Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #110

[Mo Thuairim]

I would hope that animal organizations and others would share the cost in providing the antiviral drug they need in Cyprus to treat the cats, but also given that Cyprus is an island, I woFld think that they would be able to prevent FIP from spreading. They can stop animals from entering Cyprus and stop animals from leaving. I know there are quite a few countries that don't allow dogs or cats into their countries as they are rabies-free countries and are closed to dogs and cats entering (e.g. Australia). And some countries have very strick laws about dogs and cats leaving the country and require vet checks, etc. IIRC, Cyprus is partially Greece and partially Turkey, so both these governments could pass immigraton and emigration laws to keep current cats in Cyprus and prevent other cats from entering.

I hope international veteranarian groups are getting together on this to help these cats with both costs and other issues.

I agree. Cyprus is an EU country so there should be an EU-wide effort to provide this medication to Cyprus and contain the outbreak and save as many cats as possible.

Ireland (where I live) is rabies-free and cats, dogs, etc. brought into this country must be vaccinated against it before travel. As far as I know there is an FIP vaccine although I'm not sure how effective it is against this new strain, but I imagine additional controls will be put in place regarding the movement of animals across borders.

 

[Sundog]

I agree. Cyprus is an EU country so there should be an EU-wide effort to provide this medication to Cyprus and contain the outbreak and save as many cats as possible.

Ireland (where I live) is rabies-free and cats, dogs, etc. brought into this country must be vaccinated against it before travel. As far as I know there is an FIP vaccine although I'm not sure how effective it is against this new strain, but I imagine additional controls will be put in place regarding the movement of animals across borders.

Hope the EU can figure out a solution to save as many cats as possible.

Glad to hear that cats and dogs can still enter Ireland, even though it is a rabies free country. It was in 2011 that we were travelling overseas and tried to get two kittens into Australia but they didn't allow their entry at that time, as they were a rabies free country. Maybe that has changed now.

 

[Mo Thuairim]

Hope the EU can figure out a solution to save as many cats as possible.

Glad to hear that cats and dogs can still enter Ireland, even though it is a rabies free country. It was in 2011 that we were travelling overseas and tried to get two kittens into Australia but they didn't allow their entry at that time, as they were a rabies free country. Maybe that has changed now.

Oh Australia is so strict. But they have to be given their very delicate ecosystem. I lived there for a while and I remember I wasn't even allowed to bring an apple from one state to another! The apple was served with my meal on my flight from Sydney to Adelaide and I brought it with me through the airport to get on a connecting flight to the Northern Territory and they made me bin it! I was pretty embarrassed. I should have known by then to be careful about travelling with food. So it's even stricter for kitties!

 

[anneg]

Wondering if anyone on this thread has had or knows someone who has had Covid in the past few months? No one in our circle of friends has had it recently. One couple picked up a cold type virus on a cruise, but it wasn't Covid. (Too lazy to search back in the thread.)

 

[IceIce9]

Wondering if anyone on this thread has had or knows someone who has had Covid in the past few months? No one in our circle of friends has had it recently. One couple picked up a cold type virus on a cruise, but it wasn't Covid. (Too lazy to search back in the thread.)

Two of my friends have had COVID in the past month. One lives in Virginia, one in Indiana.

Before this it had been months since anyone I know has had COVID.

 

[anneg]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/13/health/covid-19-vaccines-hhs-letter/index.html

First on CNN: Updated Covid shot should be ready by ‘latter part of September,’ HHS secretary says in letter to manufacturers

US health officials are moving forward with plans to sunset the federal government’s Covid-19 vaccine distribution program next month and move the vaccines to the commercial market this fall, and they are laying out their expectations to manufacturers about what that transition should look like....

....In June, the FDA recommended that Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers make single-strain booster shots for this fall and winter that would target the currently circulating Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5. Those updated vaccines are expected to be made available in mid- to late September, should the FDA authorize them and the CDC recommend them. They will be the first Covid-19 vaccines made available directly from the manufacturers as part of the commercial market, rather than through the US government....

Three Shots for Fall: What You Need to Know

The C.D.C. has approved the next round of Covid shots. Here’s what we know about who should get them, as well as the flu and R.S.V. vaccines, and when.

www.nytimes.com

“The available data pertaining to the administration of influenza and Covid-19 vaccines at the same time do not indicate safety concerns,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement to The New York Times.

“F.D.A. and C.D.C. systems monitor vaccine safety year round and will remain in place,” the department said. “If any new potential safety signals are identified, the F.D.A. and C.D.C. will conduct further assessment and inform the public.”

Some research suggests that the R.S.V. and flu vaccines produce lower levels of antibodies when given together than when delivered one at a time. But those levels are probably still high enough to protect people from the viruses, experts said.
There is also limited data on the safety of the two R.S.V. vaccines. Clinical trials recorded six cases of neurological problems, including Guillain-Barré syndrome, compared with none in the placebo groups.

