COVID-19 - Wuhan Coronavirus (a non-political thread, see pg. 36 #1778)

[Edward64]

I guess there goes my travel hopes this summer.

With the significant progress we have made in the US, easy for us to forget there are plenty in ROW that are still really, really suffering under this pandemic.

The U.S. State Department said on Monday it will boost its "Do Not Travel" guidance to about 80% of countries worldwide, citing "unprecedented risk to travelers" from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The State Department already listed 34 out of about 200 countries as "Level 4: Do Not Travel," including places like Chad, Kosovo, Kenya, Brazil, Argentina, Haiti, Mozambique, Russia and Tanzania.

"This update will result in a significant increase in the number of countries at Level 4: Do Not Travel, to approximately 80% of countries worldwide," the department said in a statement.

Getting to 80% would imply adding nearly 130 countries.

[albionmoonlight]

I know someone who got COVID early and has had long COVID ever since.

She just got her 2nd vaccine the other day, and she is noticing a lot of improvement.

It's an anecdote, but it seems to match up with what a lot of people are saying.

If the vaccines make a significant dent into long COVID, that's great great news.

[Kodos]

Yeah, that would be great.

[BYU 14]

Not that I get great joy in this, but Karma does have a way of always making it's point.

Ted Nugent, who once dismissed COVID-19, sickened by virus

[molson]

Now that every American adult is eligible for a vaccine, the anti-vaxxers getting COVID is a net win for society. If that's the way they prefer to get some defense and help us reach herd immunity faster, bring it on. Maybe we can get another Sturgis rally going.

[Kodos]

We could have Covid parties like they do for Chickenpox.

[AlexB]

Boris has announced the intention is to have tablets for us to take to treat Covid at home by this autumn.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by molson

Now that every American adult is eligible for a vaccine, the anti-vaxxers getting COVID is a net win for society. If that's the way they prefer to get some defense and help us reach herd immunity faster, bring it on. Maybe we can get another Sturgis rally going.

Let me just get my kids vaccinated (both still under 16), and then I'm pretty much OK with this plan.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Kodos

We could have Covid parties like they do for Chickenpox.

Those have reportedly happened in small numbers.

[Edward64]

Definitely a smart move.

I don't know if other wealthy countries are placing a pre-order for 4Q but they should to hedge their bets. I know US is thinking about it, now Israel but how about EU, Japan, Australia etc.

Moderna Inc said on Tuesday it had secured a new COVID-19 vaccine supply agreement with Israel for 2022, under which the country has the option to buy doses of one of the company's variant-specific vaccine candidates.

The announcement follows two earlier agreements between Israel and Moderna to supply a total of 10 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Moderna's COVID-19 booster vaccine is in early-stage trials. The company in April said it should be able to provide a booster shot for protection against variants of the novel coronavirus by the end of this year.

Israel has agreed with Pfizer Inc and Moderna to buy 16 million more vaccine doses for the country's 9.3 million population, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in televised remarks on Tuesday.

[albionmoonlight]

Hockey coach dies after dispute over social distancing at St. Paul bar - StarTribune.com

A bar places Saran Wrap over a urinal to encourage social distancing in the bathroom. You believe that people are over-reacting to COVID.

Do you:

(A) Roll your eyes at how silly it is?

(B) Punch the Saran Wrapped urinal so you can pee in it and then murder a guy who saw you and told you it was a bad idea?

I'll let you guess what our hero in the article noted above chose. We'll see if it works out for him.

[miami_fan]

It is a sign of how callous and hardened I have become in the last year plus that my first instinct as I read the article was to make jokes about the relationship between the incident and victim's occupation. It was closely followed by sympathy for the victim's family and contempt for the accused. I am not proud of that first instinct though. I just recognize the change in myself and hope it is not permanent

[cuervo72]

(C) Think "damn right, correct urinal protocol calls for those to remain unused anyway."

[PilotMan]

The numbers out of India are staggering.

‘The system has collapsed’: India’s descent into Covid hell | India | The Guardian

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

Hockey coach dies after dispute over social distancing at St. Paul bar - StarTribune.com

A bar places Saran Wrap over a urinal to encourage social distancing in the bathroom. You believe that people are over-reacting to COVID.

Do you:

(A) Roll your eyes at how silly it is?

(B) Punch the Saran Wrapped urinal so you can pee in it and then murder a guy who saw you and told you it was a bad idea?

