The COVID-2019 Thread

[harrybarracuda]

It probably lasts about two weeks like most of the other crap that comes out of China. The Chinese are probably hoping the new variant gets called the Indian virus.

Three more and we literally have the "Xi Variant". Can you imagine how enraged Mr. Shithole would be at having that plastered all over the world's press!

[misskit]

Caseloads climb as Southeast Asia feels force of Delta variant


July 9 (Reuters) - Having escaped the worst when the coronavirus pandemic erupted last year, Southeast Asia is now suffering record rises in deaths and cases, while vaccination shortfalls and highly contagious variants have derailed containment efforts.


As countries like Britain, Germany and France prepare to remove most remaining restrictions after devastating outbreaks, governments in Southeast Asia have been tightening measures, hoping targeted lockdowns will act as circuit-breakers in arresting dramatic spikes after cases started rising in May.


Indonesia, the region's hardest hit and most populous country, recorded 38,391 cases on Thursday, six times the number a month earlier, in a week when it's daily death toll as much as doubled from the start of July.


Hospitals on the most populous island Java are being pushed to the limit, oxygen supplies are low, and four of five designated COVID-19 burial grounds in the capital Jakarta are close to full.


Record deaths were reported on Thursday in Malaysia, and in Thailand, where authorities proposed internal travel curbs as the Delta variant wreaking havoc in Indonesia spread quickly in and around Bangkok. A new terminal at the Thai capital's airport is being turned into a 5,000-bed field hospital.


Neighbouring Myanmar saw more than 4,000 new cases for the first time on Thursday and one of its deadliest days, while Cambodia has seen its highest number of cases and deaths in the past nine days.


Health experts say a low level of testing in the region's most populous countries Indonesia and the Philippines is also likely disguising the full extent of outbreaks, while Myanmar has seen a collapse in testing since February's military coup.


PANIC-BUYING


Vietnam's reputation as a coronavirus success story is under threat, with more cases in the past three days than during the first 13 months of the pandemic, although the record 1,314 cases on Thursday were a fraction of those in Indonesia.


Fears of a lockdown prompted supermarket panic-buying this week in the epicentre Ho Chi Minh City, and a 4% plunge in its main stock index on Tuesday.


The capital Hanoi halted public transport from places with infection clusters, to insulate itself from the outbreak in the southern commercial hub, where some of the country's tightest restrictions were in force from Friday.


Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist at Griffith University, said the region was struggling to cope with the Delta variant and were paying for inconsistencies in strategy and messaging, and enforcement of protocols.


He also cited the need to broaden the range of vaccines to better protect populations, noting the dominance of the Sinovac vaccine, owing to China's vaccine diplomacy when western brands were unavailable.


"There's definitely benefits to the vaccine, but there's also the weak sides of it. Why? In handling the pandemic at a bigger scale ... vaccines can't stand alone," he said. "Vaccines need to be diversified. Resources need to be diversified."


Vaccination rates remain low, with 5.4% of Indonesia's 270 million population fully inoculated, about 2.7% of people in the Philippines and 4.7% of the population in Thailand.


Malaysia has vaccinated 9.3% of its 32 million people and has introduced an enhanced lockdown in its capital and industrial belt.


Indonesia and Thailand are considering booster shots with mRNA vaccines, like those of Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech/Cominarty , for medical workers who have mostly received the Chinese-made inactivated virus vaccines of Sinovac, amid concerns about their resistance to variants.


Singapore is among the few bright spots, with authorities expected to further ease restrictions imposed when the Delta variant was detected, and complete the immunisation of half of the population later this month.


The city-state plans to allow fully vaccinated residents to attend larger gatherings like concerts, conferences and sports events.


Caseloads climb as Southeast Asia feels force of Delta variant

[misskit]

Huge New Wave Is the COVID Nightmare Scientists Feared Most

Coroners in Tunisia—which is experiencing its fourth and worst wave of the COVID-19 pandemic— have run out of space, meaning the dead are often left in crowded hospital rooms alongside still suffering patients for 24 hours. The morgues are full, the health ministry says. Even the dead, it seems, are suffering.


“We are in a catastrophic situation … the boat is sinking,” Tunisia’s health ministry spokesperson Nisaf Ben Alaya told reporters this week. “The health system collapsed, we can only find a bed in hospitals with great difficulty. We are struggling to provide oxygen… Doctors are suffering from unprecedented fatigue.”

