COVID-19 News and Discussions

[caltrek]

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

Great video.

[weatheriscool]

CNN Fires Three Employees For Coming To Work Unvaccinated
Source: Associated Press


August 5, 20218:24 PM ET
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — CNN has fired three employees who violated company policy by coming to work unvaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.

CNN chief Jeff Zucker told staff members of the firing in a memo sent Thursday that reminded them that vaccines were mandatory if they report to the office or out in the field where they come into contact with other employees.

"Let me be clear — we have a zero tolerance policy on this," wrote Zucker, chairman of news and sports for WarnerMedia.

The memo was obtained by The Associated Press after its contents were first tweeted by CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy. CNN offered no details on the firings, or where the employees were based.

Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronaviru ... vaccinated

[wjfox]

Covid cases surpass 200 million around the globe as delta variant spreads

Aug. 4, 2021, 10:55 PM BST

Coronavirus cases worldwide surpassed 200 million on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the more-infectious delta variant threatens areas with low vaccination rates and strains healthcare systems.

The global surge in cases is highlighting the widening gap in inoculation rates between wealthy and poor nations. Cases are rising in about one-third of the world's countries, many of which have not even given half their population a first dose.

The World Health Organization(WHO) on Wednesday called for a moratorium on Covid-19 vaccine boosters until at least 10% of the population in every country was vaccinated.

"We need an urgent reversal, from the majority of vaccines going to high-income countries, to the majority going to low-income countries," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/covi ... s-n1275980

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

As COVID Breaks Records in Arkansas, Its GOP Governor Regrets Ban on Mask Mandates
by Inae Oh
August 4, 2021

[url][https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus ... dates//url]

Introduction:

(Mother Jones)As the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant shatters coronavirus case records in Arkansas, its Republican governor is scrambling to reverse a ban on local mask mandates he signed into law just months ago. But as Gov. Asa Hutchinson admitted in a press conference Monday, rolling it back will be difficult—and something he probably can’t do without broader support from his party’s lawmakers.

“In hindsight, I wish that had not become law,” Hutchinson told reporters. “But it is the law and the only chance we have is either to amend it or for the courts to say it has an unconstitutional foundation.” The governor, who last week declared a public health emergency amid surging COVID cases, is now calling for a special legislative session to amend the ban. But Hutchinson’s admission of regret may not be enough to convince the state’s GOP-controlled legislature.

Resistance to vaccines has exacerbated the crisis, with Arkansas communities accounting for some of the country’s lowest vaccination rates. Last week, Hutchinson faced vaccine hesitancy firsthand when he was roundly booed on stage after challenging the lie that vaccines cause fertility issues.

While Hutchinson was just one of many GOP governors to enthusiastically embrace a ban on mask mandates earlier in the pandemic, he is the first to try to roll back such an order. His move stands in stark contrast to other Republican governors still doubling down on them, as in Florida, Mississippi, and Texas, even as their states see cases explode.

[caltrek]

This Is Pathetic
by Robert Kahn
August 6, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/this-is-pathetic/

Introduction:

(Courthouse News) Our country is sick in many ways, and not just from the Covid virus.

In the past 10 days, our rate of new Covid-19 infections has increased by 150%, measured by a rolling 14-day average. The worldwide average of new infections in that time increased by 18.8%.

In other words, the United States — home to the world’s most prosperous economy, and the most advance science — has recorded eight times more Covid infections per capita in the past 10 days than the world at large.

Let me mention here that nearly half (46%) of our planet’s 7.7 billion people subsist on less than $5.50 a day, according to 2018 figures from the World Bank, the most recent statistics I could find.

Average per capita income in the United States in 2019 was $34,103 — $93.43 a day (based on a seven-day workweek; based on a five-day workweek it would be $103.81.)

[Xyls]

Sounds like fake news to me. Also the Twitter account seems to be from someone who is trying to prove the vaccine doesn't work... Also retweeting anti-mask stuff...

[Yuli Ban]

As COVID Breaks Records in Arkansas, Its GOP Governor Regrets Ban on Mask Mandates
by Inae Oh
August 4, 2021

[url][https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus ... dates//url]

Introduction:

(Mother Jones)As the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant shatters coronavirus case records in Arkansas, its Republican governor is scrambling to reverse a ban on local mask mandates he signed into law just months ago. But as Gov. Asa Hutchinson admitted in a press conference Monday, rolling it back will be difficult—and something he probably can’t do without broader support from his party’s lawmakers.

