Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #104

[HongKongPhooey]

Surging here too. Really high and record numbers (for us).

Our (South Australia) state Premier has started doing daily pressers again. His main theme is "please stop moving around" "if you are not fully vaxxed or due for a booster, please get them now" "no, we are not doing any more free PCR testing so that you can travel".

He also re-introduced distancing and capacity restrictions a day or two ago.

NSW Health prioritises COVID testing for 'clinically urgent' cases as state records 11,201 infections

You have to feel for people working in the labs dont you. They cant have staffed up enough yet to deal with the onslaught. More hidden heroes of the pandemic.

 

[CharlestonGal]

It's disheartening but to be fair we do have one of the highest populations.

True. But we have more cases per million population and more deaths per million population (#19 for both) than nearly 200 other countries. Which has been the case from the beginning and I don't see that changing any time soon. jmo

 

[mickey2942]

I think that the data is skewed in the United States, on vaccination rates, Covid death rates...Covid contact tracing. And part of that is that no state is consistent in the way data is collected. Case in point, in Florida, if someone dies of Covid, but they "live" in New York, the data is not reported as a "Covid" death in Florida. Makes zero sense to me.

Same with vaccination, the rates may not be reported accurately in Arizona, due to high numbers of "snowbirds". If they got their vaccines at their place of residence in summer, the vaccination is recorded at that county, in Montana for example, not AZ.

As for Contact Tracing, that seems to be a simple, straight forward job...call people who were in contact to a positive case. But, it is based on the county that person resides in. So, you only call people in the domicile of your assigned county. If they are out of your "county", the information goes to county health department where that person resides. Who knows when they will get that information?

The mismanagement and misinformation of government agencies is staggering. INMO. And part of the problem in the United States. Data analysis is only as good as the data...

 

[jakat]

I’m really sorry about your family member. You don’t say if he was vaxxed or not, but either way, it’s a tragedy. My dh and I got covid last January, just before we were eligible for our vaccinations, despite being totally obsessive about precautions. And even now, vaccinated and boosted we are very cautious. We don’t want to go through it again. And being cautious is the “more” we can all do to protect ourselves…get our booster, wear KN95 or N95 masks, wash our hands and stay waaaaaay more than six feet away from people whenever possible. If each of us does our part, at least we will know we did the best we could and have a clear conscience about protecting others as well as ourselves. Wishing you well.

Yes, he was vaccinated, but I'm not sure if he had one shot or two shots. I doubt he ever got a booster. Once he was in the hospital, it was less than two weeks until he passed away.

My husband and I are very cautious, too. It's become a way of life for us as it has for millions of other people. My wish is for it to go away, but I don't think it will for several years, if ever.

 

[anneg]

And now for some GOOD NEWS from Dr. Peter Hotez:

https://twitter.com/PeterHotez/status/1475838044318183425

Prof Peter Hotez MD PhD
@PeterHotez

Here’s our official announcement from
@TexasChildrens
@BCM_TropMed
on our partnership with
@biological_e
to vaccinate the world beginning with this EUA in India

texaschildrens.org
Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine Covid-19 Vaccine Technology Secures...

 

[jakat]

IIRC the reason I responded to your initial post is because it expressed apprehension about getting a booster shot (sorry, I can't find the post that I initially responded to).

IMO keeping up with the booster shots is the 'more' we can do to protect ourselves. Enable our bodies to keep on learning how to enhance our immune systems to fight this virus.

The point of the vaccines and the boosters is to keep us alive, and not seriously ill, as the virus whips through our populations.

imo

I received my booster shot at the beginning of November. All 3 shots were Moderna. I'm thinking now I should have changed it up and had a Pfizer booster. The reason is because Moderna is giving only 1/2 dose, but I've heard to switch might be better. Who knows?

You could be thinking of my son's brother-in-law who now has omicron. He wasn't boosted. I wrote a post a couple of days ago but it was deleted because it wasn't in the post-vaccinated forum. There wasn't a current thread there.

