The COVID-2019 Thread

[panama hat]

P.S. please spare me with your next post telling me that my english is.....bla....bla.....bla

It's easy to say when you are capable of only one language in which to communicate.

Germany is definitely going down the wrong path . . . and Kant once said:

"Die Freiheit des einzelnen endet eben nicht da, wo die Freiheit des Anderen beginnt"

[malmomike77]

UK ruling that staff in NHS and care homes must have vaccine to retain their jobs. Coming into force in care homes today. Apparently they could lose up to 8% of their staff - all the news and interviews and not one seems to be able to express a cogent reason why they will not get the jab, just complaining about getting sacked.

[harrybarracuda]

UK ruling that staff in NHS and care homes must have vaccine to retain their jobs. Coming into force in care homes today. Apparently they could lose up to 8% of their staff - all the news and interviews and not one seems to be able to express a cogent reason why they will not get the jab, just complaining about getting sacked.

Fuck them.

[harrybarracuda]

It's just remarkable how this pandemic has demonstrated how many terminally stupid people there are out there.

Combs says a great percentage of critical COVID patients now are not merely in disbelief, as she’s witnessed with cancer patients over the years, but disbelievers.


“It’s hard though, when you know that you’re doing good for the patients, but they’re yelling at you,” she said. “They’re telling you it’s not real. They’re telling you that you’re a murderer.”

Some believe the hospital is making them sick.

“’I can’t breathe,’” she hears them say. “Exactly. That’s because you have COVID. ‘Well no I don’t have COVID, that’s not real.’ I’ve had these conversations with people.”

Colorado ICU Nurse: Many COVID Patients Still Don’t Believe Virus Is Real, Blame Hospital For Illness: ‘They’re Calling You A Murderer’ – CBS Denver

[harrybarracuda]

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA — An Australian medical tech manufacturer has recalled more than 2 million at-home COVID-19 tests shipped to the United States after finding an increased chance of false positives.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert Wednesday that the company, Ellume, had recalled 2.2 million tests since the issue was detected last month.
A false positive test result indicates that a person has coronavirus when the person does not.
"The FDA has identified this as a Class I recall, the most serious type of recall," the agency said in a notice. “Use of these tests may cause serious adverse health consequences or death."
The FDA said it had received 35 reports of false positives and no deaths to date.
In early October, Ellume announced a voluntary recall of 195,000 tests after false positive results were reported in some product batches at higher-than-expected rates.
At the time, the firm had shipped about 3.5 million tests to the U.S.
Ellume said Thursday that the recall was expanded after additional lots were found to be affected.
"Ellume has investigated the issue, identified the root cause, implemented additional controls, and we are already producing and shipping new product to the U.S.," it said in a statement.

Australian Firm Recalls Over 2 Million US Covid Tests

[panama hat]

UK ruling that staff in NHS and care homes must have vaccine to retain their jobs. Coming into force in care homes today. Apparently they could lose up to 8% of their staff - all the news and interviews and not one seems to be able to express a cogent reason why they will not get the jab, just complaining about getting sacked.

Same thing in NZ with Firefighters, Police, teachers . . . about to lose their jobs but because services will be either slowed down or in some cases stopped the government will give in . . . and the unions rejoice.

Utterly ridiculous

[armstrong]

Most international schools are back this week. Shrewsbury is already closed cos of a staff party where someone had covid. Some schools such as KIS are doing a mixture of online and school learning (weds at home sounds brilliant).

Daughter's private school is pretending nothing is happening and continuing with online classes. THAI-Singapore not going back until January either.

All parents and teachers take a covid test every week now with random tests administered also. Loads of rules and paperwork tracking who sits with who to limit contact.

[Bonecollector]

When will the COVID-19 pandemic end? | McKinsey

[harrybarracuda]

When will the COVID-19 pandemic end? | McKinsey

Do this bunch of corporate fucking parasites mention deer at all?

How SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer could alter the course of the pandemic : Goats and Soda : NPR

[harrybarracuda]

Interesting story from Russia.

It seems some enterprising Russian cybercriminals - for them it's all about the money - have been selling fake vaccination QR codes to those who don't want the their dodgy vaccine.

Now they're all on sale - and there is a feeling that perhaps the people that sold them are now blackmailing the people that bought them to squeeze a bit more cash out of them.

Those found guilty of buying a fake QR code risk going to jail for up to one year in Russia. Those implicated in making and selling the fake certificates face up to two years in prison.

Russians Who Bought Fake Vaccine Certificates Targeted in Data Leak – Kommersant - The Moscow Times

[harrybarracuda]

Lock them up! Lock them up!