“In hindsight, I wish that had not become law,” Hutchinson told reporters. “But it is the law and the only chance we have is either to amend it or for the courts to say it has an unconstitutional foundation.” The governor, who last week declared a public health emergency amid surging COVID cases, is now calling for a special legislative session to amend the ban. But Hutchinson’s admission of regret may not be enough to convince the state’s GOP-controlled legislature.

Resistance to vaccines has exacerbated the crisis, with Arkansas communities accounting for some of the country’s lowest vaccination rates. Last week, Hutchinson faced vaccine hesitancy firsthand when he was roundly booed on stage after challenging the lie that vaccines cause fertility issues.

While Hutchinson was just one of many GOP governors to enthusiastically embrace a ban on mask mandates earlier in the pandemic, he is the first to try to roll back such an order. His move stands in stark contrast to other Republican governors still doubling down on them, as in Florida, Mississippi, and Texas, even as their states see cases explode.

I wonder what their mindset is on these things. I get it that it seemed we were past the worst of it, but wouldn't it have been prudent to just wait until it's in decline all across the globe?

[weatheriscool]

Coronavirus booster shots for the immunocompromised expected to be authorized soon
Source: Washington Post

Federal health officials are racing to ensure that millions of Americans with weakened immune systems can get additional shots of coronavirus vaccines to protect them against the highly contagious delta variant. The actions could mean the extra shots would be authorized in days or weeks, according to federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan has not been announced.

The stepped-up activity reflects increased urgency by the Biden administration to shield some of the nation’s most vulnerable adults as coronavirus cases rise sharply. That has increased as some other countries take steps to provide shots to people who are immunocompromised or older, and as some Americans pursue the shots on their own. In the next week or two, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to review data from the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention supporting the use of additional vaccine doses for the immunocompromised.

If officials are persuaded, they will amend the emergency use authorizations for the vaccines to permit the extra inoculations. Advisers to the CDC and the agency, in turn, will urge people with certain medical conditions to talk to their doctors or pharmacists about getting the shots. Immunocompromised patients represent about 7 million adults in the United States, including those who have received organ transplants, patients on cancer treatments and those with rheumatologic conditions and HIV, according to the CDC. They are more likely to become seriously ill from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and might more frequently spread the virus to others, experts say.

“It is extremely important for us to move to get those individuals their boosters and we are now working on that,” Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday at a White House briefing. He said that many immunosuppressed people did not have a response to the vaccine “that we feel would be adequately protective.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... mised-fda/

[weatheriscool]

Interior Department says over 30 staffers have died from COVID-19
Source: Axios

The Interior Department on Friday said that more than 30 staff members have died from the coronavirus.

By the numbers: Melissa Schwartz, Interior communications director, said that more than 4,000 staffers have reported contracting the disease.

In a video released Wednesday, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said that 34 staffers have died. But Schwartz clarified that the video was taken earlier in the week and that since then, one more person has passed.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/interior-departme ... ec249.html

[caltrek]

I wonder what their mindset is on these things. I get it that it seemed we were past the worst of it, but wouldn't it have been prudent to just wait until it's in decline all across the globe?

• 1. Don't assume that these are rational minds at work

• 2. For them, it is a matter of let freedom ring (aka, to us, as free dumb). Therefore, masks and vaccine are matters of personal choice. Don't expect them to understand the implications for that when dealing with a highly contagious disease.

• 3. It is also a matter for them of letting nature take its course. So, if a few extra people die, that is just the natural thing to occur. After all, that is just what happens during flu season. Don't expect them to understand what that meant in the times of the plague. At the very least, that needs to be explained to them.

• 4. Attempts at protecting the public health are just another example of the nanny state at work. (See also number 3 above)

• 5. If the Democrats and/or liberals are for it, it must be bad.

• 6. Given all of the above, adopting measures on the basis of benefiting public health can be politically risky. Better to agree with the mob...errr...I mean conservative base.

[Ken_J]

actually I believe one of the big factors is the pervasive mindset that it's easier to ask forgiveness than permission. In this context it's a factor of people will never give you permission to inconveniance them but they will always write off the consequences to everybody when it turns out they probably should have inconvenainced us all by restricting us.

