Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #107

[SouthAussie]

China has lashed Australia for potentially spreading Covid-19 to the Kingdom of Tonga in providing foreign aid after the nation's recent volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Australia has committed $3 million to the recovery effort.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton told reporters on Tuesday steps are being taken to mitigate the risk of spreading infections, such as spraying equipment and offering contactless aid delivery.

Marian Kupu, a journalist in Tonga, told Yahoo News Australia there aren’t any concerns of foreign aid at this stage spreading infections in the community.

She added it was confirmed no infections came from the Australian aid ship.

“We’ve been having flights and shipments from outside since Covid started around the world, so we’ve been taking precautions ever since. I think having the supplies and aid for the tsunami won’t make that much of a difference because we’ve been having imports and exports over the past few years,” Kupu said.

China slams 'irresponsible' Australia over neighbour's first Covid outbreak

 

[CoverMeCagney]

China’s cross with Australia for spreading Covid?

Pot? Kettle? Anyone?

 

[Arkay]

My rapid tests arrived today....NYC....I had no notice that they were arriving but it's been 16 days, so I hoped they'd get here already.
Roche brand, mailed from Topeka, Kansas.

I've never had a rapid test but I'm sure I'll figure it out. I have a box of Binax here that my sister got for me. I've never opened it, but that box has two tests, the Roche one says it has four tests, and the Roche box is half the size of the Binax. I don't know if the tests are different, or if it's just the packaging.

As to questions about the flu---I've never had the flu, but I always get the annual shot.

As to future masking--- prior to Covid I'd occasionally see someone wearing a surgical mask in the winter, or in the emergency room when I've had to take a grandchild. I'd only see people of Asian heritage wearing them, and I just assumed it was customary and clearly for health reasons. However, I'd never seen a young Asian wearing a mask; certainly, none of my students did.

Now I think it is brilliant and foresighted that they wore them prophylactically to prevent illness, and I intend to wear them during flu season or in a health care setting once Covid is downgraded to endemic status. Jmo

 

[SouthAussie]

China’s cross with Australia for spreading Covid?

Pot? Kettle? Anyone?

It is pretty much a constant war of words from them. They are peed off at us for several reasons, but primarily because we heavily resist them taking over all of the South Pacific islands by being present and supplying constant aid (including western covid vaccines).

imo

 

[cujenn81]

In New York City Sewage, a Mysterious Coronavirus Signal

For the past year, scientists have been looking for the source of strange coronavirus sequences that have appeared in the city’s wastewater.

Last January, a team of researchers searching for the coronavirus in New York City’s wastewater spotted something strange in their samples. The viral fragments they found had a unique constellation of mutations that had never been reported before in human patients — a potential sign of a new, previously undetected variant.

For the past year, these oddball sequences, or what the scientists call “cryptic lineages,” have continued to pop up in the city’s wastewater.

“At this point, what we can say is that we haven’t found the cryptic lineages in human databases, and we have looked all over,” said Monica Trujillo, a microbiologist at Queensborough Community College and an author of the new paper.

The researchers themselves are torn about the lineages’ origins. Some lean toward the explanation that the virus is coming from people whose infections aren’t being captured by sequencing. But others suspect that the lineages may be coming from virus-infected animals, possibly the city’s enormous population of rats. Even then, the favored theory can change from day-to-day or hour-to-hour.

 

[Teche]

Please don't misunderstand: I am not antivax whatsoever. I am vaccinated and boosted if that matters to the conversation. I am against mandatory vaccination in the current climate and blaming the unvaccinated exclusively for the continued pandemic.
It is good that there is some reduction in transmission. It still does not make sense, IMO, to require private citizens to be vaccinated or fire people from their jobs for a (short in duration - weeks) reduction in risk. My state is highly vaccinated and yet we had a large spike -- lots of transmission. The virus infected the vaccinated.
Even the Danish study cited concludes with
Our results confirm that booster vaccination has the potential to reduce Omicron VOC transmission in households, although vaccination as a strategy for epidemic control is increasingly challenged by the immune evasiveness of the Omicron VOC.
By all means lets continue to encourage vaccination but universal vaccination will not have the effect that we want (making it all go away). Governments or corporations making it mandatory under these conditions is overreach. IMO.

