The COVID-2019 Thread

[russellsimpson]

What are the compensations in your home country?

No numbers batted around at this point. I would imagine it will be substantial.

[Klondyke]

Is it still true that AstraZeneca has been granted protection from future product liability?

Anywhere in world? That means it is so reliable that nothing can happen in future years... So what for a liability?

(Not even 6 months guarantee like they give in BigC for a casserole?)

[panama hat]

Is it still true

Depends on where you read it . . . Pravda or pravda.

(Not even 6 months guarantee like they give in BigC for a casserole?)

Glad to see you're on the ball, Klongdick. Casseroles . . . nice touch.

Pray tell, why would they give you a six month guarantee on casseroles? Why would you want a six-month guarantee on casseroles and you're simply lying again, aren't you.

Oh, Klongdick . . . Lying until, the end

[tomcat]

Thai virus clusters spotlight conditions for migrant labour

• 
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Thai virus clusters spotlight conditions for migrant labour

COVID-19 outbreak in Bangkok

By Chayut Setboonsarng (Reuters)

Mon, May 24, 2021, 3:21 PM


BANGKOK (Reuters) - A series of coronavirus clusters among construction workers in Bangkok, including the first local cases of the variant first identified in India, has put a fresh spotlight on migrant labour rights as Thailand grapples with its deadliest outbreak so far.

Migrant workers have been crucial during Bangkok's decade-long construction boom, but they receive limited welfare from the government and their employers, advocacy groups say. Many live onsite in crowded dormitories to save money.

Thailand last week detected its first 36 domestically transmitted cases of the highly infectious B.1.617.2 coronavirus variant among people in construction workers' accommodation in Bangkok.

City authorities have prohibited movement of workers at such camps after 11 were among 30 active clusters in the capital.
There are around 409 workers' camps around Bangkok where authorities say 62,169 workers live, about half who are migrant labour.

"Migrant workers are a group that society overlooks," Suthasinee Kaewleklai, Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN) coordinator in Thailand said.
"Many were not confident that they can come in for tests and not be arrested."

The International Organization for Migration estimates that there are 4 million to 5 million migrant workers in Thailand, many working in construction, manufacturing and seafood industries.

Workers from Myanmar were among those worst-hit by Thailand's previous coronavirus outbreak in December, the epicentre of which was a province near Bangkok with a high concentration of migrant labourers.

The outbreak also saw a sharp rise in anti-Myanmar hate speech on Thai social media.
There are also concerns that illegal border crossings are undermining the country's strict quarantine system for arrivals in the country.
Authorities tightened border crossings at the weekend after three local cases were found of the COVID-19 variant first identified in South Africa, stemming from illegal entry.

Thailand is battling its most severe outbreak yet, fuelled by another highly transmissible variant, B.1.1.7, first detected in Britain, which authorities believe may have entered Thailand via an illegal border crossing from Cambodia.

Nearly 33,000 illegal migrants had been arrested since July 2020, the defense ministry said

Thailand's latest outbreak has accounted for nearly 80% of its 132,213 cases and close to 90% of the 806 deaths recorded so far.

[harrybarracuda]

Meanwhile...

(Reuters) - The United States has administered 286,890,900 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Monday morning and distributed 357,250,475 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

The number of administered doses is up from the 285,720,586 vaccine doses the CDC said had gone into arms by Sunday.

CDC said 163,907,827 received at least one dose, while 130,615,797 people are fully vaccinated as of Monday.
The CDC tally includes two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, as well as Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine as of 6:00 a.m. ET on Monday.

The number of vaccine doses delivered was at 357,250,475 as of Monday morning from 357,250,375 doses as of May 22, as shipments are not always sent on Sundays, according to the CDC.

U.S. administers nearly 287 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines - CDC | Reuters

[harrybarracuda]

An interesting article regarding the light at the end of the tunnel.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...f65_story.html

[harrybarracuda]

And is if Covid isn't enough... BLACK FUNGUS!

India became only the third country to record 300,000 Covid-19 deaths on Monday amid growing fears about a potentially fatal fungal infection striking some of those who have battled the virus.

Over 8,800 total cases of the so-called black fungus, known as mucormycosis, have been recorded across India, the country's minister of chemicals and fertilizers, Sadananda Gowda, said in a tweet Saturday.

Although Gowda did not share the official number of deaths caused by mucormycosis, The Associated Press reported that local media had found that more than 250 people have died as a result of the disease.

Experts told the AP that they had seen only a handful of cases per year of mucormycosis in India prior to the country's second wave. This has further stoked fears that the fungal infection has dire effects on Covid-19 patients.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/b...s-300-n1268305

[Klondyke]

Timeline: How the Wuhan lab-leak theory suddenly became credible
May 25, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. UTC
By Glenn Kessler
The Fact Checker

The source of the coronavirus that has left more than 3 million people dead around the world remains a mystery. But in recent months the idea that it emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — once dismissed as a ridiculous conspiracy theory — has gained new credence.

