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

[Ksyrup]

Well of course because consistency of position is the only logical next step once you've planted your flag on the hill you're willing to die on.

[Flasch186]

The Florida Governor just made it so schools are giant Petri dishes fml


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[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

The Florida Governor just made it so schools are giant Petri dishes fml


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You mean Moreso? They already were. What is different?
Is he trucking in dead rats and stuff?

[Flasch186]

Unless you’re kid tests positive

No matter what it’s the parents choice to send him to school as long as they’re asymptomatic… well so….

No one gets there kids tested and asymptomatic is in the eye of the beholder apparently

Thus

Everyone goes to school and gets COVID

Quarantining is child’s parental option smh


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[Lathum]

Klepper is so freaking good at this. The short haired blond lady, oof...

Jordan Klepper vs. anti-mask parents at a North Carolina school board meeting pic.twitter.com/6E10JfLoMK

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) September 24, 2021

[miami_fan]

I figure I put this here so as not to limit this to just the NBA.

NBA denies Andrew Wiggins' request for religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccine


So how do these religious exemptions work? Is it based on certain passages of religious doctrine? Is it based on guidance from a individual religious leader or does it have to be someone like the Pope that can make the call? I know that for someone to to avoid military service as a conscientious objector that have to show evidence of how they arrived at the anti military service position and how that position influences their life. Is it the same for the vaccine? Does someone have to refuse all vaccines and not give any vaccines to my children? Not take any meds at all? Most of the stuff I am finding is wishy washy at best, ridiculous (IMO) at worst when it comes to anything concrete.

[bronconick]

Unless you're a Christian Scientist or something similar, you're probably making shit up.

[Edward64]

Dr. Walensky overrules CDC advisory (outside party) committee. They agree on some populations but advisory did not recommend boosters for healthcare workers. In another article, it's the "people 18 to 65 who work in a job or other setting where they are at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 should not yet be allowed to receive an extra Pfizer dose".

Don't know who is "right" here. The anti-vaxxers may say that Walensky is not following the science but FDA and CDC advisory did not agree so she had to make the call.

Just as long healthcare workers are already vaccinated and boosters are voluntary, I'm okay with healthcare workers making their own decision.

CDC chief overrules her advisers on Covid-19 boosters - POLITICO

It was the latest twist in a week full of them, as two different advisory panels, the FDA and the CDC all tried to sort out who should qualify for the additional shots — and in what order.

The CDC’s advisory committee earlier Thursday endorsed the use of Pfizer’s booster shot for the elderly, high-risk individuals and nursing home residents. But it rejected the idea of giving them to health care workers. That represented a break from the FDA’s ruling just hours earlier, which included health workers among those it felt should be eligible to receive the shot.

The decision put Walensky in yet another unenviable position, leaving it up to her to make the final call on booster eligibility – rules that were almost guaranteed to be picked apart and criticized as confusing, no matter what they are.

Walensky landed on a decision just after 1 a.m., in a move that will allow the administration to expand its use of the Pfizer booster to potentially millions more people working in high-risk settings. The guidelines also align the CDC’s position with the FDA, heading off any intra-government awkwardness.

Still, it‘s highly unusual for the CDC chief to overrule her outside advisers — something that has not happened yet during the pandemic response.

[QuikSand]

The potential for differentiation between the advice of the FDA and CDC could have led to another systemic weakness... mixed messages from our own federal government doesn't help the situation. I'm not wild about the decision to override on its surface, but avoiding that outcome seems like a material part of why to do so.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by bronconick

Unless you're a Christian Scientist or something similar, you're probably making shit up.

Let's be honest, they're just making shit up, too.

[Edward64]

Not sure what's going. CNN today is reporting there is agreement between CDC and FDA whereas my post above said CDC and FDA disagreed on whether healthcare workers needed "boosters".

My guess is after Walensky made the call, the CDC rubber stamped it and so now there is a formal unified position. I don't think its a big deal and/or can believe it was a mistake. I'd think the CDC folks, if they really disagree, will make their opinions known in the next few days.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/25/healt...ngs/index.html

Booster shots are here, after much hoopla from the White House and a great deal of discussion and consideration from the teams of doctors and other experts who advise the US Food and Drug Administration and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

More than 2 million people have already received third doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, but these technically were not booster shots -- they were extra doses given to people whose immune systems are compromised and may not have responded fully to the first two doses of vaccines.

But now the CDC and FDA have agreed many Americans need boosters and should start getting them. Here are some important things to know about them:
:
Number three: You work or live in a setting where you are at high risk of exposure to Covid. This includes health care workers, teachers, those living in shelters or prisons and grocery store workers."

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Not sure what's going. CNN today is reporting there is agreement between CDC and FDA whereas my post above said CDC and FDA disagreed on whether healthcare workers needed "boosters".

