The COVID-2019 Thread

[harrybarracuda]

Lockdown for high-risk provinces mulled

National
Apr 14. 2021

The National Security Council (NSC) and the Public Health Ministry are brainstorming over imposing new measures to tackle the rising number of infections.

On Wednesday, NSC secretary-general Nattapol Nakpanit said the two sides are discussing the option of imposing a lockdown on high-risk provinces, such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Prachuap Khiri Khan, in a bid to curb infections.

Nattapol also said the premier has told NSC to be ready for intensive measures.

https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30404887

[misskit]

Moderna Covid vaccine efficacy falls slightly to 90% in US trial


US biotech company Moderna announced Covid vaccine is 90 percent effective against all forms of the disease and 95 percent effective against severe disease.


The new results come from its ongoing Phase 3 clinical trial involving more 30,000 people across the United States, and the headline efficacy figure is a slight decrease from an earlier figure of 94.1 percent published in the New England Journal of Medicine in December.


The new number is based on 900 adjudicated cases of Covid from the study as of April 9, while the previous was based on 185 cases.

A company press release did not indicate why efficacy has fallen, but one reason might be the emergence of new variants of concern which are not as susceptible to antibodies evoked to the vaccine.


Moderna is working on two variant-specific boosters, and said mice studies showed they elicited an increased immune response. The results of these studies have been posted online in a scientific paper that is now awaiting peer review.


"The new preclinical data on our variant-specific vaccine candidates give us confidence that we can proactively address emerging variants," said CEO Stephane Bancel.


The company said that as of April 12, it has delivered 132 million doses of its vaccine globally, including approximately 117 million doses to the United States.


It remains on course to deliver its second tranche of 100 million doses by the end of May followed by 100 million more by the end of July.


The company's clinical trial for adolescents aged 12 to 17 is now fully enrolled with 3,000 US participants, and its pediatric trial for children aged six months to 11 years is continuing to enroll its 6,750 participants in the United States and China.


Moderna Covid vaccine efficacy falls slightly to 90% in US trial

[OhOh]

Are all the vaccines still "approved for emergency use only"?

[panama hat]

Are all the vaccines still "approved for emergency use only"?

Who or what are you quoting?

This simply isn't going away . . . if only the totalitarian Communist leadership could lock up everyone in the world . . .

Chinese vaccines’ effectiveness low, official admits

Efficacy of a coronavirus vaccine from Sinovac – one of main jabs – has been found to be as low as 50.4 percent by researchers.

Beijing has distributed hundreds of millions of doses in other countries, mostly in Africa, South America and other parts of Asia.
“It’s now under formal consideration whether we should use different vaccines from different technical lines for the immunisation process,” Gao said without specifying whether that would include foreign-made vaccines.
He said changing the number of doses and the length of time between doses were also a “definite” solution to efficacy issues.
The overall effectiveness rate of Sinovac, the most well-known of the four vaccines developed in China for public use, was found to be as low as 50.4 percent during late stage trials

Chinese vaccines’ effectiveness low, official admits | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera

“It’s now under formal consideration whether we should use different vaccines from different technical lines

Beats developing their own, I guess these 'lines' would be AsturaZenecca, PfaizerBiOTek, Modernasty . . . and 'mixing' would simply mean copying - something China is quit good at on the surface but it'll still be 拉屎

[harrybarracuda]

Yes, China are now pirating mRNA vaccines. They'll probably be as shit as their other knock off ones.

[Klondyke]

Budesonide as a »game changer« - what is it?

In a phase II study, the early use of an asthma inhaler with Budesonide for mild Covid symptoms reduced the risk of a severe course and shortened the recovery time. Now the data has appeared in the "Lancet" after a peer review process and SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach tweeted about the "Game Changer". Larger studies, including those with other inhaled glucocorticoids, are still pending.

