The COVID-2019 Thread

[harrybarracuda]

Doesn't it make such a difference not having a bald orange cockhead at the wheel?

Biden to pledge $4 billion to COVAX vaccine program at G7 meeting Friday

By Carl O’Donnell, Andrea Shalal

(Reuters) - The Biden administration will pledge $4 billion to a coronavirus vaccination program for poorer countries in hopes of prying loose bigger donations from other governments, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-covax/biden-to-pledge-4-billion-to-covax-vaccine-program-at-g7-meeting-friday-idUSKBN2AI2YP

[harrybarracuda]

OOO OOO OOO

The State of Hawaii has been working on a system for vaccinated people to travel within the islands quarantine-free.

The long-expected vaccine passports could be ready as soon as March 1, stated Lt. Gov. Josh Green.

Immunized travelers will be given an electronic code that will allow them to move around the islands freely without the need to self-isolate for ten days.

At the moment, visitors and returning residents must present proof of a negative COVID-19 test no older than 72 hours before departure to avoid the mandatory quarantine.

The program will probably start with essential workers. Then, it will expand to the general public and international tourists.

Hawaii ‘Vaccine Passport’ Could Allow Travelers to Skip Quarantine from March 1

[cyrille]

Stay classy, Florida...

Two Florida women aged 34 and 44 dressed up as “grannies” – wearing bonnets and gloves – in a failed attempt to pass as old enough to be eligible for coronavirus jabs, according to local media reports.


WFTV, an ABC-affiliated TV station in Orlando, reported that the pair had valid vaccine cards after having their first shots, but were denied their second ones.


It quoted the Orange County health officer Dr Raul Pino as saying: “I don’t know how they escaped [detection] for the first time, but they came with the gloves, the glasses, the whole thing, and they are probably in their 20s.”


Their real ages emerged later, a WFTV reporter said. According to the station, the two women were turned over to police. Officers said they were asked to issue trespass warnings and no other action was taken.

Florida women wear 'granny' disguise to try to get Covid vaccine | US news | The Guardian

[Buckaroo Banzai]

The vaccination system in FL is a disaster as with everything the trump idiots try. Here we have a 65 and over requirements so far .
So a supper healthy 65 year old can get vaccinated, but a 64 year old censer patient with little chance of surviving if he got covid, can not!!
In the news right now the Governor a stanch trump supporter. :
"the governor stands accused of using the Covid-19 vaccine to reward powerful political supporters and developers by setting up pop-up vaccination sites in planned communities they developed and where GOP voters predominate. "
Florida governor accused of playing politics with Covid vaccine

In these vaccination locations only residence of that particular zip code can register.

[misskit]

It’s just an op-ed but I sure hope this man is right.

Johns Hopkins Dr. Marty Makary: Covid 'Mostly Gone' By April

[russellsimpson]

^ Can't open that.

I wish the good doctor would have expanded on "natural immunity" a bit more.


"It's natural immunity, and it's now over 50 percent of the population"

[harrybarracuda]

The vaccination system in FL is a disaster as with everything the trump idiots try. Here we have a 65 and over requirements so far .
So a supper healthy 65 year old can get vaccinated, but a 64 year old censer patient with little chance of surviving if he got covid, can not!!
In the news right now the Governor a stanch trump supporter. :
"the governor stands accused of using the Covid-19 vaccine to reward powerful political supporters and developers by setting up pop-up vaccination sites in planned communities they developed and where GOP voters predominate. "
Florida governor accused of playing politics with Covid vaccine

In these vaccination locations only residence of that particular zip code can register.

Let's hope this gets properly reported and thrown back in his face come election time.

[harrybarracuda]

^ Can't open that.

I wish the good doctor would have expanded on "natural immunity" a bit more.


"It's natural immunity, and it's now over 50 percent of the population"

I think the implication is that if you add the vaccinated population to the previously infected (including asymptomatic) population, you are a lot closer to that magical "Herd Immunity" number.

