1. #7601
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    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    The UK should have just imposed a strict 14 day lockdown, and forced quarantine on any inbound travellers like Thailand did.

    Too late now, unless they do it and stick to it.

  3. #7603
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    The UK should have just imposed a strict 14 day lockdown, and forced quarantine on any inbound travellers like Thailand did.

    Too late now, unless they do it and stick to it.
    They should have done it back in December, then all this shit could have been avoided.

    Not complaining, 7 months paid to be at home with my family and DIY'd the house to fook

    Weathers been good as well, gonna be a long winter.

  4. #7604
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    White House aide Nick Luna, who serves as a personal attendant to President Donald Trump, has tested positive for coronavirus infection, according to people familiar with the matter.
    Luna’s diagnosis emerged a little more than 24 hours after Trump entered the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for treatment of COVID-19 following his own infection.
    Trump aide Nick Luna tests positive for COVID-19 - The Boston Globe

  5. #7605
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Yippee.

    Pakistan is officially reopening its borders for tourism on October 5th with COVID-19 entry requirements for all incoming passengers.

    Pakistan Officially Reopening For Tourism With COVID-19 Entry Requirements - Travel Off Path

  6. #7606
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    So who gave it to who?

  7. #7607
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Cujo View Post
    So who gave it to who?
    It looks like someone at that SCOTUS jamboree.

  8. #7608
    Thailand Expat jabir's Avatar
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    Potential lifesaving tip: Friend suggests if you add Tabasco to your hand gel, it will train you not to touch your face and eyes.

  9. #7609
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    New Zealand will not reciprocate quarantine-free trips across the Tasman as the Australian Capital Territory joins Australia’s travel bubble with the country.

    On Friday, Australia’s deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, announced New South Wales and the Northern Territory would allow Kiwis to bypass the compulsory fortnight of quarantine on arrival from 16 October.

    On Saturday the ACT joined the scheme.


    But on the same day, the New Zealand prime minister,
    Jacinda Ardern, said the country would stand strong on its pledge to not open up until Australia, or specific states and territories, recorded a month without community transmission of Covid-19.


    “That’s key for us. One of our criteria is 28 days clear,” she said.


    New Zealand refuses quarantine-free trips from Australia as ACT joins travel bubble | World news | The Guardian

  10. #7610
    Thailand Expat jabir's Avatar
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    Bollix to how the rest of the world is handling the virus which to date falls between unimpressive and criminal negligence, NZ should do whatever they feel is best to protect their people, balanced against economic and other factors.

    Tbf, since almost every nation has mishandled the virus to varying degrees, when one country decides for its own reasons to ease restrictions, its neighbours are under no obligation to reciprocate.

  11. #7611
    กงเกวียนกำเกวียน HuangLao's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jabir View Post
    Bollix to how the rest of the world is handling the virus which to date falls between unimpressive and criminal negligence, NZ should do whatever they feel is best to protect their people, balanced against economic and other factors.

    Tbf, since almost every nation has mishandled the virus to varying degrees, when one country decides for its own reasons to ease restrictions, its neighbours are under no obligation to reciprocate.

    If you have been noticing, those respective countries that handled it well and have responded intelligently are the same that require some sort of quarantine/testing for entry requirements today.

    Those that fucked it up initially and continue to mangle the situations unnecessarily are the same that don't have these protocols in place....obviously, reflective of their general approach [ie US, UK, and a couple others]

  12. #7612
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jabir View Post
    almost every nation has mishandled the virus to varying degrees
    Your comment would be very, very different if the UK had handled the virus as well as Thailand, and Prayuth had made such an unholy mess of things as bojo.

  13. #7613
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Your comment would be very, very different if the UK had handled the virus as well as Thailand, and Prayuth had made such an unholy mess of things as bojo.
    Do you actually pretend to understand the difference between a democracy, and a dictatorship?

  14. #7614
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    ^ I get your point, but there has to be more than that. My local 7-11 now has a hand temperature scanner installed by the door, and everyone going in uses it. All staff still wearing masks.

    None of this is real rocket science (and do not forget, as far as I am aware, masks are NOT mandated here).

  15. #7615
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    ^^ You constantly choose the snotty snipe ahead of actual discussion.

    It's transparent that you've got nothing.

    Your 'how can one expect SE Asian countries to manage the situation as well as western governments' comment was hilariously clueless.

  16. #7616
    Hangin' Around cyrille's Avatar
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    ^^Some crumbly old Brits just can't give Thailand credit where it's due.

    There are none more blinkered than twitch.

