Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #89

[CoverMeCagney]

Litterally Just hours after I posted in this thread last. I was informed my grandmother died from covid. She had been in the hospital for a couple weeks in icu. She was actually finally released but passed just days later. She wasn’t able to beat covid. What’s worse is we were so close my entire life. Until just a few years ago ., so I never really got to say goodbye or have any closeurs. Now it’s hit me Hard. I have no remaining grandparents that’s seems so unfair. When once I was surrounded by them. What’s it going to take to be rid of this for good. ? It’s beginning to feel hopeless

So sorry to hear this, Sassy. Heartbreaking news. This damned virus has taken so much away this year, so many great people and things that make us happy

 

[imstilla.grandma]

A composite photograph of surgical gloves and masks discarded in Cardiff, UK, in December 2020.
Credit: Matthew Horwood/Getty
...
On 30 January this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) sounded a global alarm when it designated an outbreak of respiratory illness a ‘public health emergency of international concern’. On the same day, the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) launched a web archive for the incipient pandemic. “The disease didn’t even have a name yet,” says Susan Speaker, a historian at the NLM in Bethesda, Maryland. “We collected the tweet in which the WHO named it.”

Since then, the NLM has archived thousands of websites and social-media posts from governments and non-governmental organizations, journalists, health-care workers and scientists around the world. That’s in addition to all the COVID-related publications in its literature database, PubMed.

Efforts to document the pandemic for posterity have been under way everywhere since early in the year. Government agencies such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, and scientific institutions including the Pasteur Institute in Paris weren’t far behind the NLM. Their archives are being complemented by those of museums, libraries, historical societies and community groups. The global frenzy of collecting has even prompted talk of curatorial burnout.

Museum curators are on the lookout for discarded ventilators and failed prototype COVID-19 tests — but they must choose the moment they ask with care. “We can’t just say to busy people, ‘Would you stop developing the vaccine and talk to me about collecting stuff?’” says Natasha McEnroe, keeper of medicine at the Science Museum in London. “We have to tread very, very carefully.”

Others are storing souvenirs of people’s lived experience — video diaries, mask fashion, recordings of the quiet of locked-down streets. Or they’re salting away objects that the pandemic has rendered iconic: the signage around the lectern from which UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to the press; a wooden spoon that a little girl broke while banging her family’s cooking pots in support of medical personnel. For the first time, a pandemic

Archivists are aware that it’s not for them to decide what future historians will consider relevant. In 1918, many people doubted that the first wave of the pandemic, which resembled seasonal flu, was caused by the same pathogen as the much more lethal second wave (it was). As evidence comes in, new connections are made while others fade. The tendency today has therefore been to collect everything, within each organization’s broad remit. Hence the ocean of data — and the pandemic rages still.
...
Pandemics pose logistical problems — one reason they have tended to leave such light archival footprints. “Collecting infectious disease is a real challenge,” says McEnroe, speaking from her son’s bedroom. Many museums have closed, and archivists have been working from home. Physical collecting has health and safety risks, and raises ethical concerns. Samples of infected lung tissue taken from patients in 1918 were used in 2005, controversially, to bring the virus back to life2 — something that nobody in 1918 would have dreamed possible.
What are COVID archivists keeping for tomorrow’s historians?
Pdf version: https://media.nature.com/original/magazine-assets/d41586-020-03554-0/d41586-020-03554-0.pdf

 

[mickey2942]

Had she delayed her trip, she could have watched the news and heard about the famous Doctor Brix traveling to Delaware and Doctor Brix's creative uhmm…."spin" regarding following her own rules:

Birx travels, family visits highlight pandemic safety perils

Just highlights the ongoing entitlement mentality that has occurred over and over during this pandemic. Demonstrated by so many hypocrites, Governor Newsome, Mayor of Denver...

Meanwhile, people who take the virus seriously are hunkered down at home.

What will really irritate me, is that these "important" folks will be primed to get the vaccine first. Of course. Because they are so essential.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Litterally Just hours after I posted in this thread last. I was informed my grandmother died from covid. She had been in the hospital for a couple weeks in icu. She was actually finally released but passed just days later. She wasn’t able to beat covid. What’s worse is we were so close my entire life. Until just a few years ago ., so I never really got to say goodbye or have any closeurs. Now it’s hit me Hard. I have no remaining grandparents that’s seems so unfair. When once I was surrounded by them. What’s it going to take to be rid of this for good. ? It’s beginning to feel hopeless

I’m so very very sorry to read of your loss. I can feel your pain through the screen. My BIL is on a ventilator as I type this. He is dying . My sister was just released from the hospital they’ve were in for two weeks. My BIL is on chemo for a liver cancer. He can’t fight. His immune system is gone. The doctors are unsure he will ever recover. My granddaughter got covid first. Then a sister, then another sister, then my BIL and two nephews. I hate this monster virus. So cowardly. Sneaking in and robbing people of their livelihood, love ones and their own lives. Really bad bad words are in my head right now. I want to scream! I know this isn’t the place but WS is my safety net. Y’all are my only friends. Please hang in there Sassy. Talk about it. I’ll listen. Get your thoughts out. The written word is so powerful. It may provide a cathartic process. Grieving for you hon.