[misskit]

We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April


Amid the dire Covid warnings, one crucial fact has been largely ignored: Cases are down 77% over the past six weeks. If a medication slashed cases by 77%, we’d call it a miracle pill. Why is the number of cases plummeting much faster than experts predicted?


In large part because natural immunity from prior infection is far more common than can be measured by testing. Testing has been capturing only from 10% to 25% of infections, depending on when during the pandemic someone got the virus. Applying a time-weighted case capture average of 1 in 6.5 to the cumulative 28 million confirmed cases would mean about 55% of Americans have natural immunity.


Now add people getting vaccinated. As of this week, 15% of Americans have received the vaccine, and the figure is rising fast. Former Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb estimates 250 million doses will have been delivered to some 150 million people by the end of March.


There is reason to think the country is racing toward an extremely low level of infection. As more people have been infected, most of whom have mild or no symptoms, there are fewer Americans left to be infected. At the current trajectory, I expect Covid will be mostly gone by April, allowing Americans to resume normal life.


Antibody studies almost certainly underestimate natural immunity. Antibody testing doesn’t capture antigen-specific T-cells, which develop “memory” once they are activated by the virus. Survivors of the 1918 Spanish flu were found in 2008—90 years later—to have memory cells still able to produce neutralizing antibodies.


Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute found that the percentage of people mounting a T-cell response after mild or asymptomatic Covid-19 infection consistently exceeded the percentage with detectable antibodies. T-cell immunity was even present in people who were exposed to infected family members but never developed symptoms. A group of U.K. scientists in September pointed out that the medical community may be under-appreciating the prevalence of immunity from activated T-cells.


Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. would also suggest much broader immunity than recognized. About 1 in 600 Americans has died of Covid-19, which translates to a population fatality rate of about 0.15%. The Covid-19 infection fatality rate is about 0.23%. These numbers indicate that roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population has had the infection.


In my own conversations with medical experts, I have noticed that they too often dismiss natural immunity, arguing that we don’t have data. The data certainly doesn’t fit the classic randomized-controlled-trial model of the old-guard medical establishment. There’s no control group. But the observational data is compelling.


I have argued for months that we could save more American lives if those with prior Covid-19 infection forgo vaccines until all vulnerable seniors get their first dose. Several studies demonstrate that natural immunity should protect those who had Covid-19 until more vaccines are available. Half my friends in the medical community told me: Good idea. The other half said there isn’t enough data on natural immunity, despite the fact that reinfections have occurred in less than 1% of people—and when they do occur, the cases are mild.


But the consistent and rapid decline in daily cases since Jan. 8 can be explained only by natural immunity. Behavior didn’t suddenly improve over the holidays; Americans traveled more over Christmas than they had since March. Vaccines also don’t explain the steep decline in January. Vaccination rates were low and they take weeks to kick in.


My prediction that Covid-19 will be mostly gone by April is based on laboratory data, mathematical data, published literature and conversations with experts. But it’s also based on direct observation of how hard testing has been to get, especially for the poor. If you live in a wealthy community where worried people are vigilant about getting tested, you might think that most infections are captured by testing. But if you have seen the many barriers to testing for low-income Americans, you might think that very few infections have been captured at testing centers. Keep in mind that most infections are asymptomatic, which still triggers natural immunity.


Many experts, along with politicians and journalists, are afraid to talk about herd immunity. The term has political overtones because some suggested the U.S. simply let Covid rip to achieve herd immunity. That was a reckless idea. But herd immunity is the inevitable result of viral spread and vaccination. When the chain of virus transmission has been broken in multiple places, it’s harder for it to spread—and that includes the new strains.


