The COVID-2019 Thread

[harrybarracuda]

Phuket will establish a third field hospital at the site of the former provincial prison to cope with the rising number of Covid-19 patients on the tourist island.
The Provincial Public Health Office on Monday reported 86 new Covid-19 cases that were detected on the island on Sunday. Phuket has now recorded a total of 1,571 since the coronavirus outbreak began.
Out of the 86 cases, 81 were found to be contracted within the province, while the rest were a single returnee from Bangkok and four foreign tourists who came to the island under the Phuket Sandbox scheme.

Phuket to establish third field hospital

[harrybarracuda]

It seems this has pissed off a lot of people who bought their Covid insurance in the US and which may well be invalidated by this announcement.

* Added: It seems Policies already issued prior to the announcement will still give coverage.

** Added: Providing the effective coverage date is prior to the change of level.

WASHINGTON/BANGKOK: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned on Monday against travel to Israel, France, Thailand, Iceland and several other countries because of a rising number of Covid-19 cases in those nations.
The CDC has been adding to its highest "Level 4: Very High" Covid-19 level as cases spread around the globe. The United States added Thailand, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, along with other places, including Aruba and French Polynesia.
"Because of the current situation in Thailand, even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading Covid-19 variants," the CDC said on its website.

US warns against travel to Thailand, other countries over Covid-19

[harrybarracuda]

The vaccine stockpiling law should be enforced to ensure the country has at least 10 million doses per month of locally produced AstraZeneca vaccines for use in the next three months, says Prasert Auewarakul, deputy dean for Research of Siriraj Hospital's Faculty of Medicine.

Dr Prasert said the next three months will be a major turning point for the national vaccination campaign when enough vaccines put the government in a better position to bring down Covid-19 infections and fatalities.

He asked people to join a mass signature petition via Change.org calling for the government to invoke the law on national vaccine security to limit exports of AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured by Siam Bioscience. With less vaccines being exported, there will be more left for domestic inoculation.

Even though vaccine supplies have risen due to foreign donations and an increase in procurement, the boost is only short term. In the next two to three months, the country could face a heavy vaccine shortage if no more stocks are obtained, he said.

Dr Prasert said a straightforward step now was to temporarily reduce or cease vaccine exports by Siam Bioscience and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is authorised to enforce the vaccine security law.

Siam Bioscience has the capacity to produce 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine a month. If the law was applied, the country would have between 20 million and 30 million doses available for local immunisation in the next three months, he said.

"We would then be able to better equipped to contain the pandemic and push down fatalities," Dr Prasert said.
Dr Prasert admitted suspending exports would impact other countries which ordered the AstraZeneca vaccine. However, he believed the effect would be minimal as, unlike Thailand, these countries do not rely on AstraZeneca as their main vaccine.

Meanwhile, about 20 million people have been vaccinated so far, according to Dr Sirirerk Songsivilai, permanent secretary for higher education, science, research and innovation.

He said the last 10 million doses were administered within 36 days or 3.4 times faster than the first 10 million jabs.

To date, 23% of the population has received their first dose, 6.7% two doses and 0.3% their third. Phuket is the most vaccinated province at 75% of the population, followed by Bangkok at 70%.

Don't export AstraZeneca jabs: expert

[harrybarracuda]

Infectious waste is starting to pile up across the country as the Covid-19 pandemic continues -- most notably in Bangkok and Nonthaburi, where the amount of waste is quickly exceeding the capacity of local incinerators.

Nevertheless, the Department of Health assured that it has a plan in place to deal with the growing amount of infectious waste during the pandemic. In addition to urging households to sort out their rubbish properly, the department said it is planning to contract industrial waste processing facilities to help with their disposal.

Mountains of red bags containing a plethora of infectious rubbish from hospitals and other Covid isolation facilities can be seen looming over the workers at Nonthaburi Provincial Administrative Organisation's (PAO) waste processing facility in Sai Noi district.

The sight, said a worker at the facility, is a worrying one.