Tunisia, in north Africa, has 4 percent of its citizens fully vaccinated, more than twice the average across the continent, where the Delta variant has razed whole towns. Vaccines delivered through COVAX, donated from the world’s wealthiest nations, have arrived in small doses, leaving an already vulnerable part of the world with no defenses. Just over one percent of Africa’s 1.3 billion people are fully vaccinated according to the WHO and vaccines that are scheduled to finally arrive next month will only scrape the surface when it comes to distribution.


“Alarm bells should be going off,” Tom Kenyon, chief health officer at Project HOPE and former director of the Center for Global Health at the U.S. CDC told CNBC. “Given the horrors we just saw in India, that should be cause for alarm and stimulate action.” Kenyon predicts Africa’s worst case scenario will soon be worse than Asia’s.

The World Health Organization on Thursday said the second-largest continent in the world has suffered its “worst pandemic week ever,” logging some 251,000 new infections, up 20 percent from the week before and up 12 percent from the worst of the last wave in January. Now more than 16 African countries, including some of the poorest like Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal, are reporting deadly surges. In some rural areas, there are still no tests available, let alone vaccines.


“A few weeks ago, we projected this milestone would be reached shortly, and it brings me no joy to be right,” WHO regional director Dr. Matshidiso Moeti said at a press conference on Thursday. “For Africa, the worst is yet to come. The end to this precipitous rise is still weeks away. Cases are doubling now every 18 days, compared with every 21 days only a week ago.”


The spike in cases has more to do with wealthy nations holding out on promised vaccines than the Delta variant, which authorities fear may mutate into a stronger African variant.

Just 66 million doses of vaccines have been delivered to all of Africa, which has a population of 1.3 billion. By comparison, more than 332 million shots have been administered in the United States, with a population of 372 million. Had even a quarter of the continent’s people been vaccinated, things might have been different, Moeti said. But there is no turning back the clock now.


“Vaccine nationalism where a handful of nations have taken the lion’s share is morally indefensible and an ineffective public health strategy,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the WHO said this week, blaming selfish nations for the “wave of death” now engulfing Africa.


https://www.thedailybeast.com/huge-n...ts-feared-most

[tomcat]

'Fight for vaccine': Thais snap up shots in seconds via Shopee sale

By Chayut Setboonsarng and Orathai Sriring (Reuters)

Fri, July 9, 2021, 3:11 PM

BANGKOK, July 9 (Reuters) - A hospital in Thailand taking reservations this week for the Moderna coronavirus vaccine was sold out in minutes - after offering shots via e-commerce platform Shopee.

With a worsening outbreak and worries about the efficacy of vaccines offered locally, appetite has quickly grown in Thailand for mRNA vaccines, which aren't available until near the end of the year.

"It was sold out within minutes," a Shopee spokesperson said on Friday, adding the vaccine sale saw a spike in traffic on Phyathai Hospital's page, attracting 2.6 million visitors.

It offered 1,800 slots for doses of the Moderna vaccine at 1,650 baht ($50) apiece via Shopee, a unit of Singapore-based Sea Ltd.,
"They were sold out at record speed," the hospital's CEO Att Thongtang told Reuters. "I feel very sorry for those who missed it."
One buyer called lovesujuforever wrote: "It's gone in 15 seconds and I'm so lucky to get one."
Another, labellelabel, said: "It's a fight for vaccine."

Hospital operator Thonburi Healthcare Group Pcl sold all 800,000 Moderna doses it ordered in two days, its chairman Boon Vanasin told Reuters.
Demand for the Moderna vaccine has increased after a leaked health ministry memo showed the Thai government was considering giving a booster shot of mRNA vaccine to medical workers who had already received two doses of Sinovac's vaccine.

Thailand and neighbours like Indonesia have reported breakthrough infections among medical and frontline workers inoculated with Sinovac's inactivated virus vaccine.
Thailand is also using the viral vector vaccine of AstraZeneca, but health experts have urged the government to include more mRNA vaccines in its programme, like that of Pfizer and BioNTech .

Private hospitals in Thailand, via a state procurement, will receive five million doses of the Moderna vaccine between this year and 2022. Thailand has also ordered 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, for delivery after October.

[Troy]

^ I'm surprised they haven't auctioned them...

...just as long as it stays away from the rural provinces eh.

[Grumpy John]

It's not so good for the 1% that die from the Wuhan China virus but the 99% who recover should go on to have a good life with a bit of herd immunity.

That herd immunity should keep em safe from a recurrence one would hope.

"'Fight for vaccine': Thais snap up shots in seconds via Shopee sale " Will they do the next batch on Lazada?

[cyrille]

Thai study finds 2 doses of Sinovac can’t beat Delta variant, AstraZeneca can

Inoculation with two doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine can boost the neutralizing antibody level to 80-90% and provide immunity to the Alpha variant of the COVID-19 virus to some extent, but cannot fend off the highly contagious Delta variant, which is becoming dominant in Thailand and many other parts of the world, said a prominent Thai doctor today (Friday).