Asthmaspray gegen Covid-19: Budesonid als Game Changer was ist dran | PZ – Pharmazeutische Zeitung

[Klondyke]

Early treatment with inhaled budesonide to prevent clinical deterioration in patients with COVID-19

Published:April 09, 202

In most individuals, infection with SARS-CoV-2 is either asymptomatic or produces mild illness (COVID-19) that resolves spontaneously; yet, a small proportion of patients with COVID-19 develop severe disease, require hospitalisation (often in a critical-care setting), and die.1 A dysregulated type I interferon response to SARS-CoV-2 with overproduction of proinflammatory cytokines seems to be a key pathogenic mechanism underlying progression to severe COVID-19 and death.1 Thus, controlling this excessive inflammatory response might potentially prevent disease progression.

Inhaled corticosteroids have been used for more than 30 years in the treatment of several inflammatory respiratory conditions, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), to control dysregulated airway inflammation, with a good efficacy and safety track record.2, 3 In the context of the current pandemic, it was noted that patients with asthma and COPD appear to be under-represented among COVID-19-infected individuals seeking emergency care, and it was hypothesised that the chronic use of inhaled corticosteroids might have controlled the excessive inflammatory response induced by SARS-CoV-2 in these individuals.4 Yet, a later observational study did not support this possibility.
DEFINE_ME

[strigils]

Seems the majority have to pander to the minority..as usual these days

Covid-status certificate scheme could be unlawful discrimination, says EHRC

Covid-status certificates being considered by ministers to help open up society could amount to unlawful indirect discrimination, the government’s independent equalities watchdog has advised.


As ministers decide whether the documents should be introduced as passports to certain events later this year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has told the Cabinet Office they risk creating a “two-tier society”.


The watchdog also said employers should not be allowed to hire workers on a “no jab, no job” policy until all young people had been offered a vaccine, and that plans to make them mandatory for care workers helping older people may not be lawful.


According to a submission seen by the Guardian, the EHRC said Covid-status certificates could be a “proportionate” way of easing restrictions, given the toll lockdown has taken on people’s wellbeing and livelihoods.


But it said they risked further excluding groups among whom vaccine take-up is lower – including migrants, those from minority ethnic backgrounds and poorer socio-economic groups – from access to essential services and employment.


“There is a risk of unlawful discrimination if decisions taken in this process disadvantage people with protected characteristics who have not received, or are not able to receive, the vaccine, unless they can be shown to be justified,” it said. “Any mandatory requirement for vaccination or the implementation of Covid-status certification may amount to indirect discrimination, unless the requirement can be objectively justified.”


The warnings emerged as the health secretary, Matt Hancock, gave the clearest indication yet that care workers would be required to have a vaccination or be refused deployment in care homes.


Launching a five-week consultation on the proposal, the government said the initiative could later be extended to the wider health and social care workforce. “Due to the importance of this issue, we intend to change the law quickly,” it added.


Despite care workers being in the highest priority category for jabs, Hancock said only around half of care homes in England had enough people vaccinated. Government scientific advisers believe 80% of staff and 90% of residents need to be vaccinated to provide a minimum level of protection against outbreaks of the virus.

more here https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/14/covid-status-certificates-may-cause-unlawful-discrimination-warns-ehrc

[Latindancer]

^^ One of those inhalers might save some TD member's life, if any take notice.

[harrybarracuda]

It's difficult to see the situation improving when there are fucking idiots from top to bottom.

Legal action will be taken against entertainment businesses and people who recklessly spread Covid-19.
Dr Charaspong Sukree, chief of Nakhon Si Thammarat's public health office, said health officials are liaising with authorities in Bangkok in pressing charges against a Covid-19 patient who boarded a plane after being informed of her positive test result.

He was referring to the province's 7th case, a 26-year-old woman who took a flight to Nakhon Si Thammarat from Don Mueang airport on April 11 after she was told she was infected.

Dr Charaspong said the patient, who had caused havoc at the airports and anxiety among passengers, would be charged with withholding information.

"Authorities will determine where the offences were committed and the patient will be summonsed to answer charges there," he said.

He said she did not violate the law in Nakhon Si Thammarat as she informed authorities as soon as she landed.