I'll let you guess what our hero in the article noted above chose. We'll see if it works out for him.

Originally Posted by Article

Whisler punched a hole into cellophane that was put in place over a urinal to encourage social distancing, then took a cellphone video of himself urinating into it.

Who was this video for? Why do I find that this is the most disturbing part of the whole article?

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

The numbers out of India are staggering.

‘The system has collapsed’: India’s descent into Covid hell | India | The Guardian

Horrific story.

[Ghost Econ]

As bad as it looks, our per capita peak still blows India out of the water.

[PilotMan]

The thing is, they haven't peaked. The recent growth curve is frightening. If it continues their daily rates could be astronomical. The big question is when is that curve going to stable out. The rate of change from what they had been experiencing is phenomenal. Just back in March they were just a couple hundred dead per day. Now they are hitting 2k and the curve is nearly straight up.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

(C) Think "damn right, correct urinal protocol calls for those to remain unused anyway."

This is the correct answer

SI

[JPhillips]

Trial results for a new malaria vaccine show it to be 77% effective. This could be one of the greatest achievements in human history.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Trial results for a new malaria vaccine show it to be 77% effective. This could be one of the greatest achievements in human history.

Wow!

Fuck you, Mosquitos!
Fuck you, Malaria!

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Trial results for a new malaria vaccine show it to be 77% effective. This could be one of the greatest achievements in human history.

who'd have thought that all it took to create vaccines is to actually work on making vaccines.

[sterlingice]

Hopefully this is the big silver lining from this pandemic

SI

[Edward64]

We know outdoors < indoors but don't remember seeing stats before.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta says vaccinated people can generally go maskless outdoors, with some caveats

Gupta said the research shows that fewer than 10 percent of all infections happen outdoors, and the odds of transmitting COVID-19 indoors is 18.7 precent higher than outdoors. "So keep those in the back of your mind. As a general rule," he said, citing Virginia Tech viral transmission expert Linsey Marr, "if you've been vaccinated and you are not vulnerable, high-risk, you really don't probably need a mask outdoors. But there is some common sense that comes into play here, as well: If you're in a very crowded outdoor setting where you're going to be stationary for a long period of time, and there's high viral transmission in your community

[ISiddiqui]

So it seems very likely that on May 15, Atlanta United is going to go to full capacity (40k). I mean I will be well past 2 weeks vaccinated by then, but it still feels strange. They haven't announced anything but are allowing the ~30k season ticket holders to buy extra tickets starting May 15. Seems obvious unless the Governor closes things down (lol).

I told my wife I'd likely go. But ain't gonna lie, be a bit strange on Marta and in the Stadium.

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[miked]

I'm going tonight with some friends, we are season ticket holders but were not selected for the limited capacity game. We are going with close friends who are vaccinated, and we are too. But our kids are not and so we will probably sell a bunch of our tickets during the season. I imagine the limited capacity people will follow the mask rules and other rules much more than full capacity.

[Ghost Econ]

Went to dinner at a local mexican place outside city limits, so no mask mandate. We're vaxxed up, but still wear masks because of breakthrough cases.

After we sat down, I had a perfect view of the door. I probably saw at least 80 people come in while we were seated, I counted 9 masks.what bugs me is, you know the vast majority who aren't wearing masks are the same people who won't get the vaccine because "freedom." So we're just going to have to worry about this shit the rest of our lives.

[molson]

Once I'm fully vaxxed, about 10 more days now that I had shot 2 this week, i don't think I'm going to restrict my activities. Except wearing a mask when required - which is everywhere indoors here still. But I'm excited for bars, movies, indoor restaurants, and arena football on the short term, plane travel in May, and the Red Sox in June

[GrantDawg]

Going to my first game at Truist Park tomorrow. And it's now going to be a double header.

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[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Ghost Econ

Went to dinner at a local mexican place outside city limits, so no mask mandate. We're vaxxed up, but still wear masks because of breakthrough cases.

After we sat down, I had a perfect view of the door. I probably saw at least 80 people come in while we were seated, I counted 9 masks.what bugs me is, you know the vast majority who aren't wearing masks are the same people who won't get the vaccine because "freedom." So we're just going to have to worry about this shit the rest of our lives.

Braver than me. Will do outside but won't be going to eat inside a restaurant for a while.

