COVID-19 News and Discussions

[andmar74]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... it-did-it/

Here in Denmark it's going surprisingly well. Yesterday when shopping in Lidl, I was very close to some old lady when I had to dispose off a plastic glove. She didn't react. Nobody uses face masks anymore. There's almost no Covid circulating in the country. There are only 17 persons in intensive care for Covid in the whole country.
Can it last? Who knows.

[Yuli Ban]

I dunno, this feels premature.

[Yuli Ban]

Hmmm

[andmar74]

I dunno, this feels premature.

Norway and Denmark are very similar: The vaccination rate in Norway is also high, and they have low number of Covid positives.
Norway has 95 patients with Covid in hospitals, Denmark 85.

Now, as temperatures drop and people stay more inside, one should expect the numbers to go up. Also there's RS virus hitting kids at the moment, and possibly a hard Influenza season coming.

Restrictions might well come later, but right now everything is awesome.

[caltrek]

Half of Unvaccinated Workers Say They’d rather Quit Than Get a Shot – but Real-world Data Suggest Few are Following Through

by Jack J. Berry, Ann Christiano, and Annie Neimand

https://theconversation.com/half-of-unv ... ugh-168447

Introduction:

(The Conversation) Are workplace vaccine mandates prompting some employees to quit rather than get a shot?

A hospital in Lowville, New York, for example, had to shut down its maternity ward when dozens of staffers left their jobs rather than get vaccinated. At least 125 employees at Indiana University Health resigned after refusing to take the vaccine.

And several surveys have shown that as many as half of unvaccinated workers insist they would leave their jobs if forced to get the shot, which has raised alarms among some that more mandates could lead to an exodus of workers in many industries.

But how many will actually follow through?

Strong words

In June 2021, we conducted a nationwide survey, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, that gave us a sample of 1,036 people who mirrored the diverse makeup of the U.S. We plan to publish the survey in October.

caltrek's comment: This shows why mandates are needed. One argument goes that only voluntary measures should be employed. Fine - if they work. If you have a number objecting that does not allow for herd immunity, then voluntary vaccination will not work, at least not completely. If vaccination does not completely work, then new variants that are more vaccine resistant are liable to arise. As a matter of self-defense, we therefore need to have mandatory measures.

How to enforce? Well, if jobs involve contact with the public or with fellow workers, then vaccines can be mandated as a condition of employment. In addition, rising rates of infection among the unvaccinated as contrasted with declining rates among the vaccinated can serve as part of the enforcement mechanism.

Many will object that such measures are an unfair deprivation of freedom. Being deprived of your life and good health because you become infected is also a denial of freedom. So, as a matter of self-defense....

[caltrek]

Coronavirus Pandemic Update From Japan
September 26, 2021

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021 ... -2021.html

Introduction:

(Kyodo News) Here are the latest COVID-19 updates from Japan and beyond:

As of 10 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 26

• Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Saturday sounded optimistic about lifting Japan's state of emergency over the coronavirus pandemic when it expires at the end of this month, saying the COVID-19 situation in the country is improving.

As of 11 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 25

• The health ministry has begun reviewing Japan's health care system in preparation for a possible sixth wave of coronavirus infections, following numerous cases of people dying at home during the previous resurgence.

• Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Saturday hailed this summer's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics as a success, saying in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly that the host country "achieved what we set out to do" despite the pressures of a public that was divided over holding the games during the pandemic.

[caltrek]

Amazon's Private MIQ (Managed Isolation and Quarantine) Pitch Shot Down by Government Last Year
by Jason Walls and Tom Dillane
September 26, 2021

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/ ... IEIOUSKAY/

Introduction:

(New Zealand Herald) A pitch from Amazon to sidestep the usual MIQ process to get their Lord of the Rings production crew into New Zealand was shot down by the Government.

The multi-billion dollar company raised the idea of securing hotels, holiday homes and rental properties to be used for their own private managed isolation.

But that idea, which was mooted in August last year, was rejected by the Government.

A spokesman from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MIBE) - which runs the MIQ system - said the Government told Amazon its focus was on using existing facilities, due to the need for wrap-around services required for MIQ.

The spokesman said this was never a "formal proposal" – rather just an idea Amazon executives raised with MBIE.

caltrek's comment: Hmmm...this story sounds like a clever way to promote a new movie...

