1. #9351
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    But... but.... they don't trust Vlad?!

    MOSCOW (Reuters) - Nearly two thirds of Russians are not willing to receive Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, and about the same number believe the new coronavirus was created artificially as a biological weapon, an independent pollster said
    on Monday.


    Over 60% of Russians don'''t want Sputnik V vaccine, see coronavirus as biological weapon: Reuters poll | Reuters

  2. #9352
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    The chinkies seem a bit obsessed with anal swabs. fucking perverts.

    Japan upset about China’s use of anal coronavirus tests on visitors - National | Globalnews.ca

  3. #9353
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    MOSCOW (Reuters) - Nearly two thirds of Russians are not willing to receive Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, and about the same number believe the new coronavirus was created artificially as a biological weapon, an independent pollster said
    on Monday.

    Over 60% of Russians don'''t want Sputnik V vaccine, see coronavirus as biological weapon: Reuters poll | Reuters
    The Levada Center said a poll it conducted last month showed that 62% of people did not want to get Russia’s domestically produced vaccine, and that the highest level of reluctance was identified among 18 to 24-year-olds.

    Most respondents cited side effects -- which can include fever and fatigue -- as the main reason for not wanting to get vaccinated.

    The poll, which sampled 1,601 people in 50 regions, also found that 64% of people thought the new coronavirus was created as a biological weapon.
    1,601 people in 50 regions = 32 people/region - in a country of 146,000,000 population... Hmm, Hmm
    Over 60% of Russians don'''t want Sputnik V vaccine, see coronavirus as biological weapon: Reuters poll | Reuters

    (BTW, seeing under the Reuters news a shot from the CPAC showcase, trying to find the Nazi symbolic...)

  4. #9354
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Mention anal swabs and klondick comes a' runnin'.

    Hmmm.

  5. #9355
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Vaccine rollout to start next Monday

    Samut Sakhon, Chiang Mai and Tak will start vaccinating priority groups, including health workers, against Covid-19 from March 1.

    The first 317,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines -- 200,000 from Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac and 117,000 from British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca -- arrived in Thailand on Wednesday.

    The first 200,000 Sinovac doses will be inspected by officials from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO) for three days.


    The vaccines will then be given to priority groups in 13 provinces with the highest infection rates, the greatest economic significance, or both. More than half of the Sinovac batch will be earmarked for Samut Sakhon, the epicentre of Thailand's latest outbreak, and Bangkok.

    Samut Sakhon, which will receive 70,000 doses of Sinovac, has announced it will next month start vaccinating healthcare personnel in contact with infected people and those with chronic diseases.

    Dr Naresrit Katasrima, head of Samut Sakhon's Public Health Office, said about 4,000 people would be vaccinated per day at three public hospitals and seven private hospitals in the province, so it would take 17-20 days to administer all 70,000 doses it receives. It will take 5-7 minutes per recipient, who must then wait for 30 minutes while their condition is monitored.


    Chiang Mai, which will receive 3,500 Sinovac doses, has also announced plans to begin vaccinating priority groups next month.


    Dr Jatuchai Maneerat, head of Chiang Mai's Public Health Office, said the province planned to vaccinate 1,750 healthcare workers on March 1 and 41,750 people would be vaccinated by May.

    About 5,000 medical and health personnel will also be vaccinated in Mae Sot on March 1.


    The first Covid-19 jab to be administered in Thailand will be given to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Sunday and it will be the AstraZeneca version.


    Gen Prayut called the arrival of the first Sinovac vaccines a historic moment and he thanked all those involved for making it happen. "Today is a historic day," he said. "The government has tried its best to receive the vaccines as scheduled. Without any unexpected problems, we will have enough to develop herd immunity."


    Vaccine rollout to start next Monday

  6. #9356
    Member Wakey's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    The chinkies seem a bit obsessed with anal swabs. fucking perverts.

