Canada - Coronavirus COVID-19 #2

[Tadpole12]

Ontario reports 3,670 new COVID cases Tuesday - BradfordToday.ca

 

[Tadpole12]

'There's some smoke there': Michigan's worst-ever COVID-19 surge may be linked to Ontario, expert says | National Post


A look at the rare blood clot condition known as VIPIT - Pique Newsmagazine

"The case fatality of VIPIT is approximately 40 per cent, however that may decrease with increased awareness and early treatment."

 

[LadyL]

London, Ont., meat plant shut for 2 weeks amid COVID-19 outbreak affecting 82 workers

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/lond...qKxH8faWdgqfY317OMUkIEWIx-xMNBWB5w7TgxrYJV9jo

 

[LadyL]

Flu cases in Alberta disappear; research credits pandemic practices

Alberta flu season wraps up with zero reported cases

 

[margarita25]

Co-op to move to 'strict no mask, no entry policy'

COVID-19 Live Updates: News on coronavirus in Calgary for April 13 | Calgary Herald

(I like it - no shirts, no shoes, no service. Hopefully you won’t have barbaric people attacking and assaulting over such measures, as we had here in the States. Social responsibility, that’s what this should be all about, imo - after all, we ARE dealing with a dangerous and potentially deadly virus. Everybody should respect this and care about keeping everybody safe. This is what a civilized society is, not this coughing on people and creating violence over mask wearing, a simple piece of cloth after all. End rant.

—

• Kenney said Monday the province won’t ease public health restrictions again until rates of new daily cases and total active infections decline, as he predicted record-setting levels of COVID-19 spread in the province in the near future.
• ETA 2: OH OH
• • An expert investigating hate groups says a weekend gathering outside an Alberta church charged with violating COVID-19 regulations is exemplary of the increasing number of far-right groups and conspiracy theorists who’ve latched on to the anti-lockdown and anti-mask movement.

 

[deugirtni]

New Brunswick
3 vaccinated hospitalized COVID patients 'a bit surprising,' says epidemiologist

...clinical trial numbers are always more optimistic than real-life situations, he said, noting the COVID-19 vaccines were tested on only tens of thousands of people, and now they're being distributed to tens of millions of people globally.

So some hospitalizations were "bound to happen eventually," said Deonandan.

Three hospitalizations out of the more than 120,000 adult New Brunswickers who received at least one dose as of last week — or roughly 0.002 per cent — is about the rate he would expect, he said.

Deonandan anticipates a "vanishingly small number" of vaccinated people may also eventually die from COVID-19.
...
"What we have done a poor job of explaining is vaccines are not bulletproof vests." They're merely a mitigation tool.

And until we achieve so-called herd immunity, with between 70 and 90 per cent of the population inoculated to protect others who aren't immunized, they're the best one we've got.

"The message is, if you get vaccinated, your probability of anything bad happening to you, COVID-related, is now vanishingly small, but not zero."
...
On Tuesday, pressed for clarification on conflicting information, Department of Health spokesperson Bruce Macfarlane said the person received the first dose more than 14 days before the onset of symptoms, but the second shot was less than seven days prior to symptom onset.

"In this case the second dose is not considered active yet, so the person still has the equivalent of one dose protection," Macfarlane said in an email.

The other two people had received a single dose each — one of them more than 14 days before symptom onset and the other, less than 14 days prior, he said.
...
Deonandan said all vaccines have a failure rate. He pointed to the annual flu vaccine, which usually has an efficacy of 40 to 70 per cent.

"And yet we never complained when we got the flu vaccine and saw hey, some people got the flu," he said. "But, you know, people aren't afraid of the flu because we don't hear about the thousands who die every year of the flu."
...
Interpret numbers carefully

How we interpret and communicate the numbers is important, said Deonandan.

He offered as an example a high school of 100 people, where 99 of them are vaccinated against the measles with a vaccine that has a one per cent failure rate.

If an outbreak infects the one person who didn't get vaccinated and the one person whom the vaccine failed to protect, half of those two people were vaccinated.

"So you could look at that statistic and say, 'Oh, my God, I've got a 50-50 chance of getting measles if I got vaccinated," he said.

But that's incorrect. "You have a one per cent chance of getting measles if you got vaccinated. So it depends on how you view the numbers. This is really important."