[Yuli Ban]

The coronavirus pandemic has become the deadliest disease outbreak in recent American history with tolls surpassing the estimated deaths of the 1918 flu. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, 681,253 individuals in the United States have died from Covid-19 infections, while over a century ago, the country lost an estimated 675,000 people during the 1918 influenza pandemic, reports Holly Yan for CNN.

Many health experts suspect that the Covid-19 pandemic’s high death tolls are a result of America’s insufficient response to control the pandemic early on—despite modern day scientific and medical advances—and consider the phenomenon a tragedy, reports Carla K. Johnson for the Associated Press. Currently, an average of 1,900 deaths are reported per day in the U.S. Experts suspect the recent surge is due in part to the persistence of the deadlier Delta variant, reports CNBC’s Berkeley Lovelace Jr.

“It’s generally known around the world that America didn’t do a very good job in the early stages of controlling the pandemic,” says David Morens, a medical historian at the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to Helen Branswell for STAT News.

Per capita basis, not quite, but still the fact that the numbers are even remotely similar is tragically delicious. How did we get here?!

Remember that old thread on the old forum, back in January 2020 when we first started following this virus? Imagine this news back then!

[Yuli Ban]

And this sounds nasty

[caltrek]

Remember that old thread on the old forum, back in January 2020 when we first started following this virus? Imagine this news back then!

Yes. I remember wondering why China seemed to be "overreacting" to the outbreak in Hunan. Then Starspawn posted a video loosely based on Wizard of Oz characters. The cowardly lion was running away from a monster with Alice and company behind him. Suddenly, an iron gate dropped between the cowardly lion and Dorothy, et al. Starspawn was making the point that what the Chinese were afraid of was exponential growth. It would seem that the fear of certain Chinese government officials was rational after all.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

The Delta Wave in Mexico Peaked in mid-August While U.S. Numbers Continued to Soar. Here’s Why
by Cody Copeland
September 27, 2021

[url][https://www.courthousenews.com/the-delt ... s-why//url]

Introduction:

MEXICO CITY (Courthouse News) — As the United States finally begins to see the possible peak of the devastating Covid-19 delta wave, Mexico’s numbers started their descent in mid-August — despite a slightly higher percentage of the U.S. population being fully vaccinated.

What did Mexico do differently to more effectively mitigate the spread of the deadly virus?

Blaine Doyle, CEO of the Mexico City-based infectious disease lab ChektAhora, attributed the decline to widespread acceptance of vaccines and strict adherence to mitigation measures, especially mask wearing. An SOSV portfolio company, ChektAhora provides in-home Covid testing and will soon offer a similar vaccination product.

"Definitely the vaccine has been helping,” he said, adding that mistrust of the vaccine “has been a big reason that Covid has lingered in other countries longer than it should have. The vaccine has been hugely beneficial for lowering the case rates here and definitely opening up the country, allowing business to resume somewhat back to normal.”

Originally from Ireland, Doyle recently traveled to both Europe and the United States and noticed the stark difference in attitudes toward epidemiological realities. And vaccines aren't the only reason he believes Mexico has seen declining Covid numbers.

[andmar74]

Interesting statistics from Denmark. These are probabilities of hospitalization in Denmark, if you get Covid-19. Age groups. Data taken from July and August.



"Uvaccinerede" Not vaccinated.
"vaccinerede" Vaccinated.

[wjfox]

Smokers up to 80% more likely to be admitted to hospital with Covid, study says

Tue 28 Sep 2021 07.35 BST

Smokers are 60%-80% more likely to be admitted to hospital with Covid-19 and also more likely to die from the disease, data suggests.

A study, which pooled observational and genetic data on smoking and Covid-19 to strengthen the evidence base, contradicts research published at the start of the pandemic suggesting that smoking might help to protect against the virus. This was later retracted after it was discovered that some of the paper’s authors had financial links to the tobacco industry.

Other studies on whether smoking is associated with a greater likelihood of more severe Covid-19 infection have produced inconsistent results.

One problem is that most of these studies have been observational, making it difficult to establish whether smoking is the cause of any increased risk, or whether something else is to blame, such as smokers being more likely to come from a lower socioeconomic background.

Dr Ashley Clift at the University of Oxford and colleagues drew on GP health records, Covid-19 test results, hospital admissions data and death certificates to identify associations between smoking and Covid-19 severity from January to August 2020 in 421,469 participants of the UK Biobank study – all of whom had also previously had their genetic makeup analysed.