How and why did this happen? For one, efforts to discover a natural source of the virus have failed. Second, early efforts to spotlight a lab leak often got mixed up with speculation that the virus was deliberately created as a bioweapon. That made it easier for many scientists to dismiss the lab scenario as tin-hat nonsense. But a lack of transparency by China and renewed attention to the activities of the Wuhan lab have led some scientists to say they were too quick to discount a possible link at first.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) from the start pointed to the lab’s location in Wuhan, pressing China for answers, so the history books will reward him if he turns out to be right. The Trump administration also sought to highlight the lab scenario but generally could only point to vague intelligence. The Trump administration’s messaging was often accompanied by anti-Chinese rhetoric that made it easier for skeptics to ignore its claims.
Read more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...came-credible/

Ted Cruz mocks Washington Post as 'clowns' after fact-check declares Wuhan lab leak theory 'suddenly' credible
Kessler said last year that accidental lab leak was 'virtually impossible'

Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler declared the Wuhan coronavirus lab-leak theory "suddenly credible" on Tuesday, after previously mocking Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others last year for espousing the "virtually impossible" theory.

"The source of the coronavirus that has left more than 3 million people dead around the world remains a mystery. But in recent months the idea that it emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — once dismissed as a ridiculous conspiracy theory — has gained new credence," Kessler wrote, in a timeline article about how the story developed over the past year.

One of the outlets to dismiss it as a "ridiculous conspiracy theory" was Kessler's: the Washington Post reported on Feb. 17, 2020, that Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., had "repeated a fringe theory suggesting that the ongoing spread of a coronavirus is connected to research in the disease-ravaged epicenter of Wuhan, China." Kessler passively referred to the article as "critical" of Cotton.
Read more
Ted Cruz mocks Washington Post as 'clowns' after fact-check declares Wuhan lab leak theory 'suddenly' credible | Fox News

[Klondyke]

Tucker Carlson: Fauci, the WHO, and mainstream media lied about COVID origins for more than a year
'Even as of now, the US government has not launched and broad and serious investigation into where the coronavirus came from'
Published May 25, 2021

Actually, it looks like this virus did come from a lab in China. Nearly a year and a half into the pandemic, that’s the new consensus in the American media. Boy, these things change fast. There are holdouts of course. Just today, over at the Washington Post, a China shill called Michael Gerson wrote a hilariously overwrought column entitled:

"The right is dwelling on slanderous myths about the origins of COVID-19." The radical right! Slanderous myths! Russian QAnon sleeper cells slandering the Chinese government! It’s pretty funny. The good news is, it’s almost over. You’re probably not going to see a lot more columns like that going forward. The nonsense is finally dying down.

At other parts of Michael Gerson’s own newspaper, we’ve learned, they’re working on new stories about how the virus did in fact escape from the lab in Wuhan. So, the debate among serious people over the origins of COVID appears to be pretty much winding up. Pretty much every sane person acknowledges at this point that the government of China likely caused the single worst man-made disaster in human history. As if we need more evidence, over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that the first people infected with COVID-19 were probably researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In November of 2019, three of them were taken to the hospital with symptoms. The Journal did solid reporting, but it wasn’t entirely new. Back in January of this year, the State Department issued a fact sheet telling the entire country the same thing.

Read more
Tucker Carlson: Fauci, the WHO, and mainstream media lied about COVID origins for more than a year | Fox News

[panama hat]

Groan . . . Why, Klondyke . . . why . . .

Li Wenliang: 'Wuhan whistleblower' remembered one year on

Tributes have been paid on social media in China commemorating a doctor who raised the alarm about the country's coronavirus outbreak, one year after he died with Covid-19.


Thousands paid tribute to Li Wenliang ahead of the first anniversary of his death on 7 February 2020.


He died after contracting Covid-19 while treating patients in Wuhan.


Dr Li had tried to warn fellow medics of a disease that looked like Sars - another deadly coronavirus.



But he was told by police to "stop making false comments" and was investigated for "spreading rumours".


Dr Li was an eye doctor at a hospital in Wuhan - the central Chinese city where the first case of the coronavirus was detected at the end of 2019.



Dr Li's death prompted a rare wave of grief and public anger over the Chinese government's handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

As hospitals filled up in Wuhan, the government was accused of downplaying the severity of the virus and concealing the extent of its spread.


Only when anger reached fever pitch was Dr Li exonerated and honoured as a hero by the Chinese government.


Since then, more than 105 million people have been infected with coronavirus and 2.3 million have died with Covid-19 worldwide.

What tributes have been made?


Freedom of speech is limited in China, where the government has promoted an official narrative hinged on its successful handling of the coronavirus outbreak.