Not really. FDA included HCW, CDC advisory panel did not. It's actually in the quote you took from the article from earlier

[whomario]

Meanwhile a week ago in Germany a person following all the crazies (and those "just asking questions") went into a gas station, left in a fit after being told he needed to wear his mask. Then he went home, got a gun, walked back in with his mask. Then took it off, got told to put it on again and then shot and killed this 20 year old working there part time to pay for college. In his own words to "make a statement".

None of the people he followed online managed to even consider taking responsibility.

[whomario]

Some stark US numbers: More Covid deaths age 50-64 than older age groups, considerable undercount likely (lots of unspecifif Pneumonia deaths despite no Influenza still), excess deaths plenty higher than any flu season despite this younger age makeup, fun times ... Only 4% of the 110k deaths since May 1st double vaxxed. Not really up for maths now, but 500k lives saved seems a reasonable ballpark, not to mention hospitalisations. If Delta variant was the default last year pre vaccine this would have been even more insane ...(and the pre delta version and other less potent strains managed to kill 50% more or even twice as many people than usual over 12 months in multiple countries, many more in some regions/towns)

Also:

https://mobile.twitter.com/EricTopol...01478943887365

Great job all around, awesome attention to detail. 12 people involved and not one stops to ask "hey guys, since our results are so much higher than everybody elses ... Are we sure the math checks out ?"

Between this and the insanely bad dumpster diving vaers study (rejected by 3 journals, then uploaded as preprint and launched via astroturfing campaign), we got a close race for most damaging study this month.

[Flasch186]

Yeah but as we’ve learned in this very thread statistics don’t matter and some people will just BS their way to make shit up anyways


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[albionmoonlight]

It looks like there might actually be a COVID *treatment* on the horizon.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/daily-...ry?id=80304573

Of course, it is a legit anti-viral that will be tested to ensure safety and approved and recommended by legitimate doctors and public health organizations, so I am sure that the anti-vax set will reject it in favor of injecting giraffe diarrhea medicine directly into their eyeballs or whatever is trending on Dr. Facebook at the time.

But this could be a lifesaver in parts of the world that haven't gotten adequate access to the vaccine yet.

[sterlingice]

Where can I get this giraffe diarrhea injection?

SI

[Kodos]

Is it injected in just one eye, or both? I'll ask for both, just to be extra safe.

[GrantDawg]

I got some, but I have to say it is really tough to get giraffe diarrhea. The zoo keeper's really get pissy about feeding them Taco Bell, and that's not even talking about trying to hold the pail under them just right to catch it.

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[Kodos]

Just put on giraffe diapers. Problem solved!

[JPhillips]

You guys are idiots buying giraffe diarrhea. I bought a giraffe and now I can get all of the diarrhea I want. I'm selling what I can't inject and using the profits to buy Bitcoin.

[Thomkal]

Hmmm, I think this vaccine has had an unexpected side effect-thankfully I haven't had the urge to inject giraffe diarrhea yet.

[Ksyrup]

Just wait until I unveil my giraffe diarrhea injectable NFT.

[Ksyrup]

Can anyone explain why it's breaking news that a fully vaccinated public official (or anyone with high public visibility) with no symptoms has tested positive for Covid? I mean, for the people they might, or have, come in contact with, sure, they should know. But why are we treating every single one of these like it's a big deal?

We need to move beyond last year's mindset about positive tests. We have a vaccine. To me, this is mixed messaging - get the vaccine, you'll drastically cut down on the chance you get Covid or if you do, that you'll get seriously ill, but OH MY GOD YOU NEED MULTIPLE PHONE ALERTS THAT BRETT KAVANAUGH TESTED POSITIVE!

Some Broadway show shut down after one day because of a positive test. The audience, cast and workers are all required to be vaccinated. Why are we still reacting to positive tests as if it's October 1, 2020?

[spleen1015]

For many, someone who is vaccinated being positive means the vaccine doesn't work. They need to make sure we know it doesn't work.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

For many, someone who is vaccinated being positive means the vaccine doesn't work. They need to make sure we know it doesn't work.

That's the thing, though - this is the "liberal fake media" alerting everyone. It's not like it's just Fox News. And I guess that goes to the point that all of this faux-hysteria is helping to make that exact case because the level of importance placed on it feels like it's based on the false premise that no one who is vaccinated should be getting Covid and it's newsworthy every single time it happens to someone you've heard of.

[Ksyrup]

Now, in some cases, it makes sense - like when KISS postponed tour dates, it's reasonable to explain that Paul Stanley got Covid. But what relevance is Brett Kavanaugh's positive test? He's just the latest, but this happens almost daily, it feels like.

[Edward64]

Great news. Another step to help the new normal.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-1...pitalizations/

If cleared, Merck's drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19 — a potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic. All COVID-19 therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection.