The worker said, the pile -- now weighing over 500 tonnes -- is growing everyday because the incinerator on site simply cannot cope with the increasing amount of waste it has to process.

Crumbling under mountains of waste

[harrybarracuda]

Stupid people. Stupid people everywhere.

NSW Premier confirms they're looking at increasing penalties after infectious man left lockdown in Sydney to go to Byron Bay

The NSW Premier said authorities are looking at increasing fines or penalties for people who break lockdown rules after an infectious man left Sydney to go to Byron Bay.

The man, in his 50s, is now in hospital but is reportedly refusing to cooperate with authorities after choosing not to check-in at any of the venues he visited.

His trip sparked a lockdown in Byron Shire, Richmond Valley, Lismore and Ballina Shire local government areas until at least August 17.

His two children now also have the virus.

Ms Berejiklian told Jim Wilson on 2GB, they "absolutely are" are investigating increasing the penalties.

"We shake our heads," she said.

"Because of his selfishness - and I should perhaps be careful in case there's any action down the track - because we weren't clear on where this person had been. We had to, as a precaution, we had to shut down four local government areas."

However, Ms Berejilian said it's a "small number" of people who are breaking the rules, such as at the Sydney lockdown protests last month.

"We will still never know, for example, what setback that protest gave us a few weeks ago," she said.

Byron shire joins the Northern Rivers, the Hunter, Armidale and Tamworth regions now in lockdown alongside Greater Sydney.

The Hunter has new cases but aside from the man's children, the other regional areas don't.

Earlier, a local mayor called the man's actions "disgusting" after he travelled there while showing symptoms of coronavirus.

Byron Shire mayor Michael Lyon said the man's actions had now affected thousands.

"This has the potential to shut us down for a lot longer and seven days is detrimental to businesses and people working," Mr Lyon told Today. "It is deeply concerning."

The man travelled from Sydney in late July and spent time in Byron while showing symptoms for COVID-19.

He isn't believed to have used any QR codes at any of the venues he visited during the journey and once in Byron.

"It is disgusting," Mr Lyon said.

"It is really poor behaviour in a time like this. And now the consequences – four areas locked down for a minimum of seven days.

"Just the impacts that has on people already struggling to cope and on businesses and workers. It's so disappointing.

"Not checking in and being quite evasive during questioning. I am not too sure why.

"It makes you wonder what he has been doing up here.

"To be sick and not get tested for four days and only when he has had to go to hospital, something has twigged. Crazy."

Without a list of exposure sites, he's now urging people with any symptoms at all to come forward and get tested.

Mr Lyon is also hoping the neighbouring Tweed community will not be placed into lockdown but says that is a matter for health authorities.

Coronavirus NSW: NSW Premier confirms they're looking at increasing virus penalties

[panama hat]

You could always move to America....

I'll rely on OhNo's celebrated wizardry in announcing that covid-19 hasn't died out yet. As in - no shit, Sherlock.

“I don’t think Covid is going to be epidemic all through the fall and the winter. I think that this is the final wave, the final act

That's Delta . . . what are we up to now? Lambda?

[harrybarracuda]

That's Delta . . . what are we up to now? Lambda?

Delta/Delta+ is worse than Lambda.

It might have been easier if they had stuck to "Indian variant" and "Peruvian variant".

[OhOh]

Monday Maths 09/08/21, cases and deaths:

[bsnub]

Lambda

and the Omega moos...

[harrybarracuda]

Monday Maths 09/08/21, cases and deaths:

Have you considered selecting "Full Size" to ensure the complete image fits on the screen?

[S Landreth]

New study finds one vaccine may be superior against delta variant

While all COVID-19 vaccines being administered in the U.S. have shown to dramatically reduce the risk of infection, severe disease and death, one mRNA vaccine may be more effective than the other when it comes to the highly contagious delta variant, according to a study that has yet to be peer-reviewed.