However, a private laboratory would also be held responsible for failing to notify the Department of Communicable Disease Control or the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA) to initiate the quarantine process.

Based on the patient's timeline, she took the Covid-19 test at a private clinic on April 9 and was informed of the positive result on April 10. She boarded an evening flight to Nakhon Si Thammarat the following day.

In Phuket, three entertainment venues linked to the spread of the Covid-19 would face legal action, Pol Lt Gen Kittirat Phanphet, chief of the Provincial Police Region 8, said on Wednesday.

A committee chaired by Phuket deputy police chief, Pol Col Suwat Kaewphrom, has also been set up to follow up on the legal process and ensure all the parties involved are held to account.

In Chiang Mai, local authorities on Wednesday pressed charges against a hotel for allegedly failing to comply with the disease control measures after it failed to collect information from a guest who had travelled from a high-risk area. The guest checked in at the hotel in San Kamphaeng district on April 11, a day after she took a Covid-19 test at a hospital in Bangkok.

She received the test result, which was positive, on April 12.

The district's disease control operation centre found that the hotel had violated the province's disease control measures.

Covid spreaders to face legal action

[tomcat]

It's difficult to see the situation improving when there are fucking idiots from top to bottom.

...and here's a timely report:

Bangkok nightlife clusters expose Thailand's virus stumbles

• 
• 
• 
• 

Virus Outbreak Thailand

FILE - In this Feb. 24, 2021, file photo, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha holds samples of Sinovac vaccine during a ceremony to mark the arrival of 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine shipment at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Prayuth was not particularly lauded for his leadership last year against the coronavirus, but for much of 2020 Thailand fought the disease to a standstill, with low infection and death rates envied by more developed countries. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

By BUSABA SIVASOMBOON and GRANT PECK (AP)

Thu, April 15, 2021, 10:10 AM

BANGKOK (AP) — When Thailand's transport minister was recently diagnosed with COVID-19, it was Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha who got a headache.

Prayuth was not particularly lauded for his leadership last year against the coronavirus, but for much of 2020 Thailand fought the disease to a standstill, with low infection and death rates envied by more developed countries.

Now, an outbreak at nightspots in the capital Bangkok has sent new infections surging, suggesting the country may have been lulled into a false sense of security before mass vaccinations begin.

On Thursday, 1,543 new cases were confirmed, taking the total to 37,453, with 97 deaths. While that is much better than most other countries, Thailand's cases in the first three months of this year were triple what the country had all of last year and its daily numbers are rising fast.

The new outbreak has spread among mostly young, affluent and mobile Thais, and some of the newly infected had the more contagious variant first identified in the U.K.

The government says Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob caught the virus from an aide who patronized some of the infectious nightspots, including a club described by Thai media as a glorified strip joint that was blatantly ignoring social distancing precautions. That has added to widespread skepticism over the government's handling of the latest crisis.

Thailand only recently began easing strict border controls that for the past year have kept out most travelers, especially all-important tourists whose spending supports millions of jobs. The restrictions have included mandatory testing and 14-day quarantines for almost all arrivals.

Officials had appeared reluctant to impose sweeping restrictions like curfews, bans on serving alcohol and closures of bars, parks and shopping malls that were the rule this time last year, when Songkran Thai New Year holidays were cancelled.

This week, the holiday went ahead, and as many as a million Thais headed out to visit family or crowded onto beaches, even as some hospitals halted COVID-19 testing due to a rush by thousands of people worried they had been exposed or needing proof they were virus-free. Some hospitals claimed to have run out of testing supplies, but the government said the real reason was an unintended consequence of a well-meaning regulation — they are required to admit infected patients right away, but believed they lacked enough beds to accommodate them.

Officials pivoted to allow referrals, and thousands of beds have filled up at field hospitals set up to house those with confirmed infections, following the government's protocol of isolating all known patients. Online photos show exhausted medical staff in protective gear, slumped over sleeping on their desks and chairs.
A worst case scenario from the Department of Disease Control's epidemiology division calculated that without safety measures, the country could see a maximum of 28,678 daily cases.