    Japan upset about China’s use of anal coronavirus tests on visitors - National | Globalnews.ca
    Sounds like something from a Japanese game show!

  7. #9357
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wakey View Post
    Sounds like something from a Japanese game show!

    Endurance!

    Za Gaman - Wikipedia

  8. #9358
    Isle of discombobulation Joe 90's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    The first Covid-19 jab to be administered in Thailand will be given to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Sunday
    Why?

    Shouldn't the vaccines be administered to the most vulnerable and oldest first.

  9. #9359
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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe 90 View Post
    Shouldn't the vaccines be administered to the most vulnerable and oldest first.
    In a perfect world.

  10. #9360
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    The first Covid-19 jab to be administered in Thailand will be given to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Sunday and it will be the AstraZeneca version.
    I thought they were waiting on their approvals authority to check and approve the AZ vaccine. Seems he doesn't trust the Chinky one which is already approved.

    It also seems the "evidence" regarding the AZ vaccine being less effective and of little use to those over 65, which some fat alki poster was gloating about is being proved wrong by real evidence on the ground in the UK. In fact the evidence suggests the AZ jab is performing better in those older populations than Fuzzizer. Ho hum.

  11. #9361
    Isle of discombobulation Joe 90's Avatar
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    Children return to school on the 8th of March in the UK.

    They've gotta have Covid tests at the rate of three a fortnight.

  12. #9362
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by strigils View Post
    In fact the evidence suggests the AZ jab is performing better in those older populations than Fuzzizer.
    Let's see a link to that then.

  13. #9363
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Let's see a link to that then.
    eer yar

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-data-show-vaccines-reduce-severe-covid-19-in-older-adults

    been on the radio for 2 days too

  14. #9364
    Isle of discombobulation Joe 90's Avatar
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    The furlough scheme will be extended until the end of September, the chancellor is to announce in Wednesday's Budget.

    Rishi Sunak said the scheme - which pays 80% of workers' wages for hours they cannot work - would help millions through "the challenging months ahead".

    Some 600,000 more self-employed people will also be eligible for government help as access to grants is widened.

    But Labour said the support schemes should have been extended "months ago".

    Can I go on furlough and how does it work?
    What help will the self-employed get in the Budget?
    There are currently about four million people who are using the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) - or furlough - the highest level since last summer.

    The scheme has been credited for slowing the pace of job losses as tens of thousands of businesses remain shut, with nine million people furloughed at its peak.

    But business groups say the chancellor has taken too long to extend the scheme in the past, creating a cliff edge for employers.

    Mr Sunak must also come up with a long-term plan to pay for the schemes, which have contributed to the government borrowing some £270bn since the pandemic began.

    What help will be available?
    The government said furloughed employees would continue to receive 80% of current salary, capped at £2,500 a month, until the scheme ends at the end of September.

    Employers will be asked for a contribution of 10% from July and 20% in August and September towards the hours their staff do not work.

    Graph showing the number of workers covered by the UK's furlough scheme
    The chancellor will also announce that a fourth self-employment support grant will be available to claim from next month.

    This will be worth 80% of three months' average trading profits, capped at £7,500.

    To access the grants, claimants have had to show their 2018-19 tax returns - but this has meant hundreds of thousands of newly self-employed people have been excluded from help.

    As tax data for 2019-20 is now available, the government says many more workers will now be eligible for support. Mr Sunak is also due to announce details of a fifth grant on Wednesday.

    2px presentational grey line
    'The jobs are the great hope'
    Analysis box by Faisal Islam, economics editor
    It is incredible to think that last year's Budget did not even contain the word "furlough". Official confirmation of a pandemic came hours after its publication, swiftly rendering most of its numbers obsolete.

    But so far in this crisis, unemployment has gone up only modestly. Furlough and the separate support scheme for the self-employed have prevented mass unemployment.

    These extensions now aim to prevent a rapid rise in joblessness at the end of the schemes. The BBC understands that unemployment forecasts will be revised down on Wednesday as the chancellor promises to deploy his "full fiscal firepower" to "protect livelihoods" - the theme of the Budget red book.