Researchers from data analytics company nference compared the effectiveness of both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from January 2021 through July. The study posted Sunday included more than 50,000 patients in the Mayo Clinic Health System, according to Reuters.

The observational study found both vaccines were highly effective against SARS-CoV-2 infection and hospitalization, but their efficacy began to wane in July when delta became the dominant strain of the virus in the U.S.

Researchers found the efficacy of Moderna’s vaccine in the study fell from 86 percent in early 2021 to 76 percent in July. During the same time period, however, Pfizer’s vaccine effectiveness fell from 76 percent to 42 percent.

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...707v1.full.pdf

[PAG]

[harrybarracuda]

Filthy Russian Scum.

Facebook announced on August 10 that it had shut down a network of dozens of Facebook and Instagram accounts from Russia with connections to a marketing group that was trying to enlist social-media "influencers" to push false claims about COVID-19 vaccines.

Its investigators called the accounts connected to Fazze, a subsidiary of U.K.-registered marketing firm AdNow, which mostly operates out of Russia, a "disinformation laundromat."

It cited its policies against foreign interference.

"We removed 65 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts from Russia that we linked to Fazze," it said in its latest report outlining the social-media giant's actions against inauthentic behavior, adding, "Fazze is now banned from our platform."

Facebook Takes Down Anti-Vax Hoax Network 'Primarily Conducted From Russia'

[harrybarracuda]

For many people who contract mild, moderate, or severe COVID-19, the disease's effects don't disappear when the infection fades. A systematic review and meta-analysis published Monday to the journal Scientific Reports found that 80% of cases result in at least one long-term symptom.

The authors of the report scoured more than 18,000 publications, seeking studies assessing the long-term effects of COVID-19 with at least 100 subjects. They found fifteen studies, which collectively followed 47,910 patients for as long as 110 days post-infection. They then pooled the data to discern the prevalence of chronic side effects.

"The five most common symptoms were fatigue (58%), headache (44%), attention disorder (27%), hair loss (25%), and dyspnea [difficult breathing] (24%)," the reviewers reported.

In total, they turned up 55 potential long-term symptoms. Other notable chronic effects included loss of taste (reported in 23% of cases), loss of smell (21%), cough (19%), sweating (17%), and hearing loss (15%).

Unfortunately, none of the studies included in the review were stratified by disease severity, so we don't know for sure if worse disease exacerbates long-term symptoms, though it seems likely.

"The results assessed in the present study are in line with the current scientific knowledge on other coronaviruses, such as those producing SARS and MERS," the authors wrote. "For example, studies on SARS survivors have shown lung abnormalities months after infection."

The authors also noted that the effects of long-term COVID-19 partly resemble those of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), a nebulous, controversial diagnosis that currently lacks an established cause. CFS sufferers are plagued by "severe incapacitating fatigue, pain, neurocognitive disability, compromised sleep... and worsening of global symptoms following minor increases in physical and/or cognitive activity," the reviewers described.

It's uncertain why some COVID-19 patients experience long-term effects. Genetics, age, route and dose of infection, and inflammation levels could all play a role, the authors said.

"Given that COVID-19 is a new disease, it is impossible to determine how long these effects will last," they added.[/QUOTE]

There Are More Than 50 Long-Term Effects of COVID-19 | RealClearScience

[harrybarracuda]

Quebec's health minister says a vaccination passport system will be implemented on Sept. 1 to combat rising COVID-19 cases and an "inevitable" fourth wave.

"Taking into account the increase in cases, the fall coming up with the back to school and back to work and the expected prevalence of the delta variant, the conditions are there to deploy the vaccination passport," Christian Dubé said.

Dubé unveiled some details about the system, announced last week by Premier François Legault, alongside two public health officials — Dr. Yves Jalbert, a strategic medical adviser, and Caroline Roy, an adviser on matters related to the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

The vaccine passport will be implemented in places with high capacity and a high rate of contact, such as festivals, bars, restaurants, gyms and training facilities to avoid the widespread closures that marked the first waves of COVID-19 in Quebec.