“The situation is still worrisome; more measures are to come,” Dr. Opas Karnkavinpong, the department's director-general, warned Tuesday.
Gen. Natthapon Nakpanich, operations chief for the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration, elaborated Wednesday, saying the government was considering instituting lockdowns in several areas after the holiday. They include Bangkok and its surrounding provinces, Prachuab Khiri Khan to the south, where the resort town of Hua Hin is, the northern city of Chiang Mai, and parts of the Eastern Seaboard, where another popular holiday destination, Pattaya, is located.

On Tuesday, the government raised eyebrows by posting photos of soldiers spraying forest areas along the border, even though experts say the greatest virus risk is airborne.

The latest crisis has made glaringly apparent an Achilles heel in Thailand’s strategy, a failure to secure enough doses this year to inoculate a targeted 70% of the population believed necessary to achieve herd immunity.

So far, under 1% of 69 million Thais have been vaccinated, a smaller proportion than in many of its Southeast Asian neighbors.
Thailand’s early success in containing the virus was remarkable given the millions of international travelers, especially from China, that it usually hosts each year. The first case outside China was a Chinese traveler whose fever was detected at Bangkok's airport.

It's unclear why Thailand and several other Southeast Asian nations succeeded in constraining the pandemic for much of last year. Thailand's extensive and experienced public health system played a large role, and Prayuth’s government generally deferred to medical experts' advice.

But the nation has paid a heavy price for its aggressive effort to control outbreaks: The economy contracted 6.1% in 2020 and the resurgence of cases makes a tourism recovery unlikely anytime soon. Household debt rose 42% last year as incomes fell or stalled, to 87% of the country's GDP.

And Thailand’s lucky streak faded late last year, when a virus cluster was found among migrant workers working in factories and seafood markets and living in crowded dormitories. Severe restrictions and a massive testing campaign near the outbreak's epicenter seemed to contain it after several weeks.
“We don’t want to lock down the entire country, because we know what the problems are, so can you all lock down yourselves?” Prayuth said at the time. “This is up to everyone, if you don’t want to get infected just stay home for 14 to 15 days.”

That flare-up drew attention to the government’s vaccination plans just as the U.S. and European countries began doubling down on their inoculations.
In early January, Prayuth said Thailand was trying to secure 63 million doses, which at two doses per person would cover less than half its population. Local production of the AstraZeneca vaccine is expected to begin in June.

Complaints emerged that well-connected companies might profit unfairly from government contracts to produce and supply vaccines, allegations denied by the government and the companies involved. Prayuth’s political opponents piled on, complaining about mismanagement, a lack of transparency and a failure to diversify beyond the AstraZeneca and Chinese Sinovac vaccines.

Registration for vaccines for the general public is set to begin in early May, with inoculations to start later in the month. So far, inoculations have mostly gone to medical workers, areas considered at particularly high risk, and communities that may be opened early as so-called bubbles where foreign tourists who have been vaccinated may be allowed to stay without undergoing quarantine.

On Wednesday, 1,681 people got their first shot and 388 their second jabs. So far, only 73,949 people have been fully vaccinated.

[harrybarracuda]

Complaints emerged that well-connected companies might profit unfairly from government contracts to produce and supply vaccines, allegations denied by the government and the companies involved.

...Who are obviously both lying through their teeth.

[OhOh]

Are all the vaccines still "approved for emergency use only"?

As our TD virus experts have not stated otherwise, I'll assume they're still "approved for emergency use only" then.

[snakeeyes]

Both Jags done , Happy Days

[PlanK]

^
Welcome to the Pfizer gang, Terry.

[Iceman123]

^^
Well done on getting both doses already.

Reckon if that’s the quality of the vaccine passport, Khoi San Road will be selling them by midnight.

[PlanK]

^
Mine looks very similar, had to write in the details of the second dose myself.


