The COVID-2019 Thread

[pickel]

This is all a massive overreaction on an unheard of level.

I think this goes way beyond reasonable caution. One case confirmed out of 270 million people.

Drop the drawbridges, seal the border, shot to kill!

Ridiculous.

I think your post is a bit hysterical for someone who lives in a place with no lockdowns. Literally the only things closed are dance floors.

[russellsimpson]

I think your post is a bit hysterical for someone who lives in a place with no lockdowns

The Canadian government was quick to the mark banning any travel from the eight African nation then within a day Nigeria, Egypt and Malawi are added to the list. Thousand of Canadians trapped overseas with no direct way home, in fact a nightmare and now very expensive getting home. A series of tests and isolating in expensive hotels when they finally do touch down.

And now we have Biden having a news conference tomorrow morning. And the world holds its collective breath as the Commander-And-Chief takes centre stage. So here's the deal folks......Just can't bloody wait for what's next on the idiocy ladder.

And you call me hysterical?

[malmomike77]

Good luck with that, they could try upper Suki, some schools and churches

Govt hunts for African visitors

The Immigration Bureau and the Ministry of Public Health are tracking about 783 African travellers who have entered Thailand since Nov 15.


They are seeking to test them for the Omicron coronavirus variant in a move aimed at maximising public safety.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2225035/govt-hunts-for-african-visitors

[Switch]

Primarily for Russel’s benefit. The major western players, really need to concentrate on getting third world countries supplied with in date, effective vaccines and vaccination teams if necessary.


Complaining about the inconvenience to your own country’s citizens is of much lesser import.

[Chico]

[S Landreth]

Primarily for Russel’s benefit. The major western players, really need to concentrate on getting third world countries supplied with in date, effective vaccines and vaccination teams if necessary.

Complaining about the inconvenience to your own country’s citizens is of much lesser import.

G7 should step the fvck up and get it done.

Moderna chief predicts existing vaccines will struggle with omicron

Yada, yada, yada

Bancel also said there was a surplus of jabs earmarked for Africa and that 70m Moderna vaccines were sitting in warehouses because Covax - an international body tasked with inoculating low income nations - or individual governments had not taken delivery of them.

He said: "We are running out of space. It's because either they don't have customs documents, or they don't have fridge space, or because the ability to get doses in arms is a challenge."

[harrybarracuda]

You've got a two week window to get here, then again with The Gen P constantly changing, we will most probably go into Lockdown early next week.

Or not.

[harrybarracuda]

Primarily for Russel’s benefit. The major western players, really need to concentrate on getting third world countries supplied with in date, effective vaccines and vaccination teams if necessary.

And yet ironically....

While South African scientists rattled the world last week with their identification of the new Omicron variant, health officials in the country were telling U.S. drug manufacturers to delay delivery of more vaccine doses because demand is not strong enough, and they are concerned about looming expiration dates.

COVID-19 in Africa: Why More Vaccines Won’t Stop Omicron | Time

South Africa's Health Minister Joe Phaahla suggests "fake news" is playing a role in making people - especially younger age groups - unsure about the vaccine.

There is a lot of fear - sometimes driven by misinformation or a lack of good information - about the safety of the vaccine.

Serious complications are extremely rare, based on evidence from wide-scale clinical trials and the billions already jabbed, and pale in comparison to the complications from Covid, even in younger people.

Some of the claims circulating are outright false, but some are based on an element of truth - that you can still get Covid after being vaccinated, for example.

Research in partnership with South Africa's health department found this has led some people to believe vaccines don't work.

New Omicron variant: Does southern Africa have enough vaccines? - BBC News

[harrybarracuda]

This is not the kind of data we want to hear without also hearing that it's extremely mild. That will have to wait I suppose.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa’s new cases of COVID-19 nearly doubled in a day, authorities reported Wednesday, signaling a dramatic surge in the country where scientists detected the omicron variant last week.
New confirmed cases rose to 8,561 Wednesday from 4,373 a day earlier, according to official statistics.
Scientists in South Africa said they are bracing for a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases following the discovery of the new omicron variant.
“There is a possibility that really we’re going to be seeing a serious doubling or tripling of the cases as we move along or as the week unfolds,” Dr. Nicksy Gumede-Moeletsi, regional virologist for the World Health Organization, told The Associated Press. “There is a possibility that we are going to see a vast increase in number of cases being identified in South Africa.”

South Africa'''s new COVID cases double in 1 day amid omicron | AP News

[harrybarracuda]

This sounds a bit overstated.

Say they dropped their food off at the same time, knocked on the doors, one opens it and coughs, the other one opens it a minute later and breathes in all those lovely droplets. Hardly "distant".

Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a government pandemic adviser who led the HKU research, meanwhile, said he believed Omicron might be more transmissive than Delta, based on the city’s first two infections of the new variant reported last week. The patients were travellers quarantined at the Regal Airport Hotel in nearby rooms.