 

[jakat]

On my unit we were wearing N95's, gowns and protective eye wear during delivery since the start of the pandemic. And some of us wore N95's during our entire shifts. It makes for a very long day.

You must be exhausted. I cannot imagine what you go through on a daily basis. God Bless You!

ETA Congratulations on your retirement!

 

[MimosaMornings]

COVID-19 variants will keep coming until everyone can access vaccines — National Geographic

 

[jakat]

Omicron is highly mutated, so vaccines don't work as well against it as against Delta or Alpha.
Two dose vaccine regimen has very low efficiency. Adding a booster helps, but still nowhere near 95%. Vaccines still help to prevent severe complications, but against infection, efficiency is a lot lower with Omicron.

Thank you!

As of today, he thinks he has it. He's still waiting for the tests to arrive in the mail and they should tomorrow. He'll know for sure soon.

 

[Arkay]

The CDC slashes estimates of omicron's prevalence in the U.S. — NPR

The gist: still more Delta, get vaccinated, wear masks. No joking around.

 

[anneg]

COVID-19 variants will keep coming until everyone can access vaccines — National Geographic

Good article, thanks for posting. Excerpt from the article:

...The best way to keep new variants from arising is thus to deny the virus the opportunity to spread and replicate. That can be done by social distancing, wearing masks, and testing—but the best weapon is widespread vaccination....

HOW VACCINATION SUPPRESSES VARIANTS

Vaccines have two main advantages: They save lives by preventing people from getting severely sick, and they help control viral replication. Breakthrough infections in vaccinated people tend to be mild, which means a sick person won’t exhale as much virus for as long as they would if they were unvaccinated. That gives the virus less time to replicate inside the body and fewer opportunities to multiply in the rest of the population.

 

[anneg]

The CDC slashes estimates of omicron's prevalence in the U.S. — NPR

The gist: still more Delta, get vaccinated, wear masks. No joking around.

Wow!

 

[mickey2942]

Wow!

From the article:
"The CDC had previously reported that as of Dec. 18, 73% of new cases were linked to omicron. But on Tuesday, the agency revised those figures, slashing that estimate to 23% – a 50-point drop, suggesting that while the new variant was on the rise, it was not infecting people at the rate the CDC had projected."

The credibility of this agency has tanked, INMO. If they did not know the information, why did they report the data? Just "guessing"?

 

[Arkay]

New CDC isolation guidelines raise concerns among health experts — NPR

Gist: many doctors and scientists feel that the new guidelines are not sufficient for public safety. However, the CDC director believes that we should be able to trust infected people to isolate for five days, and thereafter rigorously wear their masks for the next five days while they resume their normal activities.

My opinion: the once vaunted CDC is losing its grip. How can Dr. Wallensky believe that the general public can be “trusted” to adhere to these guidelines? It won’t happen, and I agree with the many public health doctors who believe this will lead to further spirals of disease.

 

[Deleted member 39678]

New CDC isolation guidelines raise concerns among health experts — NPR

Gist: many doctors and scientists feel that the new guidelines are not sufficient for public safety. However, the CDC director believes that we should be able to trust infected people to isolate for five days, and thereafter rigorously wear their masks for the next five days while they resume their normal activities.

My opinion: the once vaunted CDC is losing its grip. How can Dr. Wallensky believe that the general public can be “trusted” to adhere to these guidelines? It won’t happen, and I agree with the many public health doctors who believe this will lead to further spirals of disease.

We had to trust that infected people would isolate for 10 days so asking them to isolate for 5 days and then wear a mask is not a big leap in my opinion.

Whether the recommendation for isolation is 10 days or 5 days it's still up to those infected to agree to it and comply. JMO.

 

[nightowl1975]

We had to trust that infected people would isolate for 10 days so asking them to isolate for 5 days and then wear a mask is not a big leap in my opinion.

Whether the recommendation for isolation is 10 days or 5 days it's still up to those infected to agree to it and comply. JMO.

