COVID-19 News and Discussions

[wjfox]

The CDC reports that 50% of the U.S. population (including both adults and children) is now fully vaccinated, or about 165.9m people.

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

[caltrek]

Vaccine Regrets Proliferate as Delta Surges 'Like a Tsunami' Among Unvaccinated
By Julia Conley
August 6, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... vaccinated

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) "I'm not trying to talk down to you," said Travis Campbell from his hospital bed. "I'm trying to talk to you so you understand that I don't want to go to your funeral and I don't want you to come to mine."

As Covid-19 cases surge in parts of the country with low vaccination rates, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, stories of unvaccinated Americans expressing deep regrets from their deathbeds are spreading across social media, with healthcare workers facing the excruciating task of telling some patients that it's too late to help them.

On Friday CNN reported the story of Travis Campbell, who has been in a hospital in Virginia for two weeks battling Covid-19—which has caused him to develop pneumonia and left him with a partially collapsed lung—after putting off getting vaccinated not because of stubborn "vaccine hesitancy," but due to a move and knee surgery.

"I messed up big time, you guys—I didn’t get the vaccine," 43-year-old Campbell said in a video he posted to Facebook on Wednesday in hopes of convincing people in his circle to get vaccinated.

Campbell's story follows that of Micheal Freedy, who was not opposed to vaccination in general but wanted to wait until the vaccines had been available for a year to ensure they were safe, and who texted his fiancee, "I should have gotten the damn vaccine" from an intensive care unit in a Las Vegas hospital last month before succumbing to the illness.

[andmar74]

It's unfortunate, but I don't think you can call all the non vaccine people idiots. I had the luxury of having the time to read and watch a lot of Corona stuff in 2020. At first, before the vaccine was ready, I also thought, I need to wait some time until it's verified safe, and how about long term effects. When it was my time to get vaccinated, I could see it was safe (short-term), and there was nothing about potential long-term harm.
My point is, there are smart people out there that just don't have the time, maybe they are working 2 or 3 jobs just to survive. Maybe they are listening to a friend and making a bad call, and boom they are in the hospital.

[weatheriscool]

France braces for nationwide protests against Covid-19 health pass
Source: France 24

Thousands of French protesters will take to the streets on Saturday for a fourth consecutive weekend to demonstrate against the government-imposed Covid-19 health pass. The pass, which is an extended version of the EU’s Covid-19 travel pass, comes into force on Monday, and is mandatory for access to public spaces such as bars and restaurants.

Days after France's top constitutional authority approved the pass, calling it a "balanced trade-off" between public health concerns and personal freedom, protests are expected Saturday across the country for a fourth weekend in a row.

Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/france/2021 ... ealth-pass

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

Japan confirms first case of lambda variant infection

The lambda variant of the novel coronavirus, first identified in Peru, has been found in Japan for the first time, health ministry officials said Friday.

The variant was detected in a woman in her 30s at Haneda Airport who arrived from Peru on July 20, according to the ministry.

She tested positive for the coronavirus in a quarantine check at the airport, with no symptoms.

The virus was confirmed to be of the lambda variant in an analysis by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

According to the institute, the lambda variant was first detected in Peru in August last year and has been spreading in South America.

Compared with the conventional strain, the variant may be more infectious and have stronger resistance to vaccines, but its details are not known, the institute said.

[wjfox]

A Texas GOP leader railed against vaccines and masks. Then he died of covid.

August 5, 2021 at 7:04 a.m. EDT

A leader of the Texas Republican Party hopped on Facebook in May to post about a “mask burning” party 900 miles away in Cincinnati.

“I wished I lived in the area!” wrote H Scott Apley.

The month before, Apley responded to what Baltimore’s former health commissioner was heralding as “great news” — clinical trials showed the Pfizer vaccine was effective at fighting the coronavirus, including one of the recent variants, for at least six months.

“You are an absolute enemy of a free people,” he wrote in a Twitter reply.

And on Friday, the 45-year-old Dickinson City Council member republished a Facebook post implying that vaccines don’t work.

Two days later, Apley was admitted to a Galveston hospital with “pneumonia-like symptoms” and tested positive for coronavirus, according to an online fundraising campaign. He was sedated and put on a ventilator.

On Wednesday, he died, members of his county’s party announced on social media.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2 ... ies-covid/

[weatheriscool]

Pentagon to require COVID vaccine for all troops by Sept. 15
Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will require members of the U.S. military to get the COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 15, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press. That deadline could be pushed up if the vaccine receives final FDA approval or infection rates continue to rise.

“I will seek the president’s approval to make the vaccines mandatory no later than mid-September, or immediately upon" licensure by the Food and Drug Administration "whichever comes first,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says in the memo to troops, warning them to prepare for the requirement. "I will not hesitate to act sooner or recommend a different course to the President if l feel the need to do so.”

The memo is expected to go out Monday.

Austin's decision comes a bit more than a week after President Joe Biden told defense officials to develop a plan requiring troops to get shots as part of a broader campaign to increase vaccinations in the federal workforce. It reflects similar decisions by governments and companies around the world, as nations struggle with the highly contagious delta variant that has sent new U.S. cases, hospitalizations and deaths surging to heights not see since the peaks last winter.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/penta ... uxbndlbing

[wjfox]

Covid-19: More than 75% of UK adults now double-jabbed

12 minutes ago

More than 75% of UK adults have now received two Covid jabs, the government has said.

A total of 39,688,566 people have now received both doses, while more than 47 million people have received a first dose, according to the latest figures.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58162318

[Time_Traveller]

UK orders extra Covid vaccines for autumn 2022 booster campaign

Wed 11 Aug 2021

Ministers have started ordering vaccines for a booster campaign in autumn 2022, with Pfizer reportedly being asked to supply the UK with a further 35m doses.