“They never opened their doors at the same time, they never met each other, they never shared any items, and they still got infected,” said Yuen, who called the transmission “surprisingly distant”.

He added: “It is clearly a situation of airborne [transmission]. We are just a bit afraid transmissibility might be even higher than for the Delta virus.”

Omicron variant may be more contagious than Delta, warns Hong Kong expert after ‘surprisingly distant’ coronavirus hotel transmission | South China Morning Post

[harrybarracuda]

Germany will decide this year whether or not to make vaccinations mandatory in Feb 2022.

Beschlussvorlage fur den Bund-Lander-Gipfel: So wollen Scholz und die Landerchefs die vierte Welle brechen - Politik - Tagesspiegel

[harrybarracuda]

Brilliant, and I hope every country and airline follows suit.

OTTAWA -- Unvaccinated travellers over the age of 12 won't be able to board a plane or passenger train in Canada beginning today, and a negative COVID-19 test will no longer serve as a substitute for most people.
The policy came into effect on Oct. 30, but the federal government allowed a short transition period for unvaccinated travellers who could board as long as they provided a negative molecular COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours before their trip.
The stringent new requirement comes into effect as Canada reacts to the emergence of the new, highly mutated Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Coronavirus: Unvaccinated travellers barred from planes and trains as of Monday | CTV News

[harrybarracuda]

The Japanese banned all future inbound flight bookings but they've changed their mind.

The Japanese government said Thursday it has withdrawn its request for airlines to completely stop taking reservations for inbound international flights this month in the wake of criticism the measure against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus goes too far.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida admitted the transport ministry's announcement the previous day had caused public confusion, telling reporters he instructed officials to "adequately take into account" people's wishes to travel home.
Under the measure, Japanese citizens and foreign residents would not have been able to return until next year unless they already had reservations.
The government's top spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, told a press conference the ministry has withdrawn the request. Following the move, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines said that they are preparing to take some new reservations for Japan-bound flights.

https://japantoday.com/category/nati...amid-criticism

[pickel]

And you call me hysterical?

Yes, I do. The reason there are no lockdowns where you live is partly because of the decisions made by health authorities to mitigate the importation of the virus into the country. You're a free man crying tyranny, and I think that's hysterical.

[harrybarracuda]

I was just reading earlier the health minister in Botswana was asking what all the fuss is about. He said patients have been turning up asymptomatic or with runny noses, a few aches and pains and are then up and moving a couple of days later.

Even when this current nonsense passes, there will undoubtedly be more crap further down the line; the press (and plenty of governments) have made it sound like we've got a mutated version of Ebola and AIDS on the way.

Well it would be fantastic news if true. Imagine if this variant can rip through populations without overloading hospitals, and provide immunity for the unvaccinated?

Pomplem solved!

However, it seems Botswana might have the same problem with "foreigners" that Thailand does

JOHANNESBURG, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A senior Botswana health official said on Tuesday that 16 of the total 19 cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant detected in the country were asymptomatic, while President Mokgweetsi Masisi said travel bans on its citizens were unfair and unjustified.
Pamela Smith-Lawrence, Acting Director of Health in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, told Reuters in an interview that the majority of the 19 people who were found to be infected with the new Omicron variant have already tested negative.

While 16 people were asymptomatic, the remaining three had "very, very mild" symptoms.
Botswana on Friday said the country was investigating certain mutations of the coronavirus that were found in four foreign nationals who were in the country on a diplomatic mission. It has since reported another 15 cases of the new variant.

Botswana'''s health director says majority of Omicron variant cases were asymptomatic | Reuters

[David48atTD]

I shouldn't ... but I love this stuff!

---

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that Marcus D. Lamb, Founder, President, and CEO of Daystar Television Network, went home to be with his Heavenly Father this morning. He leaves behind a legacy of fiercely loving the Lord, all the people of the world, and most of all his family.

Marcus Lamb | Daystar Television


Anti-vaccine Christian broadcaster Marcus Lamb dies at 64 after contracting Covid

Lamb's Daystar Television Network had asked viewers in recent days to pray for his recovery.

Marcus Lamb, a co-founder and the CEO of the conservative Christian Daystar Television Network who vocally opposed Covid-19 vaccines, has died at 64, weeks after he contracted Covid-19, the network said.

“It's with a heavy heart we announce that Marcus Lamb, president and founder of Daystar Television Network, went home to be with the Lord this morning," the network said a tweet Tuesday.
"The family asks that their privacy be respected as they grieve this difficult loss. Please continue to lift them up in prayer."


Marcus Lamb, anti-vaccine Christian broadcaster dies after Covid battle

[harrybarracuda]

How many of these "COVID" dead were gonna die anyway in the short to medium term, but the lurgy finished them off?

How many people died of something else but were put down as COVID because they happened to have it at the same time as they, say, fell off a fucking roof?

Most people have been fine and will continue to be fine.
It must be hell being in your house every time someone sneezes. Do you walk round in a hazmat suit?

Oh god you sound like one of those antivax looneys.