Two doses of the UK’s Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine can, however, immunize people, with neutralizing antibody levels of over 90%, against the virulent Delta variant, according to Head of the Thai Red Cross Emerging Infectious Diseases Health Science Centre, Professor Dr. Thiravat Hemachudha, who conducted a joint study with Dr. Anan Jongkaewwattana, a virologist at BIOTEC, and Dr. Khate Sripratak of the Central Chest Institute of Thailand.


The study reveals that two doses of Sinovac, plus a booster dose of AstraZeneca, can prevent the Delta infection better than two doses of Sinovac, but still less than two doses of AstraZeneca, the doctor said.


Although there are no mRNA vaccines available in Thailand yet, for frontline medical personnel, who are mostly inoculated with Sinovac, getting a booster dose of AstraZeneca will be enough to protect them from contracting the Delta variant, ahead of the availability of mRNA vaccines, he added.


Thailand has received 14.5 million doses of Sinovac vaccine and two million doses of Sinopharm, also from China.


Thai study finds 2 doses of Sinovac can't beat Delta variant, AstraZeneca can | Thai PBS World : The latest Thai news in English, News Headlines, World News and News Broadcasts in both Thai and English. We bring Thailand to the world

[sabang]

How do you make sense of this all?


In Uruguay, however, the government said this month that its vaccination campaign with the Sinovac vaccine had reduced deaths by 95% and intensive care admissions by 92%, in addition to reducing Covid-19 infections by about 60% in the country of 3.5 million. The country is also using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for people at higher risk, such as older people and health workers.

What we know about efficacy of Sinopharm, SinoVac vaccines — Quartz (qz.com)

[cyrille]

How do you make sense of this all?

Paying heed only to relatively reliable sources is a start.

[harrybarracuda]

How do you make sense of this all?

Probably reading what you are quoting would be a really good start:

The country is also using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for people at higher risk

[harrybarracuda]

Well they're not 3rd from bottom but still a shit show.

‘Stuffed’: how Australia’s ‘unconscionable’ gamble on Covid vaccines backfired | Coronavirus | The Guardian

[misskit]

Locked-down Sydney warned worse may be ahead, COVID-19 cases at 2021 high

MELBOURNE, July 10 (Reuters) - Australia's New South Wales state reported its biggest daily rise in locally acquired coronavirus infections this year on Saturday, with authorities warning that worse may yet to come for Sydney, which is in a three-week hard lockdown.


There were 50 new cases of community transmission in the country's most populous state, up from 44 a day earlier, the previous 2021 record high. This brings the outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant to 489 cases.


Of Saturday's cases, 26 were people who had spent time in the community while they were infectious, deepening concerns that the lockdown of more than 5 million people in Sydney and surroundings will be extended.


"When you know that there are 26 cases infectious in the community, the only conclusion we can draw is that things are going to get worse before they get better," state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told a televised briefing.


"I think it is pretty clear that unless we reduce that level of people in the community that are infectious, we won't be able to turn things around as quickly as we can or as quickly as we should."


There are 47 cases in hospital, or about one in 10 people infected in the current outbreak. Of those, 19 people are under the age of 55 and 16 people are in intensive care, including a teenager.


No fully vaccinated people have required hospital care and 79% of those admitted have not had any doses, health authorities said. Vaccinations are available in Australia for now only to people over 40 and those in risk groups either due to their health or work.


The country has fared much better than many other developed countries in keeping its COVID-19 numbers relatively low, but its vaccination rollout has been among the slowest due to supply constraints and changing medical advice for its mainstay AstraZeneca .


Locked-down Sydney warned worse may be ahead, COVID-19 cases at 2021 high | Reuters

[Joe 90]

It appears the Whole UK we be one giant lab rat.

The first vaccinated country do abolish all restrictions just as the Delta variant is on the increase.

It's not gonna be pretty

[harrybarracuda]

It appears the Whole UK we be one giant lab rat.

The first vaccinated country do abolish all restrictions just as the Delta variant is on the increase.

It's not gonna be pretty

I think they are working on the basis that they have vaccinated the entire high risk group with a proper vaccine, and the ones that don't want it, well Darwin can sort that shit out.

[misskit]

Coronavirus: Sinovac is world’s most used vaccine, but how good is its Delta protection?


Sinovac Biotech’s coronavirus vaccine has become the most used in the world, with over 943 million doses delivered worldwide.