Merck and its partner, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, said early results showed patients who received the drug, called molnupiravir, within five days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalization and deaths as patients who received a dummy pill. The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered at higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease.
:
Among patients taking molnupiravir, 7.3% were either hospitalized or died at the end of 30 days, compared with 14.1% of those getting the dummy pill. There were no deaths in the drug group after that time period compared with eight deaths in the placebo group, according to Merck.

The results were released by the company and have not been peer reviewed. Merck said it plans to present them at a future medical meeting.

[sterlingice]

Anyone have a link to the study? I can't seem to find it. It seems like, with a number of these stories, they just reworded the press release from the drug company and didn't even have the courtesy to link to the actual study.

The Safety of Molnupiravir (EIDD-2801) and Its Effect on Viral Shedding of SARS-CoV-2 (END-COVID) - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov
I think this may be the clinical trial - I was curious if vaccination status was taken into account - and it looks like you're excluded if you're vaccinated.

Just running some rough numbers: 775 in study, presumably 50/50 with drug and placebo.
387 with drug, 28 hospitalized, 0 deaths
387 with placebo, 54 hospitalized, 8 deaths

Looks statistically significant but still kinda noisy with that sample size.

Pass - where do I get this giraffe diarrhea again (I love how this joke subtly shifted from giraffe diarrhea medicine to straight up injecting giraffe diarrhea).

SI

[molson]

Cases have dropped pretty significantly nationally in the last month. Daily new cases down about 1/3 since the start of September.

Not in my state though! We're still peaking and the hospitals are rationing care. If I had to take a shot in the dark as to the reason for that, I'd say it's because we rank #50 in states in % of people with at least one dose, and #47 in states in % of people fully vaccinated. Boise as a city is doing much better than that, but of course we have to take the brunt of the sick and dying from surrounding more rural areas.

I only know vaccinated people in my personal life. But it's starting to get tense again socially with people having different levels of risk tolerance. I'm on the end of being more willing to do stuff. It probably helps that I don't have kids.

[sterlingice]

Texas is starting to come off of its peak. This whole wave has felt like weird timing to me - peaking a month before school started and not really exploding much more once school started. Sure, it peaked a couple of weeks ago, but those cases were already baked in as they had been caught a week or two prior. I expected this peak to last longer and, assuming it continues to come off the peak, I'm happy to be wrong. Still, we're back over 2K deaths per day and should hit the grim milestone of 700K official deaths any day now.

SI

[spleen1015]

How much of it is people doing the things that make them safe? Shit hits the fan and people start making the right decisions again? Even the people who don't want to believe it is real will be afraid when things get bad.

[sterlingice]

I think there is a lot of that - especially with the "squishy middle". Sure, there's the defiant, belligerent like 10%-20% but I've seen quite a few more masks of late, more than I saw 4 months ago. But 4 months ago, things weren't nearly as bad. However, it's also a lot more than I saw 2 months ago when things were ramping up again.

SI

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Anyone have a link to the study? I can't seem to find it. It seems like, with a number of these stories, they just reworded the press release from the drug company and didn't even have the courtesy to link to the actual study.

Fauci is pretty optimistic about it and I'm sure he's seen the studies/results. So that is pretty good news.

The Safety of Molnupiravir (EIDD-2801) and Its Effect on Viral Shedding of SARS-CoV-2 (END-COVID) - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov
I think this may be the clinical trial - I was curious if vaccination status was taken into account - and it looks like you're excluded if you're vaccinated.

One of my first questions too. What was the vaccination status.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Pass - where do I get this giraffe diarrhea again (I love how this joke subtly shifted from giraffe diarrhea medicine to straight up injecting giraffe diarrhea).SI

Trout diarrhea cures everything. Giant squid diarrhea makes you immortal.

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by KSyrup

That's the thing, though - this is the "liberal fake media" alerting everyone. It's not like it's just Fox News. And I guess that goes to the point that all of this faux-hysteria is helping to make that exact case because the level of importance placed on it feels like it's based on the false premise that no one who is vaccinated should be getting Covid and it's newsworthy every single time it happens to someone you've heard of.

I think mixed messaging is par for the course with modern media. It's why, even with all the information that's out there, only an extremely small number of people are remotely well-informed on Covid. The media's role in modern society is sensationalism, entertainment is at least as important as informing and often more so.

There are a variety of perspectives that will want to use a figure like Kavanaugh testing positive as a bolster to their particular argument on the pandemic.

[Edward64]

Article also talked about the new Merck pill, a blurb on unvaccinated pregnancy but this one caught my eye. If true, boosters are coming sooner than expected ...

COVID SCIENCE-Delta increases COVID-19 risks for pregnant ...