  17. #7617
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    Quote Originally Posted by jabir View Post
    Potential lifesaving tip: Friend suggests if you add Tabasco to your hand gel, it will train you not to touch your face and eyes.
    Or penis as I found out when peeing after handling hot chili papers.

  18. #7618
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    Quote Originally Posted by Switch View Post
    Do you actually pretend to understand the difference between a democracy, and a dictatorship?
    FOS....

  19. #7619
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    Well over here in Derry City a 14 day lockdown starting tonight , covid everywhere , so a 2 week drinking session


  20. #7620
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    ^^ You constantly choose the snotty snipe ahead of actual discussion.

    It's transparent that you've got nothing.

    Your 'how can one expect SE Asian countries to manage the situation as well as western governments' comment was hilariously clueless.
    Discussion is pointless with you. You can’t even read my posts properly, just assuming others haven’t made the same mistake as you, especially when the first pestson to misunderstand it was Chico.

    Your lack of understanding will not save any country from the aftermath of Covid, so your personal attacks on me, are academic. A bit like the barrage of biased opinion pieces from a certain newspaper. Toothless and pointless.

  21. #7621
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    Covid-19 Vaccine - Where we are


    The Race for a Vaccine Explained

    September 28, 2020

    An overview of the current status of Covid-19 vaccine research, possible timelines for approvals and the obstacles that could delay the process.

    In the race for a Covid-19 vaccine, there is both extreme urgency and stiff competition. Under normal circumstances, a vaccine can take up to 10 years to get approved but the scope of this outbreak has fueled efforts to accelerate that timeline dramatically. While many obstacles remain and no timeline is certain, several vaccine candidates currently under development may soon be available for emergency use.

    5 Stages of Vaccine Development
    Step-by-step approval process
    Phase No. of Candidates Overview
    Pre-Clinical 92 Research is first conducted on animals to determine whether the vaccine will produce immunity and to determine how quickly the drug can be digested and excreted from the body.
    Phase 1 27 Vaccine is administered to a small group of humans to assess the safety and potential responses among subjects.
    Phase 2 9 Vaccine is administered to larger groups (hundreds) of people to learn more about safety and biological response. Dosage size is also more widely tested during this stage of the process.
    Phase 3 5 Vaccine is administered to larger group (thousands) of people including a control group that receives a placebo. The stage is used to confirm safety, identify rare side effects and measure the drug’s effectiveness.
    Approved 0 The developer of the vaccine must submit results to government authorities, scientists and advisory committees, which review results to verify claims of safety and effectiveness. The drug is then eligible for broader production and distribution.
    Source: New York Times, World Health Organization, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Center for Biotechnology Information, New England Journal of Medicine

    Of course, no vaccine will ever be 100% effective because viruses inherently have a propensity to mutate over time, according to the World Health Organization. Preliminary research reports show that Covid-19 may be similar to the seasonal flu in that new strains may emerge every year, requiring slight modifications to an existing vaccine. Over time, diseases tend to mutate into less aggressive strains as a virus’ main goal is to stay alive longer in its host. If the host dies too quickly, then the virus itself will cease to exist. Some experts believe this could explain why the fatality rate has decreased despite the rising number of cases globally.

    At the start of the outbreak, Covid-19 tests were reserved for patients in critical condition who required immediate medical attention. Given that the virus was previously unidentified and highly contagious, the global medical supply chain wasn’t prepared to provide adequate supplies, equipment and testing. Today, the United States is conducting hundreds of thousands of tests daily, many with a turnaround time of a few hours to a few days. That illustrates the progress we’ve made from the limited testing and week-long response times we saw early on.

    The COVID-2019 Thread-makingprogress-png



    Hurdles to Clear
    As several vaccine candidates approach the final stage of development, there are four potential obstacles:

    1. Once approved, there will be overwhelming demand but limited supply.

    2. Current supply chains need to be expanded to distribute the vaccine in a timely manner.

    3. Temperature controls are required to stabilize the vaccine and maintain its efficacy.

    4. The first drug makers to market with a vaccine may reap financial benefits through licensing rights, intellectual property and branding. But the vaccine may not have been sufficiently tested beyond FDA requirements. Meanwhile, vaccines offered later may gain exposure to a larger pool of patients in clinical trials.

    A Faster Track. While the typical vaccine research and development process can take up to 10 years, the critical nature of the pandemic has led to attempts to shorten this timeline. Global research efforts began in early January 2020 with the first vaccine trials on humans beginning in March, a process that typically takes three to five years. This acceleration can be attributed to four factors:

    Fast-track regulatory approvals. Vaccine candidates have received emergency regulatory approval to skip years of animal trials in an effort to speed up the process. Some organizations have combined research phases, conducting phase 1 and phase 2 trials simultaneously.