By the end of the year there could be more than 2.9 billion doses of the Chinese-developed vaccine made, according to the London-based science information and analytics firm, Airfinity, on Wednesday.


But while the vaccine has been shown to protect against the disease and hospitalisation in clinical and real-world studies around the world, experts are calling for more information on how well it works against the Delta variant and whether booster shots will be needed to enhance protection.

Such questions have come to the fore in Indonesia, which has relied largely on the Sinovac vaccine and is battling its worst surge of Covid-19 cases yet, fuelled by the more transmissible variant.


An independent group there tracking virus data has discovered that more than 130 health care workers have died of Covid-19 since June, with 58 of those deaths having occurred this month.

The group, LaporCovid-19, whose data comes from professional medical associations and community sources, did not have a breakdown of how many of these were fully vaccinated.


But around 95 per cent of the nation’s health care workers have been vaccinated, according to the Indonesian Hospitals Association, as cited by Reuters. Overall, the national vaccination rate is only 5 per cent, according to the Our World in Data organisation.

“We still see many [health care workers] survive and have mild symptoms. It gives us confidence that to a certain degree Sinovac has effectiveness against the new variant, that is why we recommend people have it,” said Dicky Budiman, an Indonesian epidemiologist at Griffith University in Australia who collaborates with LaporCovid-19.

He said various factors including a lack of proper protective gear and the overall situation in Indonesia – it has reported over 25,000 new daily cases in recent days – created a high-risk situation for health professionals.


But the issue of deaths among health care workers could also be linked to waning vaccine protection over time and reduced effectiveness against the delta variant.


“We cannot accept [deaths among vaccinated health care workers] as high as we see now,” he said, noting he supported booster shots for health care workers and more research into how well the vaccine was protecting people. “We have to find the answer.”

LaporCovid-19 co-founder Irma Hidayana said more verification of data was needed due to regional differences, but most deaths were in areas that also had high vaccination rates for health care workers.


On Wednesday, domestic media reported that the lead scientist on China’s Sinovac vaccine trials in Indonesia had died of a suspected Covid-19 infection. Novilia Sjafri Bachtiar was said to be in her early 50s.


Sinovac has become a major global supplier of Covid-19 vaccines. It is not only a cornerstone of China’s domestic programme but also makes deals with lower- and middle-income countries around the world who have scrambled for access as rich nations prioritised their own populations and a WHO plan for fair access floundered.


Sinovac’s vaccine became the world’s most produced vaccine at the end of May, according to Airfinity analysis, surpassing Pfizer/BioNTech.

Real-world effectiveness results from Chile, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday, showed that the Sinovac vaccine was 65.9 per cent effective against Covid-19, 87.5 per cent effective at preventing hospitalisation and 86.3 per cent effective at preventing death.
But little data is available about how well the vaccine stands up against the Delta variant.


Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told Chinese state media last month that antibodies triggered by “two” Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccines are less robust against the Delta variant compared with other strains but the shots still offer protection. He did not specify the two vaccines.

Experts say that with supply shortages it is critical to be able to find the best way to optimise the use of existing vaccines both against variants and to understand if protection is waning over time.


Jin Dong-yan, a professor at the University of Hong Kong’s School of Biomedical Sciences, said it was important to study how well Sinovac works against the Delta variant.


“It is generally believed that for all vaccines protection will go down a bit,” Jin said, pointing to data announced by Israeli health authorities this week. It showed the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine fell from over 90 per cent to 64 per cent.

The vaccine was still 93 per cent effective in preventing hospitalisations and serious illness from the coronavirus, the Israeli authorities said.
“Definitely [Sinovac’s effectiveness] will go down, the question is by how much,” said Jin, noting there was “much room to improve” the existing vaccine.


This could include testing the addition of a third shot to vaccine regimes for high-risk groups or looking at “mix and match” regimes, which combine two different kinds of vaccines, he said.


Sinovac head Yin Weidong told China Central Television last month that clinical trial volunteers who received a third Sinovac shot after three and six months saw a tenfold increase in antibodies after one week and further research was under way. The company did not respond to an emailed request for comment about the Indonesian cases.

In Turkey, where Sinovac was the first vaccine rolled out and Pfizer/BioNTech is also in use, the authorities moved last month to offer a third dose to health care workers and those over 50.


Turkish researchers running a study of 1,053 health care workers found that three months after vaccination, 23 per cent of those who had received two Sinovac shots had neutralising antibody levels below what they said was an effective limit.


But it was not clear if that meant protection disappeared, according to Erhan Eser, a professor at Turkey’s Manisa Celal Bayar University School of Medicine who was among those running the study.