    At more than £10bn, this intervention is almost worthy of a Budget in and of itself.

    But the full document will reveal whether the chancellor's borrowing spree is limited to the "rescue phase" of this crisis, or if his confidence in a jobs bounce-back means the economy does not need further stimulus and could even sustain some business-focussed tax rises.

    After the jabs, the jobs are the great hope.
    Shalom

  15. #9365
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    "Biden announces deal between Merck, Johnson & Johnson to boost vaccine supplies "

    "WASHINGTON – An "historic" agreement between competing pharmaceutical companies will allow the United States to have enough vaccines for every adult by the end of May, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday.
    Merck will help Johnson & Johnson make its newly approved vaccine to meet that goal ahead of a July timeline. "
    Biden announces Merck will help produce Johnson & Johnson vaccine

    Here in the US vaccinations are picking up speed. Keep in mind Biden has been president for only a little more than a month.Good to have adults running the government again/
    The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up.

  16. #9366
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    Quote Originally Posted by strigils View Post
    eer yar
    Not quite what it says, though:

    Since January, protection against symptomatic COVID, 4 weeks after the first dose, ranged between 57 and 61% for one dose of Pfizer and between 60 and 73% for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
    In the over 80s, data suggest that a single dose of either vaccine is more than 80% effective at preventing hospitalisation, around 3 to 4 weeks after the jab. There is also evidence for the Pfizer vaccine, which suggests it leads to an 83% reduction in deaths from COVID-19.
    60-73? Stats for after the second dose?

  17. #9367
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by strigils View Post

    Interesting. I suppose we'll have to wait a while for the two dose results as they have spread them 12 weeks apart.

    Although for AZ that is recommended.

  18. #9368
    Thailand Expat misskit's Avatar
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    THAILAND 10 Groups of People Are Prohibited from Receiving Sinovac Vaccine

    BANGKOK (NNT) - The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has received 66,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine allotted by the government and had started inoculating the target groups since Monday.


    Deputy Bangkok governor Sophon Phisutthiwong said medical professionals will be the first group to receive the vaccine. The second group will be public health volunteers, and the last target group would be those who have chronic diseases.


    He said however, there are 10 groups of people who are prohibited from receiving the Sinovac vaccine, including those under 18 years old and over 60 years, pregnant women, those who have uncontrollable symptoms, those who are suffering from brain or nervous diseases, those who have immune deficiency, those who have bleeding disorder or are under anticoagulation treatment, and those who show symptoms of fever.

    https://thainews.prd.go.th/en/news/d...10303102105790

  19. #9369
    I am not a cat
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    Deputy Bangkok governor Sophon Phisutthiwong said medical professionals will be the first group to receive the vaccine.
    On my visit a couple of weeks ago to my cardiologist at a large hospital, I asked about vaccine availability, and whether he would take it. He said that a recent meeting amongst the medical staff had come up with a resounding "maybe", with a big factor being which vaccine was being offered.

    I would be (very) surprised if they go with the Chinese one.

  20. #9370
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    The Thai government has approved a budget of 6.387 billion baht to procure an additional 35 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines. The budget was approved at a Cabinet meeting yesterday, according to a government spokesperson.

    Nation Thailand reports that the budget will be divided into 5.6 billion baht, which will be spent on AstraZeneca vaccines, with 700 million baht going on preparation and rollout at a local level. It’s understood officials expect to take delivery of the new consignment at the same time as it receives the 26 million AstraZeneca doses and 2 million Sinovac doses already on order.

    In total, this will give Thailand 63 million doses. In PM Prayut Chan-o-cha’s “PM Podcast,” he said 63 million doses will cover approximately 31.5 million people. It’s understood the Public Health Ministry is also in talks with other vaccine manufacturers.
    Johnson & Johnson has already begun the process of applying to register its single-dose vaccine in the Kingdom. Thailand currently has a limited number of vaccine doses, with high-risk provinces and groups being given priority. The government plans to open vaccine registration to general members of the public in May.