When asked about religious gatherings and weddings, Dubé said the government is still discussing whether they will be included as events that require vaccine passports.

For the time being, the vaccination passport will not be used in retail stores or schools.

Quebec to implement COVID-19 vaccine passport on Sept. 1 in the face of '''inevitable''' 4th wave | CBC News

[harrybarracuda]

Looks like Republican retards in Texas are in a race to the bottom with the ones in Florida.

Texas tallied more than 10,000 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 for the first time since early February as a new summer surge in coronavirus cases continues to strain critical care resources across the state.

The state has only 329 staffed beds for intensive care among 8,283 hospital beds left for about 30 million people, according to state health data released Tuesday. Central Texas hospitals, also struggling against the effects of the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus, were down to only two staffed ICU beds and were seeing a tripling of pediatric patients, local health officials said Tuesday.

Despite the urgency of the public health crisis, political and legal wrangling continues to shape any government response:

• Gov. Greg Abbott, who has prohibited local governments and school districts from mandating masks and imposing other restrictions, is asking hospitals to voluntarily delay some medical procedures to free up hospital resources.

• Officials in Dallas, San Antonio and Bexar County have filed lawsuits challenging Abbott’s ban on local mask mandates, as has a child’s advocacy group in the state.

• Two school districts in Dallas and Austin have voted to adopt mask mandates in defiance of his order and others are considering similar actions.

Hospital admissions have tripled in the last month among children 17 and younger, Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin-Travis County health authority, told Travis County commissioners on Tuesday. In June, 11 children were hospitalized with COVID-19 and by July that has more than tripled to 34. A majority of cases, Walkes reported, are among children between 10 and 18 years old.

COVID surge strains critical care: Central Texas at 2 staffed ICU beds

[HermantheGerman]

A bit late don't you think? By that time Europeans are already vaccinated.
....will allow Moderna to make approximately 300 million doses a year starting at the end of 2021

Are you joking my little squarehead friend?

Nope

COVID: Germany set to donate vaccine doses to other countries

Starting in August, Germany will make its first international donation of vaccine doses. With unused doses in danger of expiring, preparations are already underway.
Some 60% of Germans have received at least one COVID jab, with another 100 million or so vaccine doses expected in the third quarter from July to September.

But the willingness to be vaccinated has waned. Availability currently exceeds demand — so vaccine supplies are available for donation. 

The German government has pledged to donate at least 30 million vaccine doses of the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines by the end of 2021.
COVID: Germany set to donate vaccine doses to other countries | Germany | News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 29.07.2021

I guess Germany/Europe is done with its vaccination program early and are now donating it to other countries.

[HermantheGerman]

What does Sputnik and Putin have in common?

Mostly Smoke and Mirrors

Russia’s Vaccine Diplomacy Is Mostly Smoke and Mirrors - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

[harrybarracuda]

I guess Germany/Europe is done with its vaccination program early and are now donating it to other countries.

30m vaccines is better than nothing, although it is J&J in fairness.

[harrybarracuda]

BANGKOK – When Thai Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul met with Pfizer company representatives in Bangkok in late 2020, the businessman-cum-politician declined to place a Covid-19 vaccine order because in his words the shot was not yet proven effective on “yellow-skinned people”, according to government sources familiar with the meeting.

In January, US vaccine-maker Moderna proposed to build a Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing facility in the government’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) industrial zone, created to lure high-end foreign manufacturers, but Anutin’s office did not deign the shot-making proposal worthy of a written reply, according to the same government sources.

Before that, in September, the minister committed to buying just three million doses per month from AstraZeneca, a revelation only recently made public in leaked documents that has raised vital questions about government claims it has enough vaccines to inoculate 70% of the Thai population by the end of 2021. The amount has since been upped to five-six million per month.

Instead, Anutin’s ministry placed a belated vaccine order with China’s Sinovac, paying on the high end of the private vaccine maker’s sales price range, according to the same sources. It has been lost on few local observers that Sinovac is 15% owned by the Charoen Pokphand Group, among Thailand’s richest and most politically influential “five family” business groups.