I agree. I think it’s possible it’s more likely some will isolate for 5 days, whereas they basically said screw it when it was 10 days. That’s just so impractical for the average working American.

I also think the new guidelines are much more about the fact that society as we know it is going to implode if essential workers are told they have to quarantine for 10 days. We cannot function from a staffing standpoint in healthcare with those guidelines if this spreads as quickly and thoroughly as we expect.

 

[nightowl1975]

From the article:
"The CDC had previously reported that as of Dec. 18, 73% of new cases were linked to omicron. But on Tuesday, the agency revised those figures, slashing that estimate to 23% – a 50-point drop, suggesting that while the new variant was on the rise, it was not infecting people at the rate the CDC had projected."

The credibility of this agency has tanked, INMO. If they did not know the information, why did they report the data? Just "guessing"?

This is terrible news.

Terrible in that it makes the CDC look completely incompetent… they should’ve clarified the 70%+ number last week with the HUGE caveat that current data at that point had a HUGE potential range of possible percentages for omnicron. But they didn’t. So now they just look foolish at best IMO.

But that’s not the worst part IMO. If this is true, it just means that we have sooooooo much further to go before omnicron fully takes over and peaks, before it eventually starts to decline. If we had genuinely already been at 70%+ last week, we would’ve been that much closer to a peak in omnicron cases. Apparently not so much.

 

[Cool Cats]

This is good news

Good news about omicron: It may pass quickly, pose small threat to vaccinated, experts say

Two pieces of good news about omicron to take into the new year: It may not be around for long, and people who are fully vaccinated don't need to worry, as long as they have a healthy immune system.

Because omicron is so incredibly contagious, medical experts say its peak isn't likely to last long.

It's already burned through South Africa since it was first identified the day before Thanksgiving and cases are falling there. In the week ending Dec. 26, the number of newly diagnosed had dropped nearly 36% from their peak a week earlier, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data.

If the Northeast, which has been battered by COVID-19's omicron variant over the past two weeks, follows the same pattern, it could see falling case rates as soon as mid-January, though since the U.S. is so large, it's likely to take time to move across the country, experts say.

The news is even better for people with the vaccine. Although two shots are not as protective against omicron as they were against previous variants, vaccination and boosting seems to make a big difference in people with a healthy immune system.

 

[ilovewings]

Just chiming in to say I am with ya’ll who are so frustrated and sick of the stupid people who are prolonging this pandemic. If everyone had just worn a dang mask and gotten vaccinated we could have starved this virus out by now and be back to normal. Before we had the vaccines (which are flat out an amazing scientific feat and I am SO grateful for them) if everyone had just worn the stupid mask when out and about we COULD have mostly been able to safely do the things we need to do (school, grocery shopping etc.) But no, we have a gigantic group of complete idiots who don’t like to be told what to do and think they know better than real doctors and scientists and FACTS.
This is a pandemic of stupidity, and in the future I think it will be clear that the stupids have thinned themselves out because at this point, they are the ones dying. Whatever. Sorry, but it’s the truth and it didn’t have to be. But the sad thing is there will of course still be casualties of people who did the right things. Older people, immunocompromised, babies. I’m just sick of it, because I want us all to be able to get back to life, and we’re all at the mercy of ignorant, selfish people.

I agree wholehearedly---this is a pandemic of stupidity!!!!

 

[tabitha111]

The unmasked elderly where I live do so because they are under the mistaken impression that the 3x vaxxed is enough. I believe it is just total ignorance not anything malicous (here in my community- outside of here well...).
We are required to wear masks on our bus that takes us out in town but some here do not even do that as the mask is "too hard to breathe in".
Also, this place is like high school again...peer pressure...if no one is wearing a mask, they don't want to labeled the local weirdo by wearing one (see: myself)
I get told I am smart here but no one dares to emulate me less they be thought strange. It's like high school in so many ways- who you sit and eat with, who you socialize with, who the social butterflys are who the introverts are....