I'm not bothered, but I am willing to show concern for my fellow men (and women).

Five million is probably a vast understatement, because we know the Russians and Chinkies lie through their teeth, as do those former Soviet republics that claim they have never had a case but amazingly lockdown anyway.

[hallelujah]

It's a sad state of affairs that it's almost exclusively the right-wing media, such as the Daily Hate, that can occasionally be relied on for any semblance of rational thinking these days regarding the Wu-flu.

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Covid - Reasons to be cheerful at Christmas | Daily Mail Online

Sadly, the lockdown-loving liberals at the Guardian long ago lost any hope of respectability with their doom-laden hyperbole.

They've even less credibility than SAGE these days.

[Chico]

Hunting Africans

Gen Prayut confirmed that the government was tracing arrivals from southern Africa for Covid-19 tests, because Omicron infections were detected from that region.
He asked the public to inform the government if they know of the whereabouts of such people.

PM: No national lockdown, but bars probably won't reopen

[OhOh]

Botswana on Friday said the country was investigating certain mutations of the coronavirus that were found in four foreign nationals who were in the country on a diplomatic mission

Additionally:

Botswana: Omicron found in foreign diplomats, but visiting from where?

By AT editor - 28 November 2021 at 11:23 am

"Authorities in Botswana held a Sunday night press conference to discuss the latest information about the B.1.1.529 coronavirus variant first identified there. In the meantime, southern Africans are asking: Where did this variant actually come from? That’s because Botswana’s government said Friday that the four B.1.1.529 cases reported last week actually originated with fully vaccinated diplomats who visited from elsewhere. Their home country still is not identified.

“The new virus was detected on four foreign nationals who had entered Botswana on the 7th November 2021, on a diplomatic mission,” said Botswana in a statement. The four diplomats tested positive for COVID-19 on November 11 as they were leaving, and genomic sequencing confirmed the variant on November 24.

As of Sunday, another 15 cases have been confirmed in Botswana.

“We are pleased that our scientists, who are at the forefront of the detection of this highly transmissible variant, were quick to identify the variant,” said health minister Edwin Dikoloti. “We believe our country, and its scientists, deserve commendation.”
The B.1.1.529 variant is causing concern over some 30 mutations in the virus. Scientists suggest the variant is capable of spreading quickly and may not respond as well to existing COVID-19 vaccines. It’s a growing problem for South Africa, where the variant accounts for a number of recent cases, and for neighboring nations.

But even as airports around the globe shut their gates to flights from the region, and Africans themselves protested the stigma around calling B.1.1.529 the “South African variant,” no one in Botswana has said where the diplomats came from.

Omicron, the name given the new variant by the World Health Organization, has now been confirmed in the UK, Germany, Israel and a host of other nations. So it’s understandable that people in Botswana and South Africa, where highly sophisticated scientists have sequenced the virus and been transparent about their findings, bristle at the travel bans and isolation and want to know the answer.
They’re not alone as the world waits with them."

Botswana: Omicron found in foreign diplomats, but visiting from where? | Africa TimesDid they bring it in, catch it there, or unluckily involved in an attack by others?

[harrybarracuda]

Hunting Africans

Gen Prayut confirmed that the government was tracing arrivals from southern Africa for Covid-19 tests, because Omicron infections were detected from that region.
He asked the public to inform the government if they know of the whereabouts of such people.

PM: No national lockdown, but bars probably won't reopen

Maybe I should rename this thread to: "Spot the African and win a Honda Click!"


Thailand bans visitors from Africa... but not until December 1st

[harrybarracuda]

Additionally:

Botswana: Omicron found in foreign diplomats, but visiting from where?

South Africa maybe?



(By the way, do you really think Botwana only has 19 cases of Omicron?).

[harrybarracuda]

There are some really odd spikes in their reporting.

[Joe 90]

How many of these "COVID" dead were gonna die anyway in the short to medium term, but the lurgy finished them off?

How many people died of something else but were put down as COVID because they happened to have it at the same time as they, say, fell off a fucking roof?

Most people have been fine and will continue to be fine.
It must be hell being in your house every time someone sneezes. Do you walk round in a hazmat suit?

I know two people who were healthy and thought they were bullet proof until they got the lurgy.
They've been really sick with the" lurgy", and now have long covid.
Basically fvcked because they didn't get the vaccine.

[hallelujah]

I know two people who were healthy and thought they were bullet proof until they got the lurgy.
They've been really sick with the" lurgy", and now have long covid.
Basically fvcked because they didn't get the vaccine.

I can think of probably over a hundred people who've had it and one was on a ventilator for a month.

The rest have been perfectly ok with a 10 day bout of flu-type symptoms being the worst the others have suffered.

Vaccines have clearly helped reduce severity in a couple of cases too.

I also know that there are many more people worlwide who have lost jobs and are unable to feed their families than have died of Covid (almost 5 million people were plunged into extreme poverty in Colombia alone in 2020).

How many people die of hunger every day?