Six months after receiving the second dose of the two-shot vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE, many recipients no longer have vaccine-induced antibodies that can immediately neutralize worrisome variants of the coronavirus, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed blood samples from 46 healthy, mostly young or middle-aged adults after receipt of the two doses and again six months after the second dose. "Our study shows vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine induces high levels of neutralizing antibodies against the original vaccine strain, but these levels drop by nearly 10-fold by seven months"

[NobodyHere]

If this doesn't cause people to get a vaccine then I don't know what will.

Restless Anal Syndrome Affects Man Who Had Covid-19 Coronavirus Infection

[CrimsonFox]

you're the best NH

[Edward64]

Good news from Portugal. I've always wanted to visit so maybe can late/early next year.

In Portugal, There Is Virtually No One Left to Vaccinate

Portugal’s health care system was on the verge of collapse. Hospitals in the capital, Lisbon, were overflowing and authorities were asking people to treat themselves at home. In the last week of January, nearly 2,000 people died as the virus spread.

The country’s vaccine program was in a shambles, so the government turned to Vice Adm. Henrique Gouveia e Melo, a former submarine squadron commander, to right the ship.

Eight months later, Portugal is among the world’s leaders in vaccinations, with roughly 86% of its population of 10.3 million fully vaccinated. About 98% of all of those eligible for vaccines — meaning anyone over 12 — have been fully vaccinated, Gouveia e Melo said.
:
On Friday, Portugal ended nearly all of its coronavirus restrictions. There has been a sharp drop in new cases, to about 650 a day, and vanishingly few deaths.

[Edward64]

No surprise vaccine effectiveness wanes but prevention of hospitalization & deaths is still pretty good.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/06/healt...ity/index.html

Two real-world studies published Wednesday confirm that the immune protection offered by two doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine drops off after two months or so, although protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death remains strong.
:
"The waning appears to accelerate after the fourth month, to reach a low level of approximately 20% in subsequent months," they added.

Nonetheless, protection against hospitalization and death stayed at above 90%, they said.

However, this reduction is a lot faster than mumps, measles etc. vaccines. Wonder what's going on here.

"Published work about many vaccines, such as those against measles, mumps, and rubella, has shown a small decrease each year of 5 to 10% in the neutralizing antibody levels," they wrote. "We found that a significant and rapid decrease in humoral response to the BNT162b2 vaccine was observed within months after vaccination."

[albionmoonlight]

I heard some speculation that the first two doses are too close together so your body treats it more as one dose. They were, obviously, trying to go for speed, so they found something that worked and proved it was safe and then went with it. But that if they had really had time to develop it with no pressures, they would have been able to test various time periods.

The good news, if this is true, is that the third/booster dose will act as the real second dose and should provide the longer lasting immunity that is typical of most vaccines.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Edward64

However, this reduction is a lot faster than mumps, measles etc. vaccines. Wonder what's going on here.

Protection from the flu shot only lasts about 6 months.

[RainMaker]

It's a dumb article that uses a false headline to draw clicks. Effectiveness remains sky-high for the vaccine (WHICH IS ALL THAT FUCKING MATTERS). All they are showing is waning antibodies which happens naturally. That doesn't mean you'll get sick and die, your immune system has a memory and knows how to fight the virus.

[AlexB]

Meanwhile, more scientific shenanigans

Ivermectin: How false science created a Covid 'miracle' drug

[cuervo72]

Did we cover this one?

Maryland man allegedly fatally shot his pharmacist brother for ‘killing people’ with the COVID vaccine, court records show - Baltimore Sun

A Cumberland man allegedly killed his brother and sister-in-law in their Ellicott City home last week because his brother, a pharmacist, administered COVID-19 vaccines, according to charging documents filed Wednesday in a Howard County court.

Jeffrey Burnham told his mother he had to confront his older brother, Brian Robinette, because he was poisoning people by administering the COVID-19 vaccine, telling his mother, “Brian knows something,” according to the new charging documents filed against Burnham.

Burnham is being held without bond in Allegany County, where he is charged with stabbing Rebecca Reynolds, 83, to death inside her Cumberland home on Sept. 29. Police said he took her car and fled to Ellicott City, where a day later he killed Robinette, 58, and his wife Kelly Sue Robinette, 57. He faces first and second-degree murder charges in the couples’ deaths.

[RainMaker]

Saw that. That would be terrorism.

[Lathum]

Colorado hospital system will require vaccine for its organ transplant list : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Did we cover this one?

Maryland man allegedly fatally shot his pharmacist brother for ‘killing people’ with the COVID vaccine, court records show - Baltimore Sun

I wonder if he'll run for the GOP nomination for governor or senator.

[Edward64]

GA looks to be doing okay. I'm thinking we are at the beginning of a slow/long end.

Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US