    Cabinet approves budget of over 6.3 billion baht for 35 million more vaccine doses | The Thaiger

  21. #9371
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Republican fuckwittery at its finest.

    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) says it's time to "open Texas 100%" and ended the statewide mask mandate, effective next Wednesday, citing downward trends in hospitalizations and the availability of medicines and vaccines to keep people from requiring hospitalization.

    https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/texas-news/abbott-to-make-statewide-announcement-tuesday-in-lubbock/2567387/

    Meanwhile...

    Houston has become the first US city to record cases of every major Covid-19 variant found in the country, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Analysis from scientists at Houston Methodist in Texas found 28 types of Covid-19 variants in patients in the city, with the origins ranging from Brazil, the UK, California and New York City.

    Houston becomes first US city to find every major Covid variant | The Independent

  22. #9372
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    Interesting, I wonder why Houston.
    Is it An international hub of some sort?

  23. #9373
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    Texas governor lifts mask mandate and declares: 'It's time to open 100%'
    Greg Abbott: businesses can open at capacity from next week
    Democrats condemn ‘crazy’ decision amid Covid surge warning

    With just 7% of Texans fully vaccinated and another Covid-19 surge potentially imminent, Texas is flinging open businesses to full capacity while simultaneously ending its highly politicized mask mandate, the state’s governor, Greg Abbott, announced on Tuesday.

    “It is now time to open Texas 100%,” a maskless Abbott declared to cheers at a crowded restaurant in the city of Lubbock.


    When Abbott’s policy changes go into effect next week, Texas will be the most populous state in the country that does not require residents to wear masks. Restaurants and other businesses can choose to maintain their own mask policies, but without government backing to do so.


    “We had a chance maybe by the end of the summer of getting a handle on this pandemic. This governor is just going to throw all of that out and put us back to the stone ages,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, the chair of the Texas Democratic party. “This is crazy.”

    Other states and cities have likewise started rolling back precautions. In Mississippi – another Republican stronghold – Governor Tate Reeves also announced on Tuesday that the state was lifting rules for businesses and doing away with county mask mandates.

    In other states and cities, including Michigan, Louisiana, and the city of San Francisco, California, officials are also lifting some restrictions, albeit not with the sweeping approach of Mississippi or Texas.

    Abbott’s announcement – which comes after about 43,000 Texans have died from the virus, and while many Texans are still ineligible for the vaccine – sparked immediate and vehement backlash, from Democratic mayors to workers’ advocates infuriated that Texans of color will once again be the hardest hit.

    “I think this is a slap in the face of working people, especially frontline workers, who have been risking their lives,” said Emily Timm, the co-executive director of Workers Defense Action Fund.

    Local leaders in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin – Texas’s biggest cities – called on Abbott “not to create any ambiguity or uncertainty about the importance of wearing a mask by changing the rules at this time”, Austin’s mayor, Steve Adler, said in a statement.

    “We as a state should be guided by science and data, which says we should keep the mask mandate. Too much is at stake to compromise the positive outcomes we have seen with over-confidence,” Adler said.

    The policy changes also follow a devastating winter storm that pummeled Texas mere weeks ago, in a crisis made worse because of the state’s bungled emergency management.

    Some critics say Abbott is using this moment to distract from that catastrophic failure, while also playing politics with lives to curry favor with a far-right Republican base that turned against him after he implemented coronavirus restrictions last summer.

    “He’s made a decision based upon politics,” Hinojosa said.

    As most meaningful coronavirus-related restrictions disappear from Texas, the state is simultaneously staring down what could easily be a series of super-spreader events over spring break.

    South Texas beach towns in Corpus Christi and the already hard-hit Rio Grande Valley have long been popular destinations among party-going college students from around the country, and as tourists pack into bars and restaurants, none of them will have to wear masks or socially distance.

