Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #89

[beatrixpotter]

I think it's important that other nations realise that only Tier 3 areas with a high percentage of the new variant detected have gone into the harsher Tier 4 rules.

Not all areas in Tier 3 (e.g. a vast proportion of northern England and the Midlands) have gone into Tier 4.

If the UK government had wanted to misleadingly use the variant as an excuse to backtrack on Christmas rules at this late stage, they would have put all Tier 3 areas into Tier 4 last night in my opinion.

It's only areas where this new variant is prevalent - London, and surrounding counties in the south east such as mine, Buckinghamshire, which is actually very rural - have been put into Tier 4.

I saw a comment on twitter about these lockdowns only in certain sections. It referred to it as being about as effective as having certain peeing sections in the pool. lol I think that sounds about right to me. No one has the balls to do what it's really going to take to put a decisive halt to spread.

Don't get me wrong, at least the UK is trying. My own governor is doing nothing and will probably do nothing unless there are bodies piling up in the streets or refrigerated morgue trucks rather. None of this truly helps as long as a significant portion of the population is still swapping air with plenty of other people and that's basically still happening everywhere even with restrictions. Some people working hard and others doing jack all and continuing the spread.

 

[HongKongPhooey]

I saw a comment on twitter about these lockdowns only in certain sections. It referred to it as being about as effective as having certain peeing sections in the pool. lol I think that sounds about right to me. No one has the balls to do what it's really going to take to put a decisive halt to spread.

Don't get me wrong, at least the UK is trying. My own governor is doing nothing and will probably do nothing unless there are bodies piling up in the streets or refrigerated morgue trucks rather. None of this truly helps as long as a significant portion of the population is still swapping air with plenty of other people and that's basically still happening everywhere even with restrictions. Some people working hard and others doing jack all and continuing the spread.

I know, its so annoying.

The challenge for us is that we're relatively small geographically. All those people leaving London last night were heading somewhere else. Trains packed, roads busy. It wont be possible to contain it unfortunately.

 

[astheworldfallsdown]

Gardaí break up gathering of 250 cars in breach of Covid-19 regulations

GARDAÍ BROKE UP an organised ‘car meet’ of more than 250 cars in Cork yesterday evening that breached Covid-19 regulations.

The gathering, which took place in Little Island, Cork, involved over 250 cars and around 700 to 800 people.

The guards said there was “little evidence of social distancing, wearing of face coverings, or general compliance with public health guidelines”.

 

[I'm Just Here]

I don't understand what that family wanting to catch Covid means by "we would like to SAFELY expose our family to Covid. What is meant by "safely" in a safe place? Whats the difference who or where they get Covid, Covid has no safe way to catch, geez. If they have children, that is abuse to put them in harms way isn't it?

 

[dmac55]

I really struggle with the difference between a mutation and a strain.

My thinking is that perhaps a mutation has a significant difference, but a strain has a little tweak.

Also, is it possible that the virus is mutating in the same way in different countries, and that each country is calling the (same) mutation something different, once they discover the mutation?

Re: mutation versus strain
You all got me curious so I looked it up and picked an article that makes me think I can loosely understand

Mutation:
A mutation is just a change
Epidemiologists are interested in tracking mutations even if they don’t alter the protein, says Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland. “But that doesn’t mean that it’s a new strain or that it’s a virus that behaves differently.”

Strain:
The term “strain” is “used very, very loosely by most scientists,” Hodcroft says. “There isn’t really a strict definition of the word ‘strain,’” particularly when talking about viruses. Experts might simply be referring to viruses that aren’t genetically identical — almost like discussing different people.

“Strains,” “variants” or “lineages” are all terms researchers might use to describe viruses that have identical or closely related strings of RNA."


Is the coronavirus mutating? Yes. Here’s why you don’t need to panic | Science News
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid19-mutations-strains-variants

I am left thinking a mutation is a change and a strain is a lineage
But like I said up top, I only *think* I understand

 

[ilovewings]

Photos from passengers onboard United fight show complete chaos among passengers | Daily Mail Online

Well, surprise surprise, a passenger lied when asked if he had symptoms of Covid-- well, said man gets very sick on the plane and other passengers come to his assistance, including performing CPR, but said man dies anyway. The article states the CDC has verified he did in fact have COVID--- So, said man and family knew they were putting all passengers at risk, but did they care? Of course they didn't, because ya know, they wanted to travel to where ever and they didn't give a fig about anybody else. That is about where we are in this country though hopefully most people would not do this: However, don't think for one minute that there are not other travelers with symptoms that are getting on those planes. I found the twitter comments interesting- at least one person who assisted this man now has Covid symptoms himself. Nice.

 

[LadyL]

Doctors took her off life support and told her family she only had hours to live. Instead, the Covid-19 patient smiled and tried to wave

 

[dmac55]

deleted by me

 

[I'm Just Here]

I think it is disrespectful and a shame for those hospital pictures of the boys room that died from Covid to be circulating. Give the family respect, they went through enough. No one needs to see what the professionals have to see. That will not help anyone change their mind about being safer, it only adds fear to some plus takes away the true compassion we feel for one losing a loved one. Pictures of blood or gore horror show are not needed as a visual circulating his last moments. This little boy can be visualized as a loving child that will be missed. I don't recall any picture of a room. from a traumatic death of a child that died from an accident etc... shame!