In the US, it is extremely expensive to pair the medical bills of an employee and their dependents needing treatment/hospitalization due to Covid. In our state, the largest hospital system is increasing the monthly insurance fee for a spouse/significant other not vaccinated. They do the same for other issues. My husband worked for this system for 35+ yrs. I feel this is fair.

 

[weepingangel]

More at link
U.S. hospitals seek foreign nurses amid pandemic strain
Health Feb 3, 2022 3:38 PM EST


With American hospitals facing a dire shortage of nurses amid a slogging pandemic, many are looking abroad for health care workers.

And it could be just in time.

There’s an unusually high number of green cards available this year for foreign professionals, including nurses, who want to move to the United States — twice as many as just a few years ago. That’s because U.S. consulates shut down during the coronavirus pandemic weren’t issuing visas to relatives of American citizens, and, by law, these unused slots now get transferred to eligible workers.

Amy L. Erlbacher-Anderson, an immigration attorney in Omaha, Nebraska, said she has seen more demand for foreign nurses in two years than the rest of her 18-year career. And this year, she said, it’s more likely they’ll get approved to come, so long as U.S. consular offices can process all the applications.

“We have double the number of visas we’ve had available for decades,” she said. “That is kind of temporarily creating a very open situation.”

U.S. hospitals are struggling with a shortage of nurses that worsened as pandemic burnout led many to retire or leave their jobs. Meanwhile, coronavirus cases continue to rise and fall, placing tremendous pressure on the health care system. In California alone, there’s an estimated gap of 40,000 nurses, or 14 percent of the workforce, according to a recent report by the University of California, San Francisco.

 

[mickey2942]

Really interesting to watch the Olympics. I am watching the ice skating. Everyone in masks. In contrast with the football playoffs last week, full stadiums, few masks.

 

[SouthAussie]

Really interesting to watch the Olympics. I am watching the ice skating. Everyone in masks. In contrast with the football playoffs last week, full stadiums, few masks.

I was watching a couple of Aussie athletes giving us a tour of the Aussie Olympic village (zero gravity beds! They said it is like floating when sleeping) and I noticed the same. Even inside their own compound, everyone was wearing team specific (green and gold) masks.

 

[mickey2942]

I was watching a couple of Aussie athletes giving us a tour of the Aussie Olympic village (zero gravity beds! They said it is like floating when sleeping) and I noticed the same. Even inside their own compound, everyone was wearing team specific (green and gold) masks.

We have a "zero gravity" bed. It is amazing. We don't even travel any more, because we love our bed so much!

The skating teams had masks that matched their costumes. But no one in the stands, empty stadiums. A few people, maybe family? Just very curious. And next weekend is the Super Bowl in the United States.

 

[Lilibet]

There’s just a lot of poorly thought out paranoia these days. JMO

I agree with your entire post, and as a word nerd I got a much-needed delighted chuckle out of your brilliant phrase “poorly thought out paranoia”…since paranoia doesn’t strike me as thought-out at all, either well or poorly, since it’s irrational. You were being too kind. But I do agree with what you were getting at, that people don’t think through the irony of their opposition to vaccines while accepting other more dangerous drugs. Being irrationally suspicious of vaccines has become sort of a knee-jerk reaction.
JMO

 

[Lilibet]

I think I’ve posted this graphic before, but it sums it up nicely:

View attachment 332466

I’ve posted this before, and it’s not quite the same thing, but I really like how our local hospital system’s daily graphic shows the the vaxxed-unvaxxed rates among those hospitalized in our low-vaxxed 2-county area in Oregon…

https://www.asante.org/app/files/pu...c2a8133/Asante_COVID-19_Cases_Infographic.pdf

 

[Lilibet]

Now I think it is brilliant and foresighted that they wore them prophylactically to prevent illness, and I intend to wear them during flu season or in a health care setting once Covid is downgraded to endemic status. Jmo

I think my dh was “brilliant and foresighted” wearing a mask on our flight to NY in October 2018, much to the amusement of the couple accompanying us…and the wife is a nurse! But he was not going to let some random virus ruin our trip. Smart man!