 

[10ofRods]

I don't know why all countries did not stop flights and deal with their own country's infections first. Isn't that logical?

Absolutely logical. Completely reasonable. Should have been a first move.

But nooooo. The US could not do that and did not even consider doing it. It's a decision that has to be at the level of the FAA.

Had she delayed her trip, she could have watched the news and heard about the famous Doctor Brix traveling to Delaware and Doctor Brix's creative uhmm…."spin" regarding following her own rules:

Birx travels, family visits highlight pandemic safety perils

Very true. And as I've posted before, we have lots of doctors in the US who aren't following the rules. For one thing, actual M.D.'s (including interns and residents) are considered essential workers and we've had no guidance about what that means. Can they do anything they want? One would think not, but there are no guidelines.

We have cases where doctors admit to continuing to see patients (even in outpatient settings) when they've tested positive...

 

[SouthAussie]

COVID-19: New strain found in Italy, Denmark, Netherlands, Australia and Gibraltar

Cases of the new coronavirus strain spreading rapidly in the UK have been confirmed in Denmark, Italy, Gibraltar, the Netherlands and Australia.

France and South Africa also believe they have cases of the mutation - known as VUI-202012/01 - but these have not been confirmed.

In Australia, they have found the new UK strain in two returnees from the UK. They are in hotel quarantine - which is typical for all returnees. We have been told that due to the quarantine, the community is not at risk.

Over 40 countries have banned incoming arrivals from the UK now.

My extended family in the SE of the UK say they are 'hibernating'.

Covid-19: More than 40 countries ban UK arrivals

 

[ilovewings]

Just highlights the ongoing entitlement mentality that has occurred over and over during this pandemic. Demonstrated by so many hypocrites, Governor Newsome, Mayor of Denver...

Meanwhile, people who take the virus seriously are hunkered down at home.

What will really irritate me, is that these "important" folks will be primed to get the vaccine first. Of course. Because they are so essential.

Those people are so "speshial" dontchaknow? So Dr. Birx goes cavorting around the country, traveling to see family-- all those things she tells people not to do. Gross

 

[SouthAussie]

U.S. health officials say they do not yet see a need to halt flights from the United Kingdom, even as a growing number of other countries ban British travelers amid the rapid spread of a new variant of coronavirus in London and elsewhere.

"That variant is getting on a plane and landing in JFK, and all it takes is one person," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement on Sunday.

Cuomo said on Monday that British Airways had agreed to require passengers on flights from the UK to New York to produce a negative COVID test before departure. In a tweet, he said New York was working with two other air carriers, Delta and Virgin Atlantic, to do the same.

But President Donald Trump's assistant secretary for health, Admiral Brett Giroir, said the CDC has not made any recommendation to limit travel from the U.K. to the United States.

British Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said the new virus variant is “out of control” around London and southeastern England.

New COVID strain: US health officials say no need for UK flight ban

 

[SouthAussie]

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort to convince the American public the inoculations are safe.

The president-elect took a dose of Pfizer vaccine at a hospital not far from his Delaware home, hours after his wife, Jill Biden, did the same.



Biden gets COVID-19 vaccine, says 'nothing to worry about'

 

[HongKongPhooey]

In Australia, they have found the new UK strain in two returnees from the UK. They are in hotel quarantine - which is typical for all returnees. We have been told that due to the quarantine, the community is not at risk.

Over 40 countries have banned incoming arrivals from the UK now.

My extended family in the SE of the UK say they are 'hibernating'.

Covid-19: More than 40 countries ban UK arrivals

We are covid pariahs

To all intents and purposes, locked down in my area. Only essential shops open. Stay at home. No meeting up with anyone. Thank goodness Mr HKP is on leave so he doesnt need to commute to London central.

Added to the *fun* I just had an email from my grocery delivery today. No fruit and veg available to add to next week's order due to the border issues. Says they need to talk to suppliers. I might have to delve into the covid cupboard if they dont resolve it.