Add to that the fact that pandemics and climate and other such things are acts of nature/god, and they can always plead humanity. as in I'm only human, nobody could have stopped this from happening. Completely negating the fact that you don't have to stop the pandemic to make a better outcome than the current choices have resulted in.

[Yuli Ban]

Louisiana Doctor Warns of 'Darkest Days' of COVID-19 Pandemic

A doctor’s impassioned plea for people to wear masks and get vaccinated as the delta variant of COVID-19 surges in the South has been viewed more than six million times. During a press conference this week, Dr. Catherine O’Neal, chief medical officer at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shared how dire the situation is for their hospital — and what that means for everyone, including those without COVID-19.

“I have seen people in four-wheeler accidents and motorcycle accidents and farming accidents who sat in ERs in their small towns. Those are my people. Those are your family members. And when they get maimed today, they’re not coming to a trauma center because there are no more beds,” she said in the video of the press conference. “We have 67 empty beds in our hospital because we can’t find staff.”

[Yuli Ban]

U.S. COVID-19 cases reach six-month high, Florida grapples with surge

Daily new COVID-19 cases have climbed to a six-month high in the United States, with more than 100,000 infections reported nationwide as the Delta variant ravaged Florida and other states with lower vaccination rates.

The seven-day average of new reported cases reached nearly 95,000, a five-fold increase in less than a month, Reuters data through Wednesday showed. (Graphic on U.S. cases and deaths)

Seven U.S. states with among the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates - Florida, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi - account for half of the country's new cases and hospitalizations in the last week, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters on Thursday.

[Yuli Ban]

Texas councilman who spurned vaccines, masks dies after Covid-19 hospitalization

A local Texas politician who appeared skeptical on social media of mask use and Covid-19 vaccines died this week from complications of the coronavirus, the mayor of his community said Friday.

Dickinson Councilman H. Scott Apley's death was first announced Wednesday on the Texas Republican Party's page, which did not detail the cause, but posts on social media about how he had been hospitalized with Covid have underscored a sharp political divide during the pandemic.

"I was not really aware of his social media presence," said Sean Skipworth, the mayor of Dickinson, a Houston suburb of about 20,000 people. "I don't agree with the views that he espoused and the tones that he espoused them in."

[Yuli Ban]

Baby girl with Covid-19 airlifted 150 miles because of Houston hospital bed shortage

An 11-month-old girl with Covid-19 is stable and no longer intubated one day after she was airlifted to a Texas hospital 150 miles away because of a shortage of pediatric beds in the Houston area.

The baby has made "an amazing recovery," said Dr. Dominic Lucia, a pediatric emergency physician and chief medical officer at Baylor Scott & White McLane Children's Medical Center -- Temple, where the child was transported on Thursday.
"She's no longer requiring the breathing machine. She's actually off that right now... and she's actually resting with mom. She's looking great."
The child, Ava Amira Rivera, tested positive for Covid-19, according to Amanda Callaway, a spokeswoman for Harris Health System. Callaway said Ava was having seizures and needed to be intubated but Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital, where she was first taken, does not offer pediatric services.
None of the major pediatric hospitals in the area had beds available, Callaway said.
In a video released by Harris Health, Ava is seen being lifted onto an air ambulance on Thursday morning for a flight to the hospital in Temple.
"Like us, a lot of the children's hospitals are at or near capacity," Lucia told CNN Friday. "That's where we are a lot of days right now. We, fortunately, once they reached out to us, although we're a long way away, were able to help her."

[Yuli Ban]

Florida reported 134,506 new Covid-19 cases over the last week on Friday, more than any other 7-day period during the pandemic

Florida reported 134,506 new Covid-19 cases over the last week on Friday, more than any other 7-day period during the pandemic.

Data published Friday by the state health department shows the state, which releases Covid-19 data on a weekly basis, reported an average of 19,215 cases each day.

The previous record high was set January 8, with 125,937 cases reported over seven days, for an average of 17,991 cases each day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
This week's total is about 22% higher than last week, when the state reported 110,477 total cases, for an average of about 15,782 new cases each day.
About 1 in 5 Covid-19 cases have been reported in Florida over the past couple weeks, though the state accounts for less than 7% of the US population, according to US Census Bureau data.