    “You think we had a horrible spike on Memorial Day, and the Fourth of July, and during the holidays?” Hinojosa said. “The spike that this state will experience in coronavirus cases will be extremely high – and will cause many, many more deaths than any responsible governor should have allowed.”
    Texas governor lifts mask mandate and declares: 'It's time to open 100%' | Texas | The Guardian

    And

    San Francisco will begin reopening more of its economy amid declining Covid-19 case rates, hospitalizations and deaths.


    Starting on Wednesday, restaurants can start serving limited indoor dining and movie theaters, gyms and museums can reopen at restricted capacity.


    “This is the beginning of a great time in San Francisco, you save money not buying those plane tickets to go other places. You can enjoy your city, right here right now,” an upbeat Mayor London Breed said on Tuesday under blue skies from Pier 39, an area popular with tourists in picturesque Fisherman’s Wharf.


    “I am so proud of San Francisco. Nearly a year after our shelter-in-place order, thanks to our collective actions and commitment to following the health guidelines, we have come through our worst surge since the beginning of the pandemic,” Dr Grant Colfax, the director of the San Francisco department of public health, said in a statement.


    San Francisco, with a population of 900,000 before the pandemic, has seen among the lowest number of coronavirus cases and death rates in the country, reporting more than 34,000 cases since the start of the pandemic and 422 deaths.




    The city and its surrounding area were the first to impose a lockdown when the coronavirus struck the US in the spring of last year. Some sectors were allowed to reopen after case rates dropped in the summer, but the city shut down business activity again in early December as the positivity rate surged statewide.


    City fiscal analysts say San Franciscans have stayed at home more than people in other California cities and even other equally strict Bay Area counties, with many of the region’s workers, including those in the tech industry, able to shift their work from offices to their homes. The policies contributed to good public health, but stressed the local economy.


    With the reopening policies, San Francisco is joining Santa Clara and Napa counties in the Bay Area to allow indoor dining rooms and movie theaters to reopen at 25% capacity or up to 100 people and gyms and yoga studios to open at 10% capacity. Museums, zoos and aquariums can open indoors at 25% capacity.


    San Luis Obispo county on the coast, along with Lassen, Modoc and El Dorado counties are also easing restrictions.


    Outdoor dining, outdoor museums and some indoor and outdoor personal services reopened in late January after the state called off its regional stay-home order, but the economic toll has been grim.


    The coronavirus restrictions have had a significant impact on San Francisco’s economy. The city’s once sky-high rents have decreased by 30%, according to officials, and new office-leasing activity in 2020 dropped 71% as tech workers who could work from anywhere fled for other parts of the state and country that were more affordable and had more space. Downtown eateries that once fed throngs of hungry office workers and tourists at lunch struggled.


    Tourism is also struggling, with airline ticket purchases to San Francisco in the late October and November period down 80% from the previous year, much worse than the average US city, fiscal analysts said in a January report.


    Breed, the mayor, on Tuesday urged residents to continue wearing masks and maintaining proper social distance even as she encouraged them to explore the city and pump money into the local economy.


    “When your waiter walks up to your table, put your mask on. When you go to the restroom, put your mask on,” she said.


    Alcatraz Island, another top tourist draw for the city, expects to reopen in mid-March, said Julian Espinoza, a spokesperson for the Golden Gate national recreation area, which includes Alcatraz.


    Breed also announced on social media that another iconic San Francisco landmark will return sometime this year: the clanging of cable cars.


    “Cable cars are a part of the fabric of San Francisco. They draw tourists, they help our economy, and I’m not going to let them just disappear,” she said.
    San Francisco to reopen indoor dining, gyms and museums as Covid cases fall | San Francisco | The Guardian


    MEANWHILE


    Brazil's COVID Crisis Is a Warning to the Whole World, Scientists Say

    RIO DE JANEIRO — COVID-19 has already left a trail of death and despair in Brazil, one of the worst in the world. Now, a year into the pandemic, the country is setting another wrenching record.