Fast forward to the present, Thailand now faces an acute, if not tragic, shortage of effective Covid-19 vaccines, an early failure to diversify supplies that is costing the kingdom dearly in livelihoods and lives. Since April, Thailand has morphed from a global Covid-19 containment success story to a world-class basket case exemplifying the risks of laxity, myopia and possible corruption.

The kingdom has in recent days notched record-breaking daily infections and deaths, which hit new highs of 21,379 and 191 respectively on August 6. The fast-spreading contagion is deflating hopes for an economic rebound and raising harder questions about the nation’s underlying financial health as local banks absorb massive losses and investors start to dump wholesale the baht.

The shift from success to failure has rocked Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha’s government as public discontent with the perceived fumbling of the health crisis reaches a breaking point. A July 7-8 public opinion poll conducted by local paper Thai Rath found that less than 2% of over 100,000 respondents had “confidence” in the government to manage the crisis.

A new eruption of street protests, most recently staged on August 7 in Bangkok, is giving rally cry voice to those Covid-related grievances.

That, in turn, is tearing at the ruling coalition’s cohesion, a widening schism that has put former top soldier Prayut and construction tycoon-cum-politician Anutin at unspoken but increasingly bitter loggerheads as their respective camps point to the other as chiefly to blame for the health catastrophe.

Politicized accusations are flying fast and furious. One well-placed source close to Prayut claims Anutin’s camp has withheld crucial health-related information from the premier, firstly to cover his ministry’s missteps and motivations in earlier vaccine procurement policies, and subsequently to score political points at the premier’s expense as the crisis has deepened.

Anutin, whose Bhumjaithai party holds significant clout as the second-ranking party in Prayut’s umbrella coalition, clearly sees himself as a future prime minister – an ambition his proponents appear to be pushing by pillorying Prayut as chiefly responsible for the country’s dire viral straits and with claims that more business-minded leadership would better manage the crisis.

Tom Kruesopon, a private businessman and advisor to Anutin, told a recent Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) webinar entitled “Thailand’s vaccine strategy: What went wrong?” that Prayut had long ago taken all of Anutin’s power to manage the pandemic and that the premier has surrounded himself with bureaucrats and medical experts he pungently described as “idiots.”

Kruesopon suggested the “private sector” should be more involved in managing the crisis, a dig at Prayut’s military background, and said at least one Thai tycoon who heads a conglomerate with 360,000 employees would order vaccines “tomorrow” if the bureaucracy allowed. The corporate reference, while not explicitly named, likely referred to the CP Group, analysts say.

Kruesopon said he has taken to donating the government “body bags” to deal with the crisis.

To be sure, Prayut took command control of the pandemic last year with the emergency formation of the Center for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), a multi-agency body he created and still chairs that earlier was widely credited including last year by the World Health Organization (WHO) for successfully keeping Covid-19 at bay.

He also leads the CCSA’s vaccine procurement committee, which was formed in April and notably excludes Anutin.

Prayut was clearly in command control in a June 16 address, made when cases had just started their upward spike, that said the nation would be “fully opened” in 120 days. That optimistic forecast now looks quixotic, if not deluded, as hospitals overflow with Covid patients, authorities race to set up makeshift field hospitals to handle the infectious surge and ambulance sirens retrieving those succumbing to the disease ring out across the capital.

The premier’s proponents argue that Prayut has inherited a crisis that Anutin’s business-first mindset largely created, not least through his earlier alienation of Western pharmaceutical companies – and perhaps the US government – that with their superior mRNA vaccines now hold the difference between life and death through shot shipments to preferred nations grappling with the Delta variant.

They claim Anutin preferred dealing with a Chinese company with a checkered background to guard against potential Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations that would arise from any foul play in dealings with US companies. Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a prominent Thai commentator, has suggested there could have been “criminal negligence” in earlier vaccine procurement decisions, though no smoking gun has emerged yet.