[miked]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Going to my first game at Truist Park tomorrow. And it's now going to be a double header.

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Bark at the Park!

[GrantDawg]

There were puppies. Unfortunately, there was no Braves offense.

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[PilotMan]

This is Covid in India. These are bodies of victims being cremated.

[Thomkal]

wow

[miami_fan]

I was pleasantly surprised how uneventful my travels to the DMV were a couple of weeks ago. Most of the people were mask compliant even in outside in open spaces. The only non compliance were people who had it pulled under their nose but they remedied that when asked. Most of the places I ate had outdoor spaces available and social distancing inside. I would say about 40% of the people I interacted with said that they have been fully vaccinated with closer to 70% having received their first dose. The only discomfort I felt were people just being unnecessary close but I would not say that had anything to do with social distancing. I just don't understand standing within 6 inches of a stranger when we are in a wide open space that does not require such intimacy

[Edward64]

Last year there was an article (supposedly pretty credible) that said travel in a plane was pretty safe because of the ventilation etc. and the key risk is in the airport itself.

May still be true but this article is somewhat worrisome.

Fifty-two passengers on one flight from Delhi to Hong Kong test positive for Covid-19 after landing | Daily Mail Online

At least 52 people from a single flight from Delhi to Hong Kong have tested positive for Covid-19, despite all passengers presenting a negative coronavirus test before boarding.

All of the passengers who tested positive flew into Hong Kong on a flight from India's capital, run by Indian airline Vistara on April 4.

Health experts have said that there are four reasons why such a high number of people tested positive on the flight. They say the passengers were either infected in India after their pre-flight Covid-19 test, or India's overloaded health system was unable to accurately detect the cases before they boarded the flight.

Scientists also suggest that the passengers could have picked it up in one of the quarantine hotels in Hong Kong.

Or they say that there could have been those with a particularly severe strain of Covid-19 which could have easily passed around the plane in such a compact space.

[Flasch186]

I listened to Joe Kernan on CNBC talk about India "Opening too early, not wearing masks, not enough vaccinations etc" and I about screamed through the radio at him, "You F'n wanted that here!!!"

[molson]

A couple of positive milestones over the weekend.

We passed 1 billion total vaccine shots given worldwide.

And the U.S. reported only 273 deaths yesterday. Obviously the rolling 7-day average tells us more than any single day due to the inconsistent ways the states report things, but, still, that's the lowest number we've seen in a day since March 24, 2020.

[Ksyrup]

Certainly sounds like we're about to be told we can go maskless outside, even unvaccinated people under certain circumstances.

[albionmoonlight]

Sounds like we are releasing a lot of our AZ stockpile to the world. Makes sense. It's just taking up refrigerator space here and can save lives out there.

[albionmoonlight]

dola:

Now that our vaccine campaign is moving into people who are either reluctant to get a shot or have logistical difficulty in getting one, I wonder if it is time for J&J to become our main weapon.

The eager beavers were always going to show up for two shots. But if we have to put a lot of effort into getting people there in the first place, then maybe we need to not make it twice as hard on ourselves.

[Lathum]

J and J will also be effective for the people who have side effects and decide not to get their second dose. I heard today something like 5 million people didn't go back for dose 2.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Last year there was an article (supposedly pretty credible) that said travel in a plane was pretty safe because of the ventilation etc. and the key risk is in the airport itself.

May still be true but this article is somewhat worrisome.

Fifty-two passengers on one flight from Delhi to Hong Kong test positive for Covid-19 after landing | Daily Mail Online

(not directed at you, Edward64 - I see this all over the news, my FB feed, Twitter, etc - you just provided an easy example)

I'm sorry, but once again, this is from the medical journal "Duh".

Of course putting people into an enclosed area with recirculated air was gong to lead to superspreader events, no matter how many times a trade group tries to show that their particular thing is safe. Bonus points when the "proof" is half-hearted contact tracing in an environment where you can't prove specifically where you caught an illness because it's endemic. It's heads in the sand mentality, every time.