He said the “most important figure” was that only 2.8 per cent of health care workers who were fully vaccinated fell ill and none were hospitalised 28 days to three months after the first dose. He said there was not yet any official data for after the three-month period.


“If the situation is smooth, we may not suggest [a booster dose]”, but Turkey’s situation was becoming more urgent due to the threat of the Delta variant, he said.


Other countries are also considering or preparing to roll out booster doses.


Last month Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation recommended offering booster shots from September, starting with those most at risk from serious disease, including people aged over 70 and frontline health care workers.

Coronavirus: Sinovac is world’s most used vaccine, but how good is its Delta protection? | South China Morning Post

[harrybarracuda]

Coronavirus: Sinovac is world’s most used vaccine, but how good is its Delta protection?

Easy: Shit.

[hallelujah]

Kids have got a 2 IN 1 MILLION CHANCE OF DYING FROM COVID.

Children face a one in 500,000 risk of dying from Covid, amid row over if kids should be vaccinated | Daily Mail Online

[hallelujah]

Cy's probably still got his 2 masks on in his own shower.

[Switch]

I’m surprised that few have considered the death and infection rate among ‘health workers’ as a clinical hotspot for the virus, These people are usually in full day contact with positive Covid cases. In poorer countries, they often work in overcrowded areas in conditions where PPE is not so widely available, or subject to prolonged use by necessity, and the overall lack of protective infrastructure. A lack of testing and laboratory support services is also apparent in poorer countries.

It should really be no surprise that death and infection rates, among ‘health workers’ are rising under such conditions.

[Troy]

I’m surprised that few have considered the death and infection rate among ‘health workers’ as a clinical hotspot for the virus

I was under the impression that everyone had considered it. Which countries have you heard haven't bothered to vaccinate their health workers as a priority?

[cyrille]

I think someone must have bet him how much complete nonsense he could post this morning.

But a true blue tory like chas likely thinks that money isn't a factor - that health workers working in less than ideal conditions are just being cavalier.

Note the quotation marks around the words health workers. Like they don't merit the appellation.

What a [at][at][at][at].

[Switch]

I was under the impression that everyone had considered it. Which countries have you heard haven't bothered to vaccinate their health workers as a priority?

Try to read and understand my post it’s really not that difficult. It does not refer to the global population of health workers being prioritised for vaccines, but the fact that, as a group, they are at greater risk from covid, because their work puts them at greater exposure to the virus on a daily basis, than any other group.

Had you quoted the post in full, this might have been apparent, even to you.

[Switch]

I think someone must have bet him how much complete nonsense he could post this morning.

But a true blue tory like chas likely thinks that money isn't a factor - that health workers working in less than ideal conditions are just being cavalier.

Note the quotation marks around the words health workers. Like they don't merit the appellation.

What a [at][at][at][at].

Thank you so much for the irrelevant commentary, and your beliefs regarding my political affiliation. Those comments demonstrating how little you actually know.

[Rex Meksia]

...just as long as it stays away from the rural provinces eh.[/QUOTE]

Agree.

[tomcat]

Hundreds of Thai medical workers infected despite Sinovac vaccinations


FILE PHOTO: A health worker receives the Sinovac coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at the Samut Sakhon hospital in Samut Sakhon province
Sun, July 11, 2021, 4:21 PM

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's health ministry said on Sunday more than 600 medical workers who received two doses of China's Sinovac vaccine have been infected with COVID-19, as authorities weigh giving booster doses to raise immunity.

Of the 677,348 medical personnel who received two doses of Sinovac, 618 became infected, health ministry data from April to July showed. A nurse has died and another medical worker is in critical condition.

An expert panel has recommended a third dose to trigger immunity for medical workers who are at risk, senior health official Sopon Iamsirithawon, told a news briefing on Sunday.

"This will be a different vaccine, either viral vector AstraZeneca or an mRNA vaccine, which Thailand will be receiving in the near term," he said, adding that the recommendation will be considered on Monday.

The announcement comes as the Southeast Asian country reported a record high of 9,418 community infections on Sunday. On Saturday authorities reported a record of 91 new daily coronavirus fatalities.

Thailand has reported a total of 336,371 confirmed infections and 2,711 fatalities since the pandemic began last year.

The majority of Thailand's medical and frontline workers were given Sinovac's shots after February with the viral vector vaccine from AstraZeneca arriving in June.

Thailand is expecting a donation of 1.5 million Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from the United States later this month and has ordered 20 million doses that will be delivered after October.

Neighbouring Indonesia, which has also heavily relied on Sinovac, said on Friday it would give the Moderna vaccine as boosters to medical workers.