Herd immunity has been well-documented in the Brazilian city of Manaus, where researchers in the Lancet reported the prevalence of prior Covid-19 infection to be 76%, resulting in a significant slowing of the infection. Doctors are watching a new strain that threatens to evade prior immunity. But countries where new variants have emerged, such as the U.K., South Africa and Brazil, are also seeing significant declines in daily new cases. The risk of new variants mutating around the prior vaccinated or natural immunity should be a reminder that Covid-19 will persist for decades after the pandemic is over. It should also instill a sense of urgency to develop, authorize and administer a vaccine targeted to new variants.


Some medical experts privately agreed with my prediction that there may be very little Covid-19 by April but suggested that I not to talk publicly about herd immunity because people might become complacent and fail to take precautions or might decline the vaccine. But scientists shouldn’t try to manipulate the public by hiding the truth. As we encourage everyone to get a vaccine, we also need to reopen schools and society to limit the damage of closures and prolonged isolation. Contingency planning for an open economy by April can deliver hope to those in despair and to those who have made large personal sacrifices.



Dr. Makary is a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, chief medical adviser to Sesame Care, and author of “The Price We Pay.”

We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April - WSJ

[harrybarracuda]

Some medical experts privately agreed with my prediction that there may be very little Covid-19 by April but suggested that I not to talk publicly about herd immunity because people might become complacent and fail to take precautions or might decline the vaccine. But scientists shouldn’t try to manipulate the public by hiding the truth.

Well in this case they fucking well should!

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Well in this case they fucking well should!

I agree,
Even if they told the "truth", then as it was mentioned, people will become complacent , it will not happen and then they will be accused of being wrong.

[russellsimpson]

Shall we break open the champagne now, or wait a bit.

My gut is yelling loudly at me, "this is the end of it".

Strange as it seems I'll bet millions are really gonna miss the drama.

[misskit]

Since seeing how the COVID cases in both India and USA dropped so quickly with no explanation, I tend to think there is something to what Makary states.

Too soon to break out the champagne.

Strange as it seems I'll bet millions are really gonna miss the drama

Nah. This kind of drama no one needs.

[lom]

Dr. Marty Makary — a surgeon and a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health..


He is not a virologist and should stick to what is his own expertise

[Switch]

Like all these issues, a balanced response is required between medical and economic imperatives. Move too close, or too quickly to one, or the other and it creates unwanted and unnecessary complications.
What the good doctor say may well be scientifically correct, but it takes no account of the many stupid responses from the uneducated part of the population. They insist that they are right, because they miss the underlying message. Sometimes people need a dose of common sense to go with scientific truths?

[russellsimpson]

and should stick to what is his own expertise

Apply that principle to the forum and it would be a very quiet place indeed.

[panama hat]

^ But here no-one dies because of Klondyke's idiocy . . .

[lom]

Apply that principle to the forum and it would be a very quiet place indeed.

Just imagine Harry only writing in the "RIP famouus person" thread..

[Klondyke]

Florida governor accused of playing politics with Covid vaccine

Let's hope this gets properly reported and thrown back in his face come election time.

I thought that the blame is always with the highest trumpo as previously blamed...

Now it's with the governors?

[Klondyke]

^ But here no-one dies because of Klondyke's idiocy . . .

Again? First thing in the morning open the fridge, and what see?

[panama hat]

First thing in the morning open the fridge, and what see?

Russian pisspot

[harrybarracuda]

Just imagine Harry only writing in the "RIP famouus person" thread..

Just imagine you having to fuck off and find another forum to post your drivel.

[cyrille]

Strange as it seems I'll bet millions are really gonna miss the drama.

Not so much a 'strange' comment, more 'idiotic'.

[harrybarracuda]

There are a number of factors that may be at work, but it's still good to see.

[harrybarracuda]

Vaccine developer Novavax has agreed to provide 1.1 billion doses of its experimental Covid-19 vaccine for use in more than 190 low and middle income countries.

Read more at: Novavax to provide 1.1 billion Covid-19 doses to low and middle income countries | Deccan Herald