But it supposedly all goes into a gubmint database, and one day they will make a passport app, or supply it to a trusted third party to add to their app, or China will hack it and add it to their db, so at least I will be able to visit China.

[misskit]

COVID Has Now Killed 3 Million People Worldwide

Fueled by surges in Brazil, India, and elsewhere, the number of COVID-19 deaths worldwide has passed the 3 million mark. A million of those fatalities were recorded just since January—and come even as vaccination programs have driven down death rates in some countries. As the Associated Press notes, the deaths exceed the population of Chicago and are likely even higher than 3 million because some nations are believed to have under-reported the numbers. The United States accounts for more than 500,000 of the total deaths, and has still not gotten the pandemic fully under control. In Brazil alone, there are 3,000 deaths a day with no end in sight. “This is not the situation we want to be in 16 months into a pandemic, where we have proven control measures,” Maria Van Kerkhove of the World Health Organization told the AP.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/covid-...ople-worldwide

[OhOh]

China COVID-19 Vaccines Tracker

"Chinese leaders have repeatedly stated that China will make its COVID-19 vaccine a global public good. More recently they declared that China is indeed fulfilling this pledge by exporting and donating its COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world. China’s export and donation of its vaccines to other countries have generated a great deal of interest and discussion around the world. Our research offers a comprehensive picture of China’s vaccine outreach and will hopefully enable more informed discussions on this issue around the world."

Continues here:

China COVID-19 Vaccines Tracker – bridgebeijing

[panama hat]

"Chinese leaders have repeatedly stated that China will make its COVID-19 vaccine a global public good. More recently they declared that China is indeed fulfilling this pledge by exporting and donating its COVID-19 vaccines to countries around the world.

They created the problem, covered it up, but didn't work on a vaccine until a year later and it still has less than a 50% of the efficacy rate of others.

[strigils]

Both Jags done , Happy Days

You showing your age there Snakey? jabbed first in Feb.

[misskit]

Thai Government Prepares 25,000 Beds Nationwide for Covid-19 Patients


BANGKOK (NNT) - The government has provided over 25,000 beds nationwide to field hospitals and hospitals, in order to treat the increasing number of Covid-19 patients.


Deputy government spokesperson Ratchada Thanadirek said 1,250 beds were usable in four field hospitals in Bangkok, where 500 more beds will be added. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation had urged universities with readiness to open field hospitals and there were 12,822 beds available at 37 field hospitals across the country.


In addition, the Ministry of Defense has procured over 5,000 beds in Bangkok and regional areas. These beds will be delivered to the Ministry of Public Health.


As of Saturday, the number of confirmed cases in Thailand had risen to 40,585. Of these, 37,353 were contracted locally, including 19,980 found via proactive testing, while 3,232 were returnees.


National News Bureau Of Thailand

[Buckaroo Banzai]

We are slated in to return to Thailand May 4th and now wife is getting nervous over the news and is beginning to make noises about maybe proponing a couple of months. The issue is that it was a lot of work to get all the permissions to get back there, and I don't want to start that process over again. I wonder how long my Non Imm Type O Visa is good for from day of issue? I have been tracking it and according to USPS I should get my stamped passport Tomorrow.
I know , no one has a Chrystal bowl, but do you all think that waiting a month would make any difference? Does anyone think that covid conditions in Thailand will improve in a month or Two?

Ps: we have already shipped our stuff to Thailand, (will get there early June but they can hold them at the warehouse for a couple of months at no charge) Grrrrr. I hate this uncertainty.

[Mendip]

^ The only uncertainty is from you.

Just get on with it... no one knows how Covid will play out, world wide or just Thailand. This will affect our lives for years.

[strigils]

^ Agreed


^^ BB you are inoculated, both of you, keep taking Vit D and all will be alright - Oh and on vitamins that is one thing i'd buy and bring over (long dated) - they are expensive in Thailand. It really doesn't matter where you live, things are not going to be normal for a long time yet, at least in Thailand it'll be a change of scenery.