A couple of months after more than half the population has been immunized, Deonandan expects the probability of community transmission will be so low that the vaccine failure rates will be "irrelevant."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-...spital-new-brunswick-epidemiologist-1.5983764

 

[LadyL]

Vaccinated Manitobans should be cautious while COVID-19 immunity builds after deaths reported: province

 

[rogue ant]

Vaccinated Manitobans should be cautious while COVID-19 immunity builds after deaths reported: province

Interesting. From your link, "None of the deaths have come from people who contracted COVID-19 more than 14 days after receiving their second dose." Gee, I guess it's just too damn bad for us that the bungled vaccine roll-out in this country means we have to wait FOUR MONTHS between doses.

 

[margarita25]

@otto, here is a new new snippet I just came across, article from BBC in January, to elaborate more on this discussion:

Alberta / P1:

That's a reality check! I now have my answers about what more transmissible and more deadly means. More transmissible means fewer virus particles are needed to make someone sick, and those few particles are capable of infecting multiple cells simultaneously. More deadly means a few days, rather than 3 weeks, between infection and death - for those unable to fight the virus.

Another thing, my friend cousin Otto, is that the “spike” attaches to the cells. (Eta also lungs specifically, I saw on a recent video jmo, can’t remember which one):

Very quick reference:

Altered spike protein makes SARS-CoV-2 variants more infectious - Boston Children's Answers
March 21, 2021

“The mutation, they found, makes the spikes more stable than those on the original virus. As a result, more functional spikes are available to bind to our cells’ ACE2 receptors, making the virus more infectious.“

This is how new Covid-19 variants are changing the pandemic
Jan. 7, 2021

“Included within this tiny piece of genome, however, were the instructions that altered a key part of the virus – its spike protein. This important protein studs the outside of the coronavirus and is the part that attaches to the outside of cells, helping the rest of the virus to sneak inside where it can replicate.

This change to Covid-19's spike protein meant it could hijack an enzyme found in the human body called furin. This enzyme acts like a pair of molecular scissors, normally cutting open hormones and growth factors to activate them. But when furin snips part of the Covid-19 spike protein, which is normally folded in a series of loops on the outside of the virus, it opens like a hinge.

"This exposes a new sequence in the spike protein," says Yohei Yamauchi, a reader in viral cell biology at the University of Bristol, UK, who has been studying how this change may have led Covid-19 to become more infective in humans. "It is one of the changes that make this virus really different from previous coronaviruses that caused Sars and Mers."

This new mutation meant Covid-19 could suddenly latch onto an important molecule found scattered around the outside of human respiratory cells called Neuropilin 1. This molecule helps to transport material inside cells and deeper into tissues – the mutation was like handing Covid-19 the keys to a new door into our cells and meant the virus could replicate in greater numbers in the human airways.

Although this mutation was just one in Covid-19's short existence, it proved to be important. Some researchers believe it may be one of the key mutations that allowed the coronavirus to jump species and begin causing a rapidly spreading disease in humans. But almost as soon as it did this, it began picking up other mutations.“

—

Eta / also @otto, not sure if you’ve seen this thread, but you may find it of interest, I certainly do lol:

SARS-CoV-2 Variants - Coronavirus COVID-19 **NO DISCUSSION**

*It barely taps the surface, and I took some weeks off the thread, but I believe it’s a good crash course. It also has has links and resources re: genomic surveillance, tracking, etc.

 

[LadyL]

Fully vaccinated but still in lockdown, long-term care resident says she's treated 'less than human'

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sask...G2ZuaQdIRG5U26c1L_BS4Nm5jhed0np6ns_Y7KSBaOwg4

 

[LadyL]

A million vaccines in freezers: Ontario defends ‘buffer’ as thousands of appointments cancelled

 

[Tadpole12]

Ontario reports 4,156 new COVID cases Wednesday - OrilliaMatters.com

 

[margarita25]

All Ontario: Case numbers and spread
Graphs and tables of COVID-19 data by status, spread, age and gender.

Overview of cases
Last updated: April 14, 2021 at 10:29 a.m. (EST)

 

[otto]

Vaccinated Manitobans should be cautious while COVID-19 immunity builds after deaths reported: province

I wonder what this means. If 24 people had the first dose, waited somewhere between 4-16 weeks, then received the second dose, how did 24 of those people get sick and 3 end up in hospital?

Did they assume that the covid vaccine is like other vaccines, where they had full immunity? I wonder whether global stats are similar, where some people are still hospitalized with covid after their second dose of the vaccine.