Compared with those who had never smoked, current smokers were 80% more likely to be admitted to hospital and significantly more likely to die from Covid-19 if they became infected.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... y-suggests

[caltrek]

^^^^Free dumb rings - as smokers die from exercising their "right to smoke."

Another example of conservatives killing off their own supporters.

[raklian]

Argument for vaccination over natural immunity.

I've had friends tell me they'd rather get infected and let their bodies learn how to fight off Covid. I think I'm going to remove them from my friend list. Who needs people who won't think in their life?

[weatheriscool]

Montana hospital ICU reaches 150% capacity amid COVID surge
Source: CBS News

In Billings, Montana, emergency room doctor Jamiee Belsky can barely keep up with the surge of new COVID-19 patients. "So we are — we're getting short on beds," she said.

At Billings Clinic, the largest hospital in the state, the ICU is running at 150% capacity with younger and sicker patients admitted daily. The National Guard is on hand to help care for and screen new patients while hallways house the overflow.

"People need to get vaccinated because right now we're hurting," Belsky said.

Frank Miller, 59, was hospitalized with COVID-19 more than two weeks ago. The unvaccinated engineer spent more than a week on a ventilator.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/monta ... d=msedgntp

[weatheriscool]

North Carolina hospital network fires around 175 staffers for not getting vaccinated
Source: MSN/NBC

A large North Carolina hospital network says that it has fired nearly 200 workers for failing to take a Covid-19 vaccine.

Dr. David H. Priest, chief for safety for Novant Health, said at a Tuesday press briefing that roughly 175 staffers did not comply with their vaccine mandate deadline.

"By doing that, by not getting vaccinated, they voluntarily resign," Priest said.

The departures will not impact staffing at the hospital system of over 35,000 employees, Priest said, because the hospital has been using temporary staff for the duration of the pandemic to make up for shortages from staff falling ill with Covid.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/north ... ar-AAOVUZf

[weatheriscool]

US reaches 700,000 COVID-19 deaths
Source: The Hill

The United States has recorded more than 700,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 on Friday, according to a count from data compiled by Reuters. In its analysis of public health data, the wire service reported that over the last week, the country had seen the average number of more than 2,000 COVID-19 deaths per day.

According to the latest health data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the country has recorded 10,333 deaths related to the coronavirus over the past seven days.

The southern states have seen some of the highest death rates in the country in the past week. Texas has recorded 1,943 deaths over the last seven days; Georgia has recorded 746; North Carolina has tallied 512 deaths; and Tennessee has recorded 409, according to the CDC.

Pennsylvania and Ohio have also recorded high seven-day death tolls at 370 and 349 respectively, according to the health agency's data.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5 ... -19-deaths

[caltrek]

Coronavirus Variants of Concern
by Will Chase of Axios
Updated October 2, 2021

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-varia ... e2f8b.html

Alpha variant, B.1.1.7
Up to 70% more transmissible
Up to 60% more deadly, but more research needed
Vaccines are still effective
Unlikely to reinfect people who already had COVID
First discovered in the U.K.


Delta variant, B.1.617.2
Up to 115% more transmissible
Unknown if it causes more severe disease
Vaccines are still effective
Can reinfect people who already had COVID
First discovered in India


Beta variant, B.1.351
50% more transmissible
Unknown if it causes more severe disease
Some vaccines are less effective
Can reinfect people who already had COVID
First discovered in South Africa


Gamma variant, P.1
Believed to be more transmissible, but more research needed
Unknown if it causes more severe disease
Some vaccines are slightly less effective
Believed to reinfect people who already had COVID
First discovered in Brazil


Iota/Eta variants, B.1.526/B.1.525
Unknown if it is more or less transmissible
Unknown if it causes more severe disease
Vaccines are likely still effective
May be able to reinfect people who already had COVID, but more research needed
First discovered in New York


Kappa variant, B.1.617.1
Believed to be more transmissible
Unknown if it causes more severe disease
Vaccines are still effective
May reinfect people who already had COVID
First discovered in India


Epsilon variants, B.1.427/B.1.429
20% more transmissible
May cause more severe disease, but more research needed
Vaccines are likely still effective
May be able to reinfect people who already had COVID
First discovered in California