China does routinely censor comments on social media.




But Dr Li's personal page on Weibo - the Chinese equivalent of Twitter - has become a rare space for users to express themselves about the trauma of the coronavirus pandemic.

[harrybarracuda]

Vlad's still desperate to promote that Sputnik shit.

French and German YouTubers, bloggers and influencers have been offered money by a supposedly UK-based PR agency with apparent Russian connections to falsely tell their followers the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is responsible for hundreds of deaths.

Fazze, which said it was an “influencer marketing platform … connecting bloggers and advertisers”, claimed to be based at 5 Percy Street in London but is not registered there. On Tuesday, it closed its website and made its Instagram account private.

The agency contacted several French health and science YouTubers last week and asked them, in poor English, to “explain … the death rate among the vaccinated with Pfizer is almost 3x higher than the vaccinated by AstraZeneca”.

The influencers were told to publish links on YouTube, Instagram or TikTok to reports in Le Monde, on Reddit and on the Ethical Hacker website about a leaked report containing data that supposedly substantiates the claim.

The article in Le Monde is about data reportedly stolen by Russian hackers from the European Medicines Agency and later published on the Dark Web. It contains no information on mortality rates. The pages on the other two sites have been deleted.

The influencers were asked to tell their subscribers that “the mainstream media ignores this theme”, and to ask: “Why some governments actively purchasing Pfizer vaccine, which is dangerous to the health of the people?”

The brief also included requests to “act like you have the passion and interest in this topic”, and to avoid using the words “advertising” or “sponsored” in posts or videos because “the material should be presented as your own independent view”.

Screen shots of the emails were posted on Twitter by Léo Grasset, a popular French science YouTuber with nearly 1.2m subscribers. Grasset said the campaign had a “colossal budget” but that the agency refused to identify its client.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...pfizer-vaccine

[harrybarracuda]

By the time you read this, 3.5 million people will have died of Covid.

So if you see one of those retarded wankers banging on about it being "like the flu", don't forget to give them a good fucking online slap.

[cyrille]

Like this, you mean?

You've gotta feel for the world with this fucking COVID project fear going on.

It's not even a sniffle for most people and 95% of over 70s survive (CDC figures) yet people who are just turning 18, the best time of their lives, are being told to stay at home. The best time of their lives and they're forced to stay at home because some 96 year old fella might die cos of the cold!

What's all that about?

A virus that even the UK and its scaremonger-in-chief (Bo Jo and Chris Whitty) have long since downgraded as a High Consequence Infectious Disease (it kills less than 1% of EVERYONE). Even as a 60 year old you have a 1 in 100 chance of dying! Fucking hell, try crossing a busy road in London and I assure you that you have a much less chance of surviving.

Even The CDC (Centre for Disease Control) in the US have got the death rates at much less than 1% since testing began given the number of us who are asymptomatic. And most of them are above 70.

Let the old and the vulnerable isolate (the people clogging up the hospitals), if they wish, and let the rest of us get on with our lives and deal with the flu if and when it arrives.

We'll get by and the world can move on.

[harrybarracuda]

Like this, you mean?

55555555555555555555555555555

[harrybarracuda]

Oh dear...

Two doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine were found to have only a 10.4% efficacy against mild-to-moderate infections caused by the B.1.351 South Africa variant, according to a phase 1b-2 clinical trial published on Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

AstraZeneca Vaccine Fails To Protect Against The South African Variant, Says Study

[nidhogg]

^ Sigh.......

So crap Chinese one or possibly leaky AstraZeneca one are the two options in Thailand at the moment. Yipeee.

[Buckaroo Banzai]

Oh dear...

AstraZeneca Vaccine Fails To Protect Against The South African Variant, Says Study

If that's true, Thailand is screwed, 'cause the Sinovac works similar to AZ.

[cyrille]

If that's true, Thailand is screwed, 'cause the Sinovac works similar to AZ.

Those two are different to the others how, exactly?

[lom]

Oh dear...

AstraZeneca Vaccine Fails To Protect Against The South African Variant, Says Study

I told you that like two month ago.
AZ are working on an 'updated vaccine' which they at that time said would be available in September but then they are not very good at keeping promises and schedules.

[harrybarracuda]

I told you that like two month ago.
AZ are working on an 'updated vaccine' which they at that time said would be available in September but then they are not very good at keeping promises and schedules.

It's OK, I'm sure Thailand will ban the South African variant or make it quarantine for 14 days.

[Klondyke]

AZ are working on an 'updated vaccine' which they at that time said would be available in September but then they are not very good at keeping promises and schedules.

What they are good at is: no indemnity...

[panama hat]

What they are good at is: no indemnity...