The government has still not give the final go-ahead for the vaccine booster programme expected this autumn, but it is understood to have placed the order with Pfizer despite the company raising its prices.

According to a report in the Times (paywall), the government is paying £22 a dose – compared with an earlier price of £18 a dose – because global demand is pushing up prices. The EU has signed a contract with Pfizer to buy 900m doses, with an option to buy the same amount again.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) did not deny the story on Wednesday. It said it did not comment on commercial vaccine supply arrangements, but it also said it was confident it would have enough vaccine to “support potential booster programmes in the future”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... r-campaign

[wjfox]

Yeah. Weird how this formerly common form of human interaction looks like disappearing from society now, or at least greatly reducing in use.

[weatheriscool]

DHS dropped 40,000 COVID-19-positive migrants in US cities: Ex-border chief
Paul Bedard

The nation’s former border chief reported today that the Biden administration has placed some 40,000 illegal immigrants infected with the coronavirus into American cities.

“At least — that’s conservative,” former acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection Mark Morgan told Secrets this afternoon.

In an earlier Zoom briefing, Morgan estimated that about 270,000 illegal immigrants have been released into the United States since President Joe Biden took office and signaled to Latin America that the border is open again, as it was under former President Barack Obama.

https://news.yahoo.com/dhs-dropped-40-0 ... 00213.html

[raklian]

Yeah. Weird how this formerly common form of human interaction looks like disappearing from society now, or at least greatly reducing in use.

It's interesting how we're witnessing an environmental event causing us to change a big component of our social behavior. I would consider it as an evolutionary event that increases the odds for our species to survive by adapting into an environment where we have a semi-permanent, highly-transmissive virus circulating among us.

[wjfox]

[andmar74]

Yeah. Weird how this formerly common form of human interaction looks like disappearing from society now, or at least greatly reducing in use.

I did shake hands with a few at work after the holiday. Hopefully it will not go away.

[weatheriscool]

In blows to Gov. Greg Abbott, appeals courts uphold mask mandates in Dallas and San Antonio

Aug. 13, 2021 at 6:09 p.m.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suffered a pair of defeats Friday afternoon in his bid to overturn mask mandates in Dallas and Bexar counties.

The 4th Court of Appeals in San Antonio tossed out Abbott’s appeal to nix an order by the local health authority in Bexar County mandating mask-wearing in local public schools. Abbott sought to overturn a lower court ruling that allowed the local mandate.

Minutes later, the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas made an identical ruling in Abbott’s challenge to Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins’ order mandating masks in public schools, universities and businesses — upholding the mandate there.

Abbott is all but certain to take the matter to the Texas Supreme Court. — Joshua Fechter

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/11 ... -covid-19/

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

How Ron DeSantis’s Covid Response Became the Model of What Not to Do
by Aaron Rupar
August 13, 2021

https://www.vox.com/2021/8/13/22622168/ ... e-failures

Introduction:

(Vox) It wasn’t that long ago that major media outlets were publishing stories proclaiming Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “won the pandemic,” or deserved an apology from pundits and public health experts who have panned his laissez faire approach to the coronavirus. But those notions have aged poorly, as Florida struggles with spiking Covid-19 hospitalizations that DeSantis seems particularly unequipped to handle.

Comments DeSantis made to reporters on Wednesday in an attempt to downplay the grim reality that Florida currently leads the nation in Covid hospitalizations for children were case in point. Instead of implementing policies to address the issue, DeSantis banned mask mandates in schools. On Wednesday, he went as far as to suggest — citing no evidence other than anonymous anecdotes — that families of school-age children should be more worried about children contracting respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

“COVID, I view as a very minor risk,” DeSantis said. “RSV is a little more serious and it just shows certain things that are focused on versus not. I’ve had doctors tell me that parents have come in with kids who were sick that have gotten a negative COVID test and a positive RSV and the parents were relieved at that.”

DeSantis’s remarks are at odds with data from his own state Department of Health showing that RSV cases have decreased in recent weeks and can currently be counted on one hand. By contrast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported earlier this month that Florida had more than 30 Covid-stricken kids in the hospital each day between July 24 and 30.

That press conference came one day after DeSantis expressed confusion about officials from his own state requesting ventilators and smaller breathing devices from the federal government — equipment needed to prevent the state’s hospitals from becoming overwhelmed.

caltrek's comment: Remember folks, DeSantis is now the one Republican that, in some polls, has overtaken Trump in popularity among Republicans.

[Yuli Ban]

'This is starting to look really ominous in the South,' expert says, as US is among nations with highest rate of new Covid-19 cases

The US remains among nations with the highest rate of new Covid-19 cases, driven mostly by a surge in the South, where many states are lagging in getting people vaccinated against the coronavirus.

"This is starting to look really ominous in the South. ... If you look at rates of transmission in Florida and Louisiana, they're actually probably the highest in the world," Dr. Peter Hotez, the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Friday.
Infection rates began to plummet in the US in the spring as vaccines became widely available, while the seven-day moving average of daily confirmed cases climbed in other nations, including India and Brazil, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
In the month of August, the US has so far reported more than 1.5 million new cases of Covid-19, more than three times the numbers for Iran and India -- which now hold second and third place, JHU data shows. And the seven-day average has topped more than 135,000 cases, well ahead of other nations.
On a state-by-state comparison, Louisiana has the highest rate of new cases per capita, followed by Florida.
"That's how badly things have gotten out of hand. There is a screaming level of transmission across the southern states right now. And now we're starting to see this happening among younger age groups," Hotez said.