    Innovative vaccine methodology. Advances in bioengineering technology have sped up the time required for genome sequencing and testing. Messenger RNA (mRNA), a new vaccine methodology, gives the body instructions on how to produce disease-specific antibodies on its own.

    Public and private sector support. Global support from the public and private sector has fueled funding for research efforts. The United States launched Operation Warp Speed, which is aimed at accelerating the development, manufacturing and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. $10 billion was allocated to this program through various funding programs including the Cares Act.

    Scientists’ familiarity with coronaviruses. Prior knowledge of the coronavirus family has aided scientists in their research efforts. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), more commonly referred to as Covid-19, and SARS—the strain from the 2003 outbreak—are roughly 80% identical in nature, according to several studies. By using existing research, scientists have been able to accelerate discovery related to a potential vaccine.

    A Second Shutdown?
    Despite the rising global case count, the seven-day daily death moving average has been declining since its peak in April. This encouraging trend can be attributed to the improved availability of tests and more available data to guide patient treatment and care. As the world braces for a highly uncertain winter, it will be important to track how spending more time indoors and the return of flu season might impact virus transmission.

    Fortunately, the global response to Covid-19 has been unprecedented, with accelerated research timelines and emergency approval from regulatory agencies to address the virus. With hundreds of candidates currently undergoing trials with several in the later stages, there is hope but by no means certainty, that a vaccine will be approved and widely available in the next six to nine months. Historically, there have been many obstacles that stood in the way of vaccine development, which can slow down the approval process. The need for the global supply chain to distribute a vaccine at scale has forced public and private sectors to come together to best address this issue.

    Still, the willingness of the people to receive a vaccination could be a major hurdle. Media reports are highlighting recent polls showing that confidence in the safety of a fast-tracked vaccine is waning. While a vaccine and a potential resurgence of the virus will dominate the headlines, we believe another round of broad-based lockdown measures is unlikely given the deep economic damage they have caused. Ultimately, urgency, competition and collaboration should benefit vaccine research and development.

  22. #7622
    Thailand Expat jabir's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cyrille View Post
    Your comment would be very, very different if the UK had handled the virus as well as Thailand, and Prayuth had made such an unholy mess of things as bojo.
    Those are two very big ifs. Fact is, UK cocked up something rotten and appears to have lost the plot, while Thailand (if you believe the figures) has done surprisingly well.

    Did you watch bojo at Exeter? - the guy responsible for issuing precautions and requirements did not know what his own rules are. I expect him to be gone soon.

  23. #7623
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Tiny airborne particles may pose a big coronavirus problem

    NEW YORK (AP) — At a University of Maryland lab, people infected with the new coronavirus take turns sitting in a chair and putting their faces into the big end of a large cone. They recite the alphabet and sing or just sit quietly for a half hour. Sometimes they cough.

    The cone sucks up everything that comes out of their mouths and noses. It’s part of a device called “Gesundheit II” that is helping scientists study a big question: Just how does the virus that causes COVID-19 spread from one person to another?

    It clearly hitchhikes on small liquid particles sprayed out by an infected person. People expel particles while coughing, sneezing, singing, shouting, talking and even breathing. But the drops come in a wide range of sizes, and scientists are trying to pin down how risky the various kinds are.


    The answer affects what we should all be doing to avoid getting sick. That’s why it was thrust into headlines a few days ago when a U.S. health agency appeared to have shifted its position on the issue, but later said it had published new language in error.

    The recommendation to stay at least 6 feet (2 meters) apart — some authorities cite about half that distance — is based on the idea that larger particles fall to the ground before they can travel very far. They are like the droplets in a spritz of a window cleaner, and they can infect somebody by landing on their nose, mouth or eyes, or maybe being inhaled.


    But some scientists are now focusing on tinier particles, the ones that spread more like cigarette smoke. Those are carried by wisps of air and even upward drafts caused by the warmth of our bodies. They can linger in the air for minutes to hours, spreading throughout a room and build up if ventilation is poor.


    The potential risk comes from inhaling them. Measles can spread this way, but the new coronavirus is far less contagious than that.


    For these particles, called aerosols, “6 feet is not a magic distance,” says Linsey Marr, a leading researcher who is studying them at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. But she says it’s still important to keep one’s distance from others, “the farther the better,” because aerosols are most concentrated near a source and pose a bigger risk at close range.