 

[anneg]

A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel recommended frontline essential workers and persons 75 years and older should be next in line to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

The frontline group includes 30 million workers in sectors such as emergency services, teachers, food and agriculture, manufacturing, the US Postal Service, public transport, and supermarkets.

The panel voted 13-1 in favour of the move that, in all, would make 49 million people eligible to receive the vaccine in the next round.

Frontline workers and elderly should be next in line for COVID vaccine, says US CDC

Well, DH and I are in the 75+ group. I'm wondering how soon a vaccine will be offered to us. I think DH should get the Moderna vaccine because of his allergies, but we'll see what his doctors advise.

 

[weepingangel]

Dbm

 

[SouthAussie]

We are covid pariahs

To all intents and purposes, locked down in my area. Only essential shops open. Stay at home. No meeting up with anyone. Thank goodness Mr HKP is on leave so he doesnt need to commute to London central.

Added to the *fun* I just had an email from my grocery delivery today. No fruit and veg available to add to next week's order due to the border issues. Says they need to talk to suppliers. I might have to delve into the covid cupboard if they dont resolve it.

I actually think it is a good thing for countries to shut out flights from the UK. We need to work on this virus as a whole world community. And if govts won't work with their airlines to stop the flights, then other countries are smart to stop incoming flights.

We know this virus is spreading through travel. And why all govts are not working with their airlines, to support them while curbing the unnecessary flights, is beyond me.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

I actually think it is a good thing for countries to shut out flights from the UK. We need to work on this virus as a whole world community. And if govts won't work with their airlines to stop the flights, then other countries are smart to stop incoming flights.

We know this virus is spreading through travel. And why all govts are not working with their airlines, to support them while curbing the unnecessary flights, is beyond me.

I agree. I just wish we could stop flights coming in. Like yourselves, we're an island ofc so somehow it has crossed the seas to reach us.

 

[Cryptic]

Just highlights the ongoing entitlement mentality that has occurred over and over during this pandemic. Demonstrated by so many hypocrites, Governor Newsome, Mayor of Denver...

Meanwhile, people who take the virus seriously are hunkered down at home.

.... Nancy Pelosi and Dallas County's own Judge Jenkins who closed other businesses for as long as he could-but apparently considers his own Personal Injury business uhmm.... absolutely "vital" and never closed for either safety or solidarity.

What will really irritate me, is that these "important" folks will be primed to get the vaccine first. Of course. Because they are so essential.

You have a good point about important people and vaccines.

Color me cynical cinammon, but Doctor Birx knows the risks, but travelled to an "essential" multi generational reunion in Delaware (all the same household- wink, nod).

Did Birx know the reunion it would be safe because she had quietly 'n quickly arranged for her family to be given priority for vaccinations? Though this seems "Beyond the Pale" in the US, humans are humans and.... connections do matter.

 

[LadyL]

Litterally Just hours after I posted in this thread last. I was informed my grandmother died from covid. She had been in the hospital for a couple weeks in icu. She was actually finally released but passed just days later. She wasn’t able to beat covid. What’s worse is we were so close my entire life. Until just a few years ago ., so I never really got to say goodbye or have any closeurs. Now it’s hit me Hard. I have no remaining grandparents that’s seems so unfair. When once I was surrounded by them. What’s it going to take to be rid of this for good. ? It’s beginning to feel hopeless

so sorry for your loss
sending hugs from Canada

 

[LadyL]

Warning: Don’t break the COVID protocol rules in the Cayman Islands. You could end up in prison.
Georgia college student sentenced to 4 months in prison for breaking Cayman Islands' Covid-19 protocol

boohoo for her
don't feel sorry for her one bit

 

[pocketaccent]

Caution: guys, do not come near Los Angeles area. The air isn't safe to breathe..

LAUSD: 1 in 10 asymptomatic children tested positive for the coronavirus | KTLA

About 10% of asymptomatic children brought to L.A.-area campuses to get tested for the coronavirus over the past week were positive, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced Monday.
...
Among the adults who were tested the past week, 5% of those who did not report any COVID-19 symptoms or exposure tested positive, Beutner said.

 

[LadyL]

Oncologist fears 'tsunami of cancer' after COVID-19 lockdowns limited screening

Cancer specialists are worried the drop in cancer diagnoses means cases are going undetected and untreated

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/canc...YmTyqwAhrlV7mwmHgkbuAnZeuWpVPIgaYwydd37KrW-UE

 

[Yvettea]

So in retrospect, in 2015 not a single person got the answer right to, “Where do you see yourself five years from now?”
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