What the Chinese vaccines are good at: Third rate copies

[misskit]

Covid lab origin theory gains traction in United States

Long dismissed as a kooky conspiracy theory favored by the far right, the idea that Covid emerged from a lab leak in Wuhan has been gaining increasing momentum in the United States.


The government’s position has shifted to agnosticism in recent weeks, with top pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky both saying they are open to all possibilities.


“We need to get to the bottom of this and we need a completely transparent process from China, we need the WHO (World Health Organization) to assist in that matter,” senior White House Covid advisor Andy Slavitt said Tuesday.


The demand for more investigation is in stark contrast to the start of the pandemic, when scientists quickly came together around the idea that the virus crossed over from bats via an intermediary animal.


The problem is, this link still hasn’t been found, Scott Gottlieb, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration, told CNBC on Monday — and not for want of trying.


Previous coronaviruses that crossed over to humans, SARS and MERS, were quickly traced back to civets and camels.


“The question for a lot of people is going to be when are too many coincidences too much?” added Gottlieb.


Citing a US intelligence report, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that a trio from the Wuhan Institute of Virology were hospitalized with a seasonal illness in November 2019.


China disclosed the existence of an outbreak of pneumonia cases in Wuhan to the World Health Organization (WHO) on December 31, 2019.


Beijing dismissed the Journal report as “totally untrue.”


– Transparency calls –


On Tuesday, the United States and other countries called for a more in-depth probe into the pandemic’s origins, after an international mission to China earlier this year proved inconclusive.


A long-delayed report by a team of experts dispatched by the WHO to Wuhan and their Chinese counterparts drew no firm conclusions on the origins of the pandemic.


It said that a natural origin was the most probable scenario, and that a theory involving the virus leaking from a laboratory was “extremely unlikely.”


After the report was released, however, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus himself insisted all theories remained on the table.


And calls from scientists for more transparency are growing.


“We must take hypotheses about both natural and laboratory spillovers seriously until we have sufficient data,” a group of researchers from top US universities wrote in a letter published by the journal Science in mid-May.


The virus has claimed more than 3.4 million lives worldwide and determining how it passed to humans is considered crucial in preventing the next pandemic.


– Trump triumphant –


In the United States, the hypothesis of a leak of the virus from the Chinese laboratory was previously fueled mainly by Donald Trump and his acolytes, and the matter became mired in the country’s divided politics.


“Now everybody is agreeing that I was right when I very early on called Wuhan as the source of Covid-19,” the former president said Tuesday.


“To me it was obvious from the beginning but I was badly criticized, as usual. Now they are all saying ‘He was right.’ Thank you!”


However, many experts remain cautious.


“Many of us feel that it is more likely that this is a natural occurrence, as has happened before,” Fauci told reporters Tuesday.


“But we don’t know 100 percent the answer to that.”


The truth may never be known, said Gottlieb. Evidence supporting a lab leak won’t surface unless there is a whistleblower or regime change in China.


– Chinese reactions –


Repeating an earlier denial of the report, Zhao Lijian, spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, on Wednesday accused the US of “spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation such as a laboratory leak”.


Zhao said it was “disrespectful” to the WHO probe to revive the theory, and risked an “undermining of global solidarity to fight the virus”.


Since infecting its first victims in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019, the pathogen has struck almost every country in the world, killing more than 3.4 million people and eviscerating national economies.


“If the US really wants full transparency then it should, like China did, invite WHO experts to visit the US and investigate,” Zhao added.


“Open up Fort Detrick military base as early as possible, and all the bio labs the US has around the world,” he said, referring to a US research facility in Maryland.


Covid lab origin theory gains traction in United States | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

[Joe 90]

Do you need to worry about the Indian COVID-19 variant?

Patient Access
Hi Joe90



Throughout the pandemic we’ve seen various mutations of SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus which causes COVID-19) including variants originating in Kent, South Africa and Brazil. The latest variant of concern originated in India and its higher rate of transmission has helped it to spread quickly, especially in London and the Northwest of England.



If you’re living in one of the hotspot areas, make sure to listen to local advice, minimise contact as much as possible, get vaccinated and test regularly. Despite the easing of lockdown, this new variant is a reminder that the pandemic isn’t over. Across the UK and the rest of the world, we’ll need to continue taking measures to keep ourselves and our communities safe for some time to come.



Dr Sarah Jarvis MBE, Clinical Director at Patient

[panama hat]

Zhao Lijian, spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, on Wednesday accused the US of “spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation

Good Lord . . . the hypocrisy meter just broke.

Throughout the pandemic we’ve seen various mutations of SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus which causes COVID-19) including variants originating in Kent, South Africa and Brazil. The latest variant of concern originated in India and its higher rate of transmission has helped it to spread quickly, especially in London and the Northwest of England.

Relaxed travel restrictions have been put up again from British tourists . . . seems like one step forward, two steps back with this crap.