Austria will impose a nationwide lockdown for people who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19, becoming the first country in the world to do so, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced on Friday.
Schallenberg, speaking at a press conference in Tyrol, said the nationwide lockdown is expected to be formally approved at a meeting on Sunday. Random checks will be carried out to ensure compliance with the new restrictions.
“A lockdown for the unvaccinated means one cannot leave one’s home unless one is going to work, shopping (for essentials), stretching one’s legs – exactly what we all had to suffer through in 2020,” Schallenberg said earlier, according to Reuters.
The lockdown for the unvaccinated has already been formally approved in Upper Austria, where restrictions have also been announced for the entire population. This includes a legal requirement to wear an FFP2 mask in all indoor public places and a ban on events for 3 weeks.

Austria to declare nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people - BNO News

[harrybarracuda]

Good on them.

Latvia's parliament voted to ban lawmakers who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine from voting on legislation.
New rules were passed on Friday by 62 of the 100 members of parliament in the Eastern European nation, Reuters reported.
The rules say that members who can't vote because of the new rule also won't get paid until they receive a vaccine. There are exceptions for people who recently had COVID-19, or who can't get vaccinated for medical reasons.

Latvia Bans Unvaccinated Lawmakers From Voting, Will Dock Pay

[harrybarracuda]

Bit more work required on the "wonder pill".

But promising, very promising.

SINGAPORE - The preliminary data for Pfizer's new antiviral pill "sounds promising", said the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), adding that it is waiting for further data to be released before considering the drug for use in Covid-19 patients here.

The preliminary data has shown the drug was able to cut by 89 per cent the chances of hospitalisation or death in adults at risk of developing severe disease, said Pfizer on Nov 5.
They include those who had mild to moderate symptoms within a five-day period, and are at risk of developing severe illness such as chronic lung disease, high blood pressure or diabetes.

Pfizer said in response to queries from The Straits Times that it plans to submit its interim trial results for the pill to be authorised for emergency use by the United States Food and Drug Administration "as soon as possible".

This will be followed by submissions in other markets, although Pfizer added that it "cannot speculate on timelines".

The treatment, known as Paxlovid, combines Pfizer's new drug with an older antiviral known as ritonavir.

The drug is designed to block the activity of the Sars-CoV-2 viral 3CL protease, an enzyme that releases viral proteins for the coronavirus to replicate.

As the structure of the enzyme is highly conserved in the coronavirus family, Pfizer said it believes the efficacy of the pill will very likely not be negatively impacted by emerging variants.

In the lab, the pill has demonstrated potent antiviral activity against circulating variants of concern, as well as other known coronaviruses, suggesting its potential as a therapeutic for multiple types of coronavirus infections, it added.

A low dose of ritonavir helps to slow down the metabolism or breakdown of the pill so that it can remain active in the body for a longer period, said Pfizer.

Pfizer's Paxlovid treatment comes on the back of Merck and Ridgeback Therapeutics' antiviral pill, Molnupiravir, which is able to halve the chance of hospitalisation and death for those at risk of severe disease.

Singapore has recently inked a supply and purchase agreement for the drug with Merck, which is known as MSD outside the US and Canada.

The drug will be available for use if MSD submits its data to the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) and obtains authorisation for its use in Singapore. The timeline for approval depends on the company's submission of data to HSA.

Dr Shawn Vasoo, clinical director of NCID, told ST that it is important to compare the details of both trials to determine which one would be considered more effective.

"In any case, an effective, oral antiviral in early Covid-19 particularly for high risk individuals would be a welcome addition to the available treatment options," he said.

Preliminary data of Pfizer's new Covid-19 pill 'sounds promising' but more data needed: NCID, Singapore News & Top Stories - The Straits Times

[HermantheGerman]

Germany is definitely going down the wrong path . . .

Germany has been on the wrong path since the beginning. Our politicians have failed us miserably before first corona wave until now. Our politicians have no balls and I sometimes think that they have been raised and brought up in a gay environment. Our young politicians have been either raised by two mothers or two fathers and have no real LIFE experience. Why do all these old Krauts love Merkel beats me. Maybe these old farts think that she is a nurse who will serve them food and change their diapers.
Now why has Germany still been able to do so well in this pandemic? Our health system is one of the oldest and best in the world. Hospitals and University's are well connected. Our Prof., doctors and medical staff have the best education and saved us from the worst so far. On the other hand we have the second biggest parliament in the world, with 736 square headed clowns, debating non stop about migrants, climate change, EU, and if a word should be spelled with 3 letters or 2 (Fresssack=Merkel )
I feel very sorry for our scientists and medical staff. They have warned us years ago and predicted word for word that this pandemic will soon come. O.K. we all make mistakes but this is the fifth one in the row!!!! Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten has warned us already late summer that this fall is going to become a disaster.
Economy? Well, we still have some of the best engineers in this world who keep our economy going and also thanks to our parents who paved the road with their hard work.
But..... Germany is definitely going down the wrong path.