 

[Cool Cats]

Those COVID tests the government sent you might not work. Cold weather could be to blame.

 

[GRT]

Making a note to read this study when I have time - as for my initial reaction, it makes zero sense to me, JMO. Seems pretty obvious, if there is no exposure, there is no covid. There is no immaculate conception. However, considering its JHU, I’m open to hearing what they have to say.

I feel the same way, and from my additional research, it seems as though they might be promoting lockdowns for only those who are most at risk.

To be fair--some of the lockdowns we saw were ridiculous. Many stores were closed while throngs of people were in Lowes and Costco.

 

[GRT]

I did find an email confirming my US gov test kit order, but no shipping confirmation as yet. I ordered on 1/18. Is anyone else still waiting who ordered them?

I'm still waiting, and I ordered right away. I did get an email verification, but no shipping notice...yet.

I thought maybe it didn't "take" so I tried again yesterday, but it gave me an error message saying my address had already been entered.

At this point, I wonder if I will get them at all.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

More at link
U.S. hospitals seek foreign nurses amid pandemic strain
Health Feb 3, 2022 3:38 PM EST


With American hospitals facing a dire shortage of nurses amid a slogging pandemic, many are looking abroad for health care workers.

And it could be just in time.

There’s an unusually high number of green cards available this year for foreign professionals, including nurses, who want to move to the United States — twice as many as just a few years ago. That’s because U.S. consulates shut down during the coronavirus pandemic weren’t issuing visas to relatives of American citizens, and, by law, these unused slots now get transferred to eligible workers.

Amy L. Erlbacher-Anderson, an immigration attorney in Omaha, Nebraska, said she has seen more demand for foreign nurses in two years than the rest of her 18-year career. And this year, she said, it’s more likely they’ll get approved to come, so long as U.S. consular offices can process all the applications.

“We have double the number of visas we’ve had available for decades,” she said. “That is kind of temporarily creating a very open situation.”

U.S. hospitals are struggling with a shortage of nurses that worsened as pandemic burnout led many to retire or leave their jobs. Meanwhile, coronavirus cases continue to rise and fall, placing tremendous pressure on the health care system. In California alone, there’s an estimated gap of 40,000 nurses, or 14 percent of the workforce, according to a recent report by the University of California, San Francisco.

Thank you for finding and posting..... I was unaware of this current visa situation.......

Was certainly not unaware of nurse attrition and burnout.......

 

[CSIDreamer]

Those COVID tests the government sent you might not work. Cold weather could be to blame.

I wonder how many have been sent out total.

 

[mickey2942]

Those COVID tests the government sent you might not work. Cold weather could be to blame.

Great. It has been below zero for the entire week here. The tests we received were definitely frozen solid.

 

[Kingsley]

In the US, it is extremely expensive to pair the medical bills of an employee and their dependents needing treatment/hospitalization due to Covid. In our state, the largest hospital system is increasing the monthly insurance fee for a spouse/significant other not vaccinated. They do the same for other issues. My husband worked for this system for 35+ yrs. I feel this is fair.

Yes, it does sound fair to charge more when available risk reduction measures aren’t taken as long as other issues are treated the same. Does that mean smoking, lack of exercise, sugar consumption, alcohol consumption, untreated high blood pressure, no helmets are higher premiums? Very interesting, fair, but very complicated.