But the numbers were too small to determine whether the cases were a result of the inoculations. More clarity will come from surveillance while the vaccines are administered on a large scale, Dr. Chu said.

The C.D.C. is expected to make recommendations on administration of the vaccines together in the coming weeks.

 

[Mo Thuairim]

Wondering if anyone on this thread has had or knows someone who has had Covid in the past few months? No one in our circle of friends has had it recently. One couple picked up a cold type virus on a cruise, but it wasn't Covid. (Too lazy to search back in the thread.)

No one I know has had Covid since early this year thankfully. My other half is flying to the UK tomorrow though so hopefully he won't pick it up on his travels!

 

[anneg]

Two of my friends have had COVID in the past month. One lives in Virginia, one in Indiana.

Before this it had been months since anyone I know has had COVID.

Thanks. It's good to be reminded that Covid is still around, especially since I'll be traveling soon. I'll be masked on airplanes and in the airports. but probably not at family and other get-togethers, though.

 

[ilovewings]

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/13/health/covid-19-vaccines-hhs-letter/index.html

First on CNN: Updated Covid shot should be ready by ‘latter part of September,’ HHS secretary says in letter to manufacturers

US health officials are moving forward with plans to sunset the federal government’s Covid-19 vaccine distribution program next month and move the vaccines to the commercial market this fall, and they are laying out their expectations to manufacturers about what that transition should look like....

....In June, the FDA recommended that Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers make single-strain booster shots for this fall and winter that would target the currently circulating Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5. Those updated vaccines are expected to be made available in mid- to late September, should the FDA authorize them and the CDC recommend them. They will be the first Covid-19 vaccines made available directly from the manufacturers as part of the commercial market, rather than through the US government....

Three Shots for Fall: What You Need to Know

The C.D.C. has approved the next round of Covid shots. Here’s what we know about who should get them, as well as the flu and R.S.V. vaccines, and when.

www.nytimes.com

“The available data pertaining to the administration of influenza and Covid-19 vaccines at the same time do not indicate safety concerns,” the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement to The New York Times.

“F.D.A. and C.D.C. systems monitor vaccine safety year round and will remain in place,” the department said. “If any new potential safety signals are identified, the F.D.A. and C.D.C. will conduct further assessment and inform the public.”

Some research suggests that the R.S.V. and flu vaccines produce lower levels of antibodies when given together than when delivered one at a time. But those levels are probably still high enough to protect people from the viruses, experts said.
There is also limited data on the safety of the two R.S.V. vaccines. Clinical trials recorded six cases of neurological problems, including Guillain-Barré syndrome, compared with none in the placebo groups.

But the numbers were too small to determine whether the cases were a result of the inoculations. More clarity will come from surveillance while the vaccines are administered on a large scale, Dr. Chu said.

The C.D.C. is expected to make recommendations on administration of the vaccines together in the coming weeks.

I don't plan to get the RSV vaccine or or the Shingles vaccine: Anytime I see that a vaccine can cause Guillain-Barre Syndrome I won't go near that vaccine. Many many years ago, I think it was in the 70's, the swine flu vaccine was said to cause Guillain Barre, that was it- I never got a flu vaccine-- and haven't ever gotten one -- (see attached article).

Guillain-Barre syndrome following vaccination in the National Influenza Immunization Program, United States, 1976--1977 - PubMed

Because of an increase in the number of reports of Guillian-Barre syndrome (GBS) following A/New Jersey influenza vaccination, the National Influenza Immunization Program was suspended December 16, 1976 and nationwide surveillance for GBS was begun. This surveillance uncovered a total of 1098...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Up until the bivalent vaccine for Covid I was getting all the vaccines for Covid- Haven't had a booster in a year and find myself still a little fearful of getting it. I am mulling it over.

 

[otto]

Some people still question the origin of covid. This recent article suggests that Wuhan lab contamination to Wuhan Market is where it started. The only possibility for contagion of covid with people is 800 miles from the lab and market. Contagion could not have occurred organically.

Is this why China blames the USA? Because the USA was researching virus in Wuhan at the start of the pandemic?

"RaTG13 is a bat virus and one of the closest known relatives to the SARS-CoV-2 Covid virus. There were fears that it may have been the ancestor of Covid that was tinkered with in the lab.

The WIV is just a 40-minute drive from the Huanan wet market in China, where the first infections started. Meanwhile, as Dr Andersen pointed out, Wuhan is more than 800 miles from Yunnan, the region where Covid's relative is indigenous, making natural transmission seem less likely.

Other messages which were displayed in the cropped screenshots in the report show that Dr Andrew Rambaut, a biologist at the University of Edinburgh, another co-author of the anti-lab leak paper, feared pinning the blame on China for ‘even accidental release’ of the virus would cause a geopolitical ‘s*** show’, and so he was ‘content with ascribing it to natural process.’