[HermantheGerman]

Funny or sad?

While it was the free BRATWURST in summer, the Mecklenburg Lake District was able to induce numerous people to vaccinate with a similar lure on Saturday: The rescue workers based in Neubrandenburg organized an “open day” and offered ROAST PORK.

[harrybarracuda]

Funny or sad?

I think the brothels offering a free half hour is a much better deal.

[HermantheGerman]

I think the brothels offering a free half hour is a much better deal.

Guess you're right... high cholesterol and eating too much meat is convincing argument.

[thailazer]

Interesting, and sad animation here. I think several of these countries, like India, have under counted.

[Latindancer]

Australia : total deaths...1,900

[sabang]

Poor nations left behind by big pharma
By AFP


Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna are making combined profits of $65,000 every minute from their highly successful COVID-19 vaccines while the world's poorest countries remain largely unvaccinated, according to a new analysis.

The companies have sold the vast majority of their doses to rich countries, leaving low-income nations in the lurch, said the People's Vaccine Alliance (PVA), a coalition campaigning for wider access to COVID-19 vaccines, which based its calculations on the firms' own earning reports.

The Alliance estimates that the trio will make pre-tax profits of $34 billion in 2021 between them, which works out to over $1,000 a second, $65,000 a minute or $93.5 million a day.

"It is obscene that just a few companies are making millions of dollars in profit every single hour, while just 2 percent of people in low-income countries have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus," Maaza Seyoum of the African Alliance and People's Vaccine Alliance Africa said.

The three companies' actions are in contrast to AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which provided their vaccines on a not-for-profit basis, though both have announced they foresee ending this arrangement in future as the pandemic winds down.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202111/1239101.shtml

[harrybarracuda]

That's all very exciting, but they haven't even bought Astrazeneca or J&J because in most cases they are run by administrations who are too busy trousering national revenues to do something so pesky as spending them protecting their citizens.

[Switch]

Indonesia was once revered as the fastest growing economy in Asia. Mainly due to its low labour costs and inward investment.
Now it qualifies officially as poor enough to be embraced by Covax through the WHO.

By sheer good fortune, I happened to have the required retirement visa, and I received my two doses of Astra Zeneca free of charge.

Im equally certain that this was due to a WHO caveat, as much as Indonesian government largesse.

Pfizer and Moderna have donated free vaccines to Indonesia which enabled many people to get free vaccines due to common health issues like pregnancy, where regular vaccines were unsuitable. It also enabled the Indonesian government to boost medical staff who were vulnerable due to poor efficacy of Sinovac, which had led to a higher number of fatalities, due to higher mortality rates among people working close to infected patients every day.

Te other side of the coin?
I also got lucky because Baliwas given priority due to reliance on tourism. It was recently announced that booster vaccines would be available in 2022 to indigenous populations and qualified foreign residents, but only on a payment basis.

Like many foreign residents, I will be able to afford this, but many locals will not, even if it means adding to big pharma profits. One assumes that paying for a booster infers that a choice might be available?

[harrybarracuda]

One assumes that paying for a booster infers that a choice might be available?

Yeah.... maybe.

[misskit]

95.4 pct of adult population in Malaysia fully vaccinated

KUALA LUMPUR,. A total of 22,332,571 individuals or 95.4 per cent of the adult population in the country have completed their Covid-19 vaccination as of yesterday.


Based on the Health Ministry’s CovidNow portal, 22,882,504 individuals or 97.7 per cent of the adult population have received at least one dose of the vaccine.


As for adolescents, 81 per cents or 2,549,437 individuals have completed the vaccination, while 87.2 per cent or 2,743,176 individuals have received at least one dose of the vaccine.


A total of 121,232 doses of the vaccine were administered yesterday, with 25,439 doses as second dose, 6,707 doses to first dose recipients and 89,086 doses as booster dose.


This brings the cumulative number of vaccine doses administered under the National Covid-19 Immunisation programme to 51,455,404.

95.4 pct of adult population in Malaysia fully vaccinated – AsiaNewsToday

[Joe 90]

Healthy children in the UK aged 12 to 17 are being told to wait 12 weeks after an infection before having a Covid jab, in an update to guidance. Previously, the advice was to leave a four-week gap. The change is a precaution against the small risk of heart inflammation, the UK Health Security Agency said. UK vaccine advisers also recommended a 12-week gap between doses when they gave the green light on Monday for 16 and 17-year-olds to get a second jab.

I swear they are making it up as they go along, thats tomorrows appointments cancelled..