Again, we kindof know how this thing works. High viral loads in enclosed areas, especially spread virus. Masks lower that risk but certainly do not eliminate it. Older people are significantly more at risk for death. Long haul symptoms are hitting a decent segment of the population, much like SARS did. It's really a blood disease masking itself as a respiratory one. I mean, we've mostly known how it works since May or June of last year. *

Yet there are sometimes studies that go against these these ideas and they get so much play. And they always follow the same formula, seemingly: "trade group x claims activity x is safer than thought during covid, they enlist group to study mostly using contact tracing study, six months later after everyone is back to doing x we find out that, yeah, it's really not that safe but people are ok with doing it because they've been doing it for a while". We're continually surprised (or feign surprise) every time that something consistent with what we know about the disease comes out and we're clearly all getting played just to open back up x. But, hey, I want to fly/send kids to school/go out to eat/go see a movie/do extra curricular school activities/whatever.

As I've also maintained, we're going to also find out in a year or two that schools caused spread even though "at the time, kids were shown to not be spreaders". Like, seriously, is there a single parent in the world who actually believes this as fact? I don't mean like "wants to weigh the damage of not being in school vs the danger of a pandemic" (never mind that everyone wants to zero out what they want to in that equation to make it fit what they want). But does any single goddamn parent honestly believe that kids, who are giant germ reproduction and spreading factories in the best of times, aren't spreading COVID like crazy at school? Going back to "what we know" - it seems kids are more asymptomatic. But there certainly are numerous cases of young people having serious issues and even death from COVID. And the number of teachers who were catching it during the peak were absolutely indicative of schools being a great place to catch it. Sure, we can play the "oh, I'm sure Billy's teacher caught COVID going out to eat for an hour and not at school for 8 hours a day".

But, damn, that desire to get back to normalcy is so strong and we are so happy to lie to ourselves so much this past year.

SI


*There's some new stuff around vaccines that we don't quite have a handle on. Some are obvious, like "less likely to have severe illness and spread the virus if you have had vaccine". But there are some lesser ones that are raising eyebrows: 1) first shot seems to be worse if you've already had it - maybe asymptomatically - versus 2nd for most people and 2) vaccine seems to help alleviate some of the long haul symptoms (indicative of virus still being present in body long term vs all damage being done by initial infections and/or cytokine storm). And it's definitely a more complicated virus than I can write about in one paragraph. But the broad strokes haven't changed much in almost a year.

[JPhillips]

We get two or three calls a week from my daughter's HS that one or more people have tested positive, and they're only in-person four days a week.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by Lathum

J and J will also be effective for the people who have side effects and decide not to get their second dose. I heard today something like 5 million people didn't go back for dose 2.

The great majority of this is probably attributable to people not following through, but some of it I'd assume is people getting their second dose at a different site. Like my youngest -- got the first shot at school, but the 28-day period is up after the semester ends so the second dose will be here at home at a CVS.

I wonder if others got their first shot a half hour away, but now that the shots are more readily available just decided to get the second at a local pharmacy instead.

[Ksyrup]

Kentucky just dropped the mask mandate for people outdoors at events of less than 1000 people (starting tomorrow). Sounds like a preview of what we'll hear from Biden.

[albionmoonlight]

Miami Private School, Centner Academy, Won’t Employ COVID-19 Vaccinated Employees – CBS Miami

Impressive. In 6 months the GOP will have made storming the Capitol as part of a white nationalist coup attempt seem like one of their more sane ideas.

[Brian Swartz]

Not sure if this is the right thread for it, but it appears one of my personal heroes is going to be the first casualty of Covid that I know personally. Mom and brother both got it, brother eventually fractured a rib from the coughing and had himself a generally terrible time for almost a month, but recovered. Mom was fairly high-risk but recovered.

One of the men who helped encourage and shape me, longtime invovement in the community, music in various local churches and cultural heritage relating to the large amount of Danish influence where I live etc. has reached the point where his children only are going to be able to do a final visit with him soon and then end of life care begins. To my knowledge he wasn't particularly high-risk, early 60s and in good health previously. He's on the short list of people outside my immediate family that I would be the most affected by not having around anymore, unquestionably a person who will leave the world a better place for him having been part of it in my opinion. I definitely consider him to have lived a far superior life to my own.

Compared to what's happening in India and elsewhere one life is not of great significance, but it's definitely been an increasingly sobering few weeks during his time in the ICU and now the most recent sad news. This one won't slide out of mind easily.

[JPhillips]

Sorry to hear, Brian. Take care.

[Thomkal]

Very sorry Brian. I've been very fortunate so far in that no one in my immediate circle has contracted COVID. Sadly that's not going to be true for everybody here. You are in my thoughts