"Of those who had received their second dose, 24 were infected within 14 days of getting their second shot. Three of those people were hospitalized."
​

Vaccinated Manitobans should be cautious while COVID-19 immunity builds after deaths reported: province

 

[otto]

@otto, here is a new new snippet I just came across, article from BBC in January, to elaborate more on this discussion:

This is how new Covid-19 variants are changing the pandemic
Jan. 7, 2021

“Included within this tiny piece of genome, however, were the instructions that altered a key part of the virus – its spike protein. This important protein studs the outside of the coronavirus and is the part that attaches to the outside of cells, helping the rest of the virus to sneak inside where it can replicate.

This change to Covid-19's spike protein meant it could hijack an enzyme found in the human body called furin. This enzyme acts like a pair of molecular scissors, normally cutting open hormones and growth factors to activate them. But when furin snips part of the Covid-19 spike protein, which is normally folded in a series of loops on the outside of the virus, it opens like a hinge.

"This exposes a new sequence in the spike protein," says Yohei Yamauchi, a reader in viral cell biology at the University of Bristol, UK, who has been studying how this change may have led Covid-19 to become more infective in humans. "It is one of the changes that make this virus really different from previous coronaviruses that caused Sars and Mers."

This new mutation meant Covid-19 could suddenly latch onto an important molecule found scattered around the outside of human respiratory cells called Neuropilin 1. This molecule helps to transport material inside cells and deeper into tissues – the mutation was like handing Covid-19 the keys to a new door into our cells and meant the virus could replicate in greater numbers in the human airways.

Although this mutation was just one in Covid-19's short existence, it proved to be important. Some researchers believe it may be one of the key mutations that allowed the coronavirus to jump species and begin causing a rapidly spreading disease in humans. But almost as soon as it did this, it began picking up other mutations.“

—

Eta / also @otto, not sure if you’ve seen this thread, but you may find it of interest, I certainly do lol:

SARS-CoV-2 Variants - Coronavirus COVID-19 **NO DISCUSSION**

*It barely taps the surface, and I took some weeks off the thread, but I believe it’s a good crash course. It also has has links and resources re: genomic surveillance, tracking, etc.

Thank you! Curious to learn more about the big picture of covid.

 

[deugirtni]

I wonder what this means. If 24 people had the first dose, waited somewhere between 4-16 weeks, then received the second dose, how did 24 of those people get sick and 3 end up in hospital?

Did they assume that the covid vaccine is like other vaccines, where they had full immunity? I wonder whether global stats are similar, where some people are still hospitalized with covid after their second dose of the vaccine.

"Of those who had received their second dose, 24 were infected within 14 days of getting their second shot. Three of those people were hospitalized."
​

Vaccinated Manitobans should be cautious while COVID-19 immunity builds after deaths reported: province

It seems to be a crummy article, since it doesn't seem to state the 'whole' numbers, ie 24 out of how many having received their second doses were infected within 14 days, and after 14 days?

They say it takes two weeks for immunity to take effect (for each shot).. so in essence, those 24 were more like they had only had one shot, before getting Covid.

"According to provincial health data, as of April 9, 162 people who had received their first dose were infected within 14 days of getting the shot. Twelve of those were hospitalized and four died.
...
As of April 9, 111 people who had received their first dose were infected at 14 least days after the shot. Nine of those were hospitalized and six died."

So as of April 9th, 162 people (out of how many - article says 'hundreds of thousands'??) were infected before their bodies had the chance to gain immunity, 12 of whom were hospitalized and 4 of those died. Meanwhile as of the same date, 111 additional people were infected after their first shot HAD the appropriate time to take effect, 9 of whom were hospitalized, and SIX died. I hate it when ... reporters(????) take some report and present the numbers in such a way as to create panic and fear, instead of just reporting a condensed version of the facts, like ALL of them, including how many were immunized provincially in *total* at that date, both single shot and both shots, and how old were the people who died and were hospitalized, and what other afflictions did these people have, and how far apart were the two shots, and did any of these people have any immunity issues that would make it more difficult for them to become immune, etc. imo.

 

[LadyL]

COVID-19 variants: Not the same disease

 

[LadyL]

Tensions flare as Oshawa bylaw officer tries to shut down large gathering

 

[musicaljoke]

Interesting. From your link, "None of the deaths have come from people who contracted COVID-19 more than 14 days after receiving their second dose." Gee, I guess it's just too damn bad for us that the bungled vaccine roll-out in this country means we have to wait FOUR MONTHS between doses.

Now, now. Your brief wait allows one more person to be vaccinated. And who knows, perhaps when you get your second dose, it will include better protection against the variants.

 

[otto]

I know people who are jumping the queue to get the vaccine by declaring that they are care givers - truth is that have a parent in a care facility whom they visit when possible.