 

[ilovewings]

Doctors took her off life support and told her family she only had hours to live. Instead, the Covid-19 patient smiled and tried to wave

It is good to hear a positive story: perhaps the vent was making her worse

 

[LadyL]

Dr. Fauci Said the First Step to Returning to Normal is to Convince Everyone the Vaccine is Safe and Effective

With the science backing him, his next step is to get everyone to take it.

Dr. Fauci Says the Vaccine is the "Only Way" to End COVID-19

Dr. Fauci Just Said When We Get Back to "Normal"

 

[dmac55]

I think it is disrespectful and a shame for those hospital pictures of the boys room that died from Covid to be circulating. Give the family respect, they went through enough. No one needs to see what the professionals have to see. That will not help anyone change their mind about being safer, it only adds fear to some plus takes away the true compassion we feel for one losing a loved one. Pictures of blood or gore horror show are not needed as a visual circulating his last moments. This little boy can be visualized as a loving child that will be missed. I don't recall any picture of a room. from a traumatic death of a child that died from an accident etc... shame!

It was the mother.

"A Missouri mom hopes the sight of her dying son’s blood dripping down a hospital room wall will help Americans take COVID-19 seriously."

Mother shares bloody images of son's COVID-19 hospital room
https://nypost.com/2020/12/19/mother-shares-bloody-images-of-sons-covid-19-hospital-room/

 

[I'm Just Here]

Dbm

 

[KALI]

This is how it's spreading.

Joy-Anna Duggar hosts holiday bash as all the sisters attend EXCEPT Jill

I saw this, and cringed. Not one mask. Lucky Jill, for not being invited.

 

[mickey2942]

Missoula couple succumbs to COVID just shy of 59th anniversary

This is why we need to stay vigilant. We have a vaccine, but it came too late for these folks.

 

[anneg]

Doctors took her off life support and told her family she only had hours to live. Instead, the Covid-19 patient smiled and tried to wave

What a happy ending! I hope she will recover fully.

 

[anneg]

Missoula couple succumbs to COVID just shy of 59th anniversary

This is why we need to stay vigilant. We have a vaccine, but it came too late for these folks.

That's a sad but really good article about the couple and their family. Their son Jeff got Covid too--fortunately did not get as sick as his parents.

From the article:

Both Jeff and Wendy said they hope people will take the virus seriously so other families don’t have to go through what they did.

“I do think, wear a mask,” Wendy said. “It’s simple. It’s not that big of a deal. I know people get frustrated with it. But until it hits your family you don’t quite grasp how quickly it can pass from person to person.”

[snip]

Jeff said he’s dismayed sometimes when people on social media talk about masks as some sort of sign of weakness.

“They’re the same people that haven’t lost half their family,” he said. “Wear a mask. It doesn’t hurt anyone. It’s not about you, it’s about other people is what it’s about. Especially the most vulnerable. There have been 20-39-year-olds dying damn near as fast as 80-year-olds. I don’t get that whole thing, that they think it’s the government taking away freedoms. It’s ridiculous to me.”

 

[10ofRods]

It's only a shame he didn't take it as seriously as the UK government have, hundreds of thousands of lives could have been saved IMO.

Not quite true. The UK currently has a death rate approximately that of the US.

UK has had 990 deaths per 1 million of population; the US has had 975. Britain has done no better than the US in the statistic that matters most.

We've been running neck and neck in this thing all along. Sweden has done better, with 789 deaths per million of population. Their population was healthier on some main stats before the pandemic, so that's a partial explanation. UK doesn't publish its number of active cases, which would be interesting to compare.

It would be concerning to me, if I were British, that UK has had this higher death toll despite having fewer cases per capita. Something is amiss with early testing and medical interventions. There's way less press (almost no press) on the standard of care for COVID in British hospitals. I would assume the standard of care is the same all over UK.

If, btw, we just used stats from England and Wales, the numbers would be even more in favor of the US, because NI and Scotland have done pretty well. England has 1100 deaths per million people.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Cases – London Datastore

I just found the above data, which is more granular, but haven't had time to look at it. It may be of interest to some people here, though.

In short, the UK has not done a better job than the US, IMO. They are roughly the same.

 

[I'm Just Here]

This morning my daughter had to educate her 4 year old son what quarantine is. He was told that a friend mom to a one year old he knows has tested Covid positive. So he stated "yup, now she has to go to the cornfield" no clue why the little guy came up with that idea!

 

[Yesiamapirate]

This morning my daughter had to educate her 4 year old son what quarantine is. He was told that a friend mom to a one year old he knows has tested Covid positive. So he stated "yup, now she has to go to the cornfield" no clue why the little guy came up with that idea!

You know, to Corn-teen.