    No other nation that experienced such a major outbreak is still grappling with record-setting death tolls and a health care system on the brink of collapse. Many other hard-hit nations are, instead, taking tentative steps toward a semblance of normalcy.


    But Brazil is battling a more contagious variant that has trampled one major city and is spreading to others, even as Brazilians toss away precautionary measures that could keep them safe.

    On Tuesday, Brazil recorded more than 1,700 COVID-19 deaths, the highest single-day toll of the pandemic.


    “The acceleration of the epidemic in various states is leading to the collapse of their public and private hospital systems, which may soon become the case in every region of Brazil,” the national association of health secretaries said in a statement. “Sadly, the anemic rollout of vaccines and the slow pace at which they’re becoming available still does not suggest that this scenario will be reversed in the short term.”


    And the news just got worse for Brazil — and possibly the world.


    Preliminary studies suggest that the variant that swept through the city of Manaus is not only more contagious, but it also appears able to infect some people who have already recovered from other versions of the virus. And the variant has slipped Brazil’s borders, showing up in two dozen other countries and in small numbers in the United States.

    Although trials of a number of vaccines indicate they can protect against severe illness even when they do not prevent infection with the variant, most of the world has not been inoculated. That means even people who had recovered and thought they were safe for now might still be at risk and that world leaders might, once again, be lifting restrictions too soon.


    “You need vaccines to get in the way of these things,” said William Hanage, a public health researcher at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, speaking of variants that might cause reinfections. “The immunity you get with your cemeteries running out of room, even that will not be enough to protect you.”


    That danger of new variants has not been lost on scientists around the world. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pleaded with Americans this week not to let their guards down. “Please hear me clearly,” she said. “At this level of cases with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we’ve gained.”


    Brazilians hoped they had seen the worst of the outbreak last year. Manaus, capital of the northern state of Amazonas, was hit so hard in April and May that scientists wondered if the city might have reached herd immunity.


    But then in September, cases in the state began rising again, perplexing health officials. An attempt by Amazonas Gov. Wilson Lima to impose a new quarantine ahead of the Christmas holiday was met with fierce resistance by business owners and prominent politicians close to President Jair Bolsonaro.


    By January, scientists had discovered that a new variant, which became known as P.1, had become dominant in the state. Within weeks, its danger became clear as hospitals in the city ran out of oxygen amid a crush of patients, leading scores to suffocate to death.


    Dr. Antonio Souza remains haunted by the horrified faces of his colleagues and relatives of patients when it became clear his Manaus hospital’s oxygen supply had been exhausted. He thinks about the patient he sedated, to spare her an agonizing death, when the oxygen ran out at another clinic.


    “Nobody should ever have to make that decision,” he said. “It’s too terrible.”


    Maria Glaudimar, a nurse in Manaus, said she felt trapped in a nightmare early this year with no end in sight. At work, patients and their relatives pleaded for oxygen, and all the intensive care beds were full. At home, her son caught tuberculosis after contracting COVID-19, and her husband shed 22 pounds as he fought the virus.


    “No one was prepared for this,” Glaudimar said. “It was a horror film.”


    Since then, the coronavirus crisis has eased somewhat in Amazonas but worsened in most of Brazil.


    Scientists have scrambled to learn more about the variant and to track its spread across the country. But limited resources for testing have kept them behind the curve as they try to determine what role it is playing.


    Anderson Brito, a Brazilian virus expert at Yale University, said his lab alone sequenced almost half as many coronavirus genomes as all of Brazil had. While the United States has done genetic sequencing on roughly one in 200 confirmed cases, Brazil sequences about one in 3,000.


    The variant spread quickly. By the end of January, a study by government researchers found it was present in 91% of samples sequenced in the state of Amazonas. By the end of February, health officials had reported cases of the P.1 variant in 21 of 26 Brazilian states, but without more testing it is hard to gauge its prevalence.


