergence.

[Time_Traveller]

Pfizer to test COVID-19 vaccine in larger group of children below 12

June 8, 2021

Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) said on Tuesday it will begin testing its COVID-19 vaccine in a larger group of children under age 12 after selecting a lower dose of the shot in an earlier stage of the trial.

The study will enroll up to 4,500 children at more than 90 clinical sites in the United States, Finland, Poland and Spain, the company said.

Based on safety, tolerability and the immune response generated by 144 children in a phase I study of the two-dose shot, Pfizer said it will test a dose of 10 micrograms in children between 5 and 11 years of age, and 3 micrograms for the age group of 6 months to 5.

A Pfizer spokesperson said the company expects data from 5- to 11-year-olds in September and would likely ask regulators for emergency use authorization later that month. Data for children 2 to 5 years old could arrive soon after that, he said.

Pfizer expects to have data from the 6-month to 2-year-old age group sometime in October or November.

https://www.reuters.com/business/health ... 021-06-08/

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

FFS.

-----

16:07
BREAKING

UK's daily cases highest since February

The UK has recorded another 7,540 coronavirus cases, according to the latest government figures.

That is the highest number of daily cases reported since 26 February.

The seven-day average for cases is up by 66%, amid concerns the Delta variant is fuelling a rise in infections.

There have also been a further six deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

Today's figures compare with 4,330 cases a week ago and 12 deaths.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-57409973

[wjfox]

On the other hand, some good news too.

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

China is vaccinating a staggering 20 million people a day

For more than a week, an average of about 20 million people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 every day in China. At this rate, the nation would have fully vaccinated the entire UK population in little more than six days. China now accounts for more than half of the 35 million or so people around the world receiving a COVID-19 shot each day.

Zoltán Kis, a chemical engineer in the Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hub at Imperial College London, doesn’t know of “anything even close to those production scales” for a vaccine. “The manufacturing efforts required in China to reach this high production throughput are tremendous,” he says.

The majority of doses are of one of two vaccines, both of which have been approved for emergency use worldwide by the World Health Organization (WHO). CoronaVac — produced by Beijing-based company Sinovac — showed an efficacy of 51% against symptoms of COVID-19 in clinical trials, and much higher protection against severe disease and death. The second jab was developed in Beijing by state-owned firm Sinopharm and has demonstrated an efficacy of 79% against symptomatic disease and hospitalization.

[caltrek]

U.S. to Buy 500 million Pfizer Doses to Share With the World

https://www.axios.com/biden-500-million ... 264a7.html

Extract:

(Axios) The Biden administration will buy 500 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to share with countries around the world, with the option to buy an additional 200 million, two sources familiar with the deal tell Axios.

Why it matters: That's a big step toward making the U.S. a major global vaccine supplier and comes as Biden departs for his first foreign trip as president.

Details: The doses were purchased at a not-for-profit price rather than the $19.50 per dose the U.S. paid in its initial Pfizer contract, according to the sources. Most or all of the doses will be distributed through the global COVAX mechanism.
• The administration has already said that Biden will press other rich democracies to share doses, including at the G7 on June 11–13. Biden laid out a plan to share an initial 25 million doses last week.
• Driving the news: Around 200 million available this year and another 300 million in the first half of next year, Politico reports. The Washington Post first reported the purchase of 500 million additional doses.
• What to watch: Biden could potentially pursue similar deals with Moderna and Johnson & Johnson….
• Now with demand slackening at home, the Biden administration has started to shift its focus to donations while also allowing companies like Pfizer and Moderna to start exporting doses.
• But based on existing contracts, those companies would be expected to ship a large percentage of doses to rich countries. By buying the doses, the U.S. will be in control of where they are sent.

[Yuli Ban]

India records world’s highest single-day COVID-19 death toll with 6,148 fatalities

India reported on Thursday the highest single-day death toll from COVID-19 in the world, at 6,148, after a big eastern state revised its figures to account for people who succumbed to the disease at home or in private hospitals.

[Time_Traveller]

COVID-19 Outbreak Closes Hotel Hosting G7 Summit Delegation

June 10, 2021

CARBIS BAY, England (Reuters) - A hotel, which British media reported was being used by members of Germany's delegation to a Group of Seven summit in England, has closed because members of staff tested positive for COVID-19, its owners said on Thursday.

The Pedn Olva hotel in St Ives, a seaside town adjacent to the location of the three-day G7 leaders' meeting in Cornwall, southwest England, had shut temporarily on advice from health officials and the local authority, the owners said.

Among the guests were security staff for the German delegation and a media team working for a U.S. broadcaster, Sky News reported.

"Following extensive discussions over the last few days with PHE (Public Health England) and Cornwall Council, we have taken the decision to fully close the hotel," said a spokesperson for the owners, St Austell Brewery.

"We fully appreciate the inconvenience given the limited accommodation options available in the area at the moment but the safety and security of our team and guests is our upmost priority."

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/artic ... delegation

[wjfox]

The problem with exponential growth is that it starts out looking miniscule, and then quickly becomes a very, very big change.

And yeah, I'm aware the link between case numbers and hospitalisations/deaths has been broken. But the vaccines aren't 100% effective, and there's still a ton of people getting "long" COVID, which includes organ and neurological damage that can be life-altering.

Other countries will also view us as a Plague Island and will impose travel/other restrictions if we don't get this thing under control.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57434493

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

From a post in this thread dated Sun Jun 06, 2021 4:44 am:

Eradicating Covid not a reasonable target now, says WHO official

Perhaps I am just a wild eyed optimist untethered to the reality of the situation. Still, I can't help but think of Dolly Parton's quip that went something like: "I wish those who say it is impossible would stop interrupting those of us who are doing it."