The notorious proximal origin paper was partly commissioned by Dr Anthony Fauci, the then-head of the US's national research agency that had been funding risky virus research on Covid's relatives at the lab in Wuhan, partly funded by the US taxpayer."​

Lab leak denying scientist privately said theory was 'highly likely'

Dr Kristian Andersen, a Danish evolutionary biologist, co-authored a now-notorious research paper published on March 17, 2020, that denounced the lab leak theory as a conspiracy.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[otto]

Canadians were told via local evening news this week that people should get the covid vaccine in the Fall. The vaccine is supposed to address recent changes to the virus.

 

[otto]

Is this a disparagement of Dr Fauci, or did this happen? Is there a cover-up about whether China or the USA contracted a research virus that got away in Wuhan ... blame bat soup?

"Speaking to Fever: The Hunt for Covid's Origin, an eight-part BBC Radio 4 series, he said they were aiming to dismiss the idea the virus had been intentionally crafted as a bioweapon.

'At that point we were still largely under the influence, when that particular sentence was written, with the notion that this may have been a bioengineered virus or maybe a weapon that just sort of accidentally released,' he said.
...

The Proximal Origin report, which was published just days after a conference call in which top scientists, including Dr Fauci and Dr Francis Collins, fielded frantic messages from virologists about the possibility that aspects of the virus appeared man-made."

same link

 

[charminglane]

Wondering if anyone on this thread has had or knows someone who has had Covid in the past few months? No one in our circle of friends has had it recently. One couple picked up a cold type virus on a cruise, but it wasn't Covid. (Too lazy to search back in the thread.)

I'm in Los Angeles.
Bro and wife flew back from Spain in May and caught it.
It has been circulating around work, mostly in my coworkers with young children. One staff member double masked on the way back from a conference in Chicago and still caught it.
My cleaning lady is down with it right now.

Edit to add: My niece and her boyfriend just returned from a CA road trip. He is down with it now.

 

[ilovewings]

I'm in Los Angeles.
Bro and wife flew back from Spain in May and caught it.
It has been circulating around work, mostly in my coworkers with young children. One staff member double masked on the way back from a conference in Chicago and still caught it.
My cleaning lady is down with it right now.

Edit to add: My niece and her boyfriend just returned from a CA road trip. He is down with it now.

It is clear that Covid is still with us-----hope your family members feel better soon.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Wondering if anyone on this thread has had or knows someone who has had Covid in the past few months? No one in our circle of friends has had it recently. One couple picked up a cold type virus on a cruise, but it wasn't Covid. (Too lazy to search back in the thread.)

I'm not aware of any cases of Covid locally, but there have been outbreaks of the virus on several cruise ships during the summer season - mostly Alaska and Europe. Cruise lines are reluctant to report any specific data on the number of confirmed cases on any given voyage, and passengers who may suspect that they have Covid (or confirm with a self-test) don't report it because they fear being quarantined in their staterooms for the duration of the cruise.

 

[anneg]

I'm in Los Angeles.
Bro and wife flew back from Spain in May and caught it.
It has been circulating around work, mostly in my coworkers with young children. One staff member double masked on the way back from a conference in Chicago and still caught it.
My cleaning lady is down with it right now.

Edit to add: My niece and her boyfriend just returned from a CA road trip. He is down with it now.

That's a lot of Covid in your circle! Sorry to hear that.

I wonder if the person who double masked on the way home from a conference was exposed in Chicago rather than on the airplane.

 

[tabitha111]

It's been a long while since I've been on the thread. Hope everyone is doing well. Here at the retirement home we have a 97-year-old in the hospital with covid and pneumonia, he's not doing so great as you can imagine. Other than that we've had five people with covid here who have all recovered.
I still wear a mask when I go out shopping I'm usually the only one in the whole store wearing one!
I worry about the fall and winter as I'm sure there will be an uptick in cases. Now I'm going to go catch up on the thread.

That's a lot of Covid in your circle! Sorry to hear that.

I wonder if the person who double masked on the way home from a conference was exposed in Chicago rather than on the airplane.

 

[ilovewings]

It's been a long while since I've been on the thread. Hope everyone is doing well. Here at the retirement home we have a 97-year-old in the hospital with covid and pneumonia, he's not doing so great as you can imagine. Other than that we've had five people with covid here who have all recovered.
I still wear a mask when I go out shopping I'm usually the only one in the whole store wearing one!
I worry about the fall and winter as I'm sure there will be an uptick in cases. Now I'm going to go catch up on the thread.

Nice to see you here: stay vigilant---- and be well

 

[JerseyGirl]

New thread:

Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #111

The number of people already infected by the mystery virus emerging in China is far greater than official figures suggest, scientists have told the BBC. There have been 41 laboratory-confirmed cases of the new virus, but UK experts estimate the figure is closer to 1,700. New virus in China...

www.websleuths.com