    Public health agencies have generally focused on the larger particles for coronavirus. That prompted more than 200 other scientists to publish a
    plea in July to pay attention to the potential risk from aerosols. The World Health Organization, which had long dismissed a danger from aerosols except in the case of certain medical procedures, later said that aerosol transmission of the coronavirus can’t be ruled out in cases of infection within crowded and poorly ventilated indoor spaces.


    The issue drew attention recently when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted and then deleted statements on its website that highlighted the idea of aerosol spread. The agency said the posting was an error, and that the statements were just a draft of proposed changes to its recommendations.

    Dr. Jay Butler, CDC’s deputy director for infectious disease, told The Associated Press that the agency continues to believe larger and heavier droplets that come from coughing or sneezing are the primary means of transmission.


    Last month Butler told a scientific meeting that current research suggests aerosol spreading of the coronavirus is possible but it doesn’t seem to be the main way that people get infected. Further research may change that conclusion, he added, and he urged scientists to study how often aerosol spread of the coronavirus occurs, what situations make it more likely and what reasonable steps might prevent it.


    Marr said she thinks infection by aerosols is “happening a lot more than people initially were willing to think.”


    As a key piece of evidence, Marr and others point to so-called “superspreader” events where one infected person evidently passed the virus to many others in a single setting.


    In March, for example, after a choir member with coronavirus symptoms attended a rehearsal in Washington state, 52 others who had been seated throughout the room were
    found to be infected and two died. In a crowded and poorly ventilated restaurant in China in January, the virus evidently spread from a lunchtime patron to five people at two adjoining tables in a pattern suggesting aerosols were spread by the air conditioner. Also in January, a passenger on a Chinese bus apparently infected 23 others, many of whom were scattered around the vehicle.

    Butler said such events raise concern about aerosol spread but don’t prove it happens.

    There could be another way for tiny particles to spread. They may not necessarily come directly from somebody’s mouth or nose, says William Ristenpart of the University of California, Davis. His
    research found that if paper tissues are seeded with influenza virus and then crumpled, they give off particles that bear the virus. So people emptying a wastebasket with tissues discarded by somebody with COVID-19 should be sure to wear a mask, he said.


    Scientists who warn about aerosols say current recommendations still make sense.


    Wearing a mask is still important, and make sure it fits snugly. Keep washing those hands diligently. And again, staying farther apart is better than being closer together. Avoid crowds, especially indoors.


    Their main addition to recommendations is ventilation to avoid a buildup of aerosol concentration. So, the researchers say, stay out of poorly ventilated rooms. Open windows and doors. One can also use air-purifying devices or virus-inactivating ultraviolet light.


    Best of all: Just do as much as you can outdoors, where dilution and the sun’s ultraviolet light work in your favor.


    “We know outdoors is the most spectacularly effective measure, by far,” says Jose-Luis Jimenez of the University of Colorado-Boulder. “Outdoors it is not impossible to get infected, but it is difficult.”


    The various precautions should be used in combination rather than just one at a time, researchers say. In a well ventilated environment, “6 feet (of separation) is pretty good if everybody’s got a mask on” and nobody stays directly downwind of an infected person for very long, says Dr. Donald Milton of the University of Maryland School of Public Health, whose lab houses the Gesundheit II machine.


    Duration of exposure is important, so there’s probably not much risk from a short elevator ride while masked or being passed by a jogger on the sidewalk, experts say.


    Scientists have
    published online tools for calculating risk of airborne spread in various settings.


    At a recent meeting on aerosols, however, Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, noted that preventive steps can be a challenge in the real world. Keeping apart from other people can be difficult in homes that house multiple generations. Some old buildings have windows that were “nailed shut years ago,” he said. And “we have far too many communities where they simply don’t have access to clean water to wash their hands.”


    It might seem strange that for all the scientific frenzy to study the new coronavirus, the details of how it spreads can still be in doubt nine months later. But history suggests patience.


    “We’ve been studying influenza for 102 years,” says Milton, referring to the 1918 flu epidemic. “We still don’t know how it’s transmitted and what the role of aerosols is.”


    https://apnews.com/article/virus-out...5949a11643e03b

  24. #7624
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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  25. #7625
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    Paris will shut all bars completely from Tuesday as the French government raises the city's coronavirus alert to maximum following a sustained period of high infection rates.

    The restrictions will last two weeks, with full details to be announced on Monday, Prime Minister Jean Castex's office announced.

    Coronavirus: Paris to shut bars and raise alert to maximum - BBC News

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