    Throughout the pandemic, researchers have said that COVID-19 reinfections appear to be extremely rare, which has allowed people who recover to presume they have immunity, at least for a while. But that was before P.1 appeared and doctors and nurses began to notice something strange.


    João Alho, a doctor in Santarém, a city in Pará, a state that borders Amazonas, said that several colleagues who recovered from COVID-19 months ago had fallen ill again and tested positive.


    Juliana Cunha, a nurse in Rio de Janeiro who has been working at COVID-19 testing centers, said she assumed she was safe after catching the virus in June. But in November, after experiencing mild symptoms, she tested positive again.


    “I couldn’t believe it,” Cunha, 23, said. “It must be the variants.”


    But there is no way to be sure what is happening to people who are reinfected, unless both their old and new samples are kept, genetically sequenced and compared.


    One way to tamp down the surge would be through vaccinations, but the rollout in Brazil, as in so many countries, has been slow.


    Brazil began vaccinating priority groups, including health care professionals and the elderly, in late January. But the government has failed to secure a large enough number of doses. Wealthier countries have snapped up most of the available supply, while Bolsonaro has been skeptical both of the disease’s impact and of vaccines.


    Just over 5.8 million Brazilians — roughly 2.6% of the population — had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Tuesday, according to the health ministry. Only about 1.5 million had received both doses. The country is currently using the Chinese-made CoronaVac — which laboratory tests suggest is less effective against P.1 than against other variants — and the one made by British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.


    Margareth Dalcolmo, a pulmonologist at Fiocruz, a prominent scientific research center, said Brazil’s failure to mount a robust vaccination campaign set the stage for the current crisis.


    “We should be vaccinating more than a million people per day,” she said. “That is the truth. We aren’t, not because we don’t know how to do it, but because we don’t have enough vaccines.”


    Other countries should take heed, said Ester Sabino, an infectious disease researcher at the University of São Paulo who is among the leading experts on the P.1 variant.


    “You can vaccinate your whole population and control the problem only for a short period if, in another place in the world, a new variant appears,” she said. “It will get there one day.”


    Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello, who called the variant a “new stage” of the pandemic, said last week that the government was ramping up its efforts and hopes to vaccinate roughly half of its population by June and the rest by the end of the year.


    But many Brazilians have little faith in a government led by a president who has sabotaged lockdowns, repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus and promoted untested remedies long after scientists said they clearly did not work.


    Just last week, the president spoke dismissively of masks, which are among the best defenses to curb contagion, claiming that they are harmful to children, causing headaches and difficulty concentrating.


    Brazil's COVID Crisis Is a Warning to the Whole World, Scientists Say

  24. #9374
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Can you hear that feverish tapping? That's OhOh trying to get a flight to China.

    China has made anal COVID-19 swabs mandatory for all foreign travelers arriving in the country, a report said Wednesday.
    The government has claimed that such tests provides a higher degree of accuracy than other screening methods for the virus, the Times UK reported.
    As part of the new travel requirement, there will be testing hubs in Beijing and Shanghai airports, the outlet reported.
    China makes COVID-19 anal swabs mandatory for foreigners

  25. #9375
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Fuck, even one of Chinastan's biggest arselickers has gone elsewhere for his jab - whilst claiming the chinky shit is safe.

    PHNOM PENH: Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen received on Thursday a shot of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine supplied by India, about three weeks into the launch of his country's inoculation programme, which initially relied only on Chinese vaccines.
    Hun Sen, 68, had vowed to be the first to receive the Sinopharm vaccine donated by China, but later said he was too old. His sons and the justice and environment ministers were among the first to get it instead.
    China is one of Cambodia's closest allies, and Hun Sen dismissed public hesitance about the safety of the Sinopharm vaccine.

    https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/2078219/hun-sen-gets-astrazeneca-shot

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