Other Prayut advocates note that the aligned Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not Anutin’s Ministry of Public Health, played the lead role in brokering the recent emergency shipment of Pfizer vaccines from the US that are now being administered to frontline health workers amid indications of “breakthrough” Delta infections among those inoculated with Sinovac’s shot.

Recent opinion polls have shown Thais are highly hesitant to take the Chinese-made, CP Group-invested vaccine, which until now has been the main one available to ordinary Thais. The CP Group had earlier put itself front and center in promoting Sinovac shots for slum communities in Bangkok but has gone mostly mute as questions about the jab’s efficacy against the Delta strain spread far and wide.

The wider government’s proponents say much of the criticism benefits from 20-20 hindsight as the kingdom seemed well-covered earlier this year with its AstraZeneca production agreement with the royally owned Siam Bioscience diversified with China’s Sinovac – both of which have only recently proved inferior to Moderna and Pfizer’s mRNA shots. Nor are Siam Bioscience’s stumbles in hitting vaccine production and export targets readily blamed on the government.

With the blame game spreading like a virus, Thailand is clearly a victim of its earlier Covid-containing success and the laxity it engendered across various agencies, ministries and offices. It has also suffered from bureaucratic rules and regulations that have stymied decision-making including in vaccine procurement, bringing out the worst in the bureaucracy’s pass-the-baht ethos.

Covid-19’s politicization, however, is not likely to lead to political change any time soon. Prayut has insisted throughout the health crisis that he will serve his full four-year term, meaning through 2023, and not yield to rising calls for his resignation. Neither his Palang Pracharat nor Anutin’s Bhumjaithai likely wants snap polls amid twin health and economic crises that would inevitably cede major electoral ground to the opposition Peua Thai and Move Forward parties.

Some have speculated Prayut could consider a “self-coup” that ousted his coalition partners – namely Anutin and his Bhumjaithai and possibly on vaccine-related corruption grounds – and retake the absolute powers he wielded as a coup-maker premier to more decisively steer the government’s Covid-19 response. Prayut’s limited power as a democratic leader was laid bare by a recent court decision nullifying his gag order on Covid-related “false” or “panic-causing” news.

One top-level government source plays down any coup scenario, noting a democratic reversal would likely lead to US and EU sanctions and thus further limit the kingdom’s access to the Western-made mRNA vaccines the government is now belatedly and desperately seeking to secure. That means Prayut and Anutin will have to co-exist, even as a growing number of Thais die amid all the back-biting and finger-pointing.

Covid blame game spreads like a virus in Thailand - Asia Times

[Klondyke]

Russia’s Vaccine Diplomacy Is Mostly Smoke and Mirrors - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Is it the organisation that supports the resistance in all "rogue" states?

I did not read the interesting report, however, does it say why the Russian vaccine is still not recognized in the just EU agency?

Despite the fact that they were the first to register? The others - non-Russian - were recognized, however as an emergency vaccine, they too did not fulfil all the requirements for the phases of the testing. But it seems that it does not matter, does it?

[Shutree]

most common symptoms were fatigue (58%), headache (44%), attention disorder (27%), hair loss (25%)

Maybe I already had it then.

[Shutree]

Prayut was clearly in command control in a June 16 address, made when cases had just started their upward spike, that said the nation would be “fully opened” in 120 days. That optimistic forecast now looks quixotic, if not deluded,

Some people might think that. I could not possibly comment.

[harrybarracuda]

Maybe I already had it then.

An antibody test can tell you that. The recommendation is still to get vaccinated even after infection.

[harrybarracuda]

Stupid Republican arseholes.

Now they'll be whinging about social media being biased or some shit.

Should be banned permanently.

Marjorie Taylor Greene gets longest Twitter suspension yet after falsely claiming COVID vaccines and masks don't work - CBS News

Sen. Rand Paul suspended from YouTube for making false COVID claims, per report