Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #94

[BayouBelle_LA]

Well, a bit of good news...I was afraid Texas was going to see a massive surge, but it appears their numbers are declining. The vaccinations have to be helping, plus, I think most people are still taking precautions.

Texas COVID numbers decrease 17 days after mask, other restrictions lifted

What a novel idea - letting people make their own decisions on the best way to protect themselves. All states need to open up. MOO

 

[margarita25]

Biden accelerates vaccination timeline but warns against 'reckless behavior'

Biden said at a briefing held at the White House. “New variants are spreading and, sadly, some of the reckless behavior we’ve seen on television over the past few weeks means that more new cases are to come in the weeks ahead.”

What television is he referring to?

President Biden speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Monday.

At the same time, he once again updated his own vaccination benchmarks, announcing that 20,000 local pharmacies would be empowered to administer the vaccines, bringing the total number of pharmacies giving shots to 40,000. His administration will also open what a White House news release described as “a dozen” mass vaccination sites across the nation.

I heard last night on Brian Williams that Biden is trying to get vaccination sites within 5 miles of 90% of Americans by April 19, iirc.

eta:
Biden says 90% of Americans will have access to vaccine site within 5 miles by April 19

When PPE ends up in nature:
Trapped in gloves, tangled in masks: Covid PPE killing animals, report finds

Ugggggghhhhhhhhhh, I had worried about this in the early days, the environmental effect....I can’t look.

Mr L and I have each gained at least 25 lbs above and beyond the 20 lbs we already had above normal. Ugh! On the other hand our hairdresser lost 50 lbs in the year since we had seen her! She’s in her 40’s so that helps, but she worked hard on her elliptical and ate better.

We just can’t get motivated. Food is comfort. Sigh.

It’s interesting how everyone is different - in the early days, I was too traumatized to eat, and had no appetite for about 3 months (al though I did OD on tater tots that one time, as some of you may remember ). My friends were coping with food and gaining weight, but I lost 30 lbs in the first few months. But later on, I gained back my appetite, and weight. I wouldn’t say my eating has changed all that much, but it’s the lack of activity, and as you mentioned motivation. Motivation was a challenge before this pandemic. I’m still working on it, and every day I swear to take that new stationary exercise bike out of the box that’s sitting by the front door, (and other infinite exercise props purchased on Amazon this year) and do at home yoga exercises. Maybe today will be the day lol. I’m really depressed about this. Everyone has lost things during this pandemic, and for me, while not comparable to some of what others have lost, one of the biggest losses was my yoga group class. It was my life.

<ModSnip>

 

[nhmemorymaker]

America!!

DeSantis vows to take executive action against 'vaccine passports'

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) vowed to take executive action this week banning "vaccine passports" that businesses and local governments could potentially require to show digital or physical proof of vaccination against COVID-19.

The Florida governor said during a Monday press conference that he would take action by "an executive function, emergency function" against vaccine passports and requested the Republican state legislature draft a bill forbidding such passports.

"We always said we wanted to provide it for all but mandate it for none," DeSantis said in Tallahassee. "And that was something that, while it was advised to take particularly if you're vulnerable, we were not going to force you to do it."

"It's completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply participate in normal society," he added.

DeSantis vows to take executive action against 'vaccine passports'

Seems to me, that State governments draft plenty of bills requiring the public to show proof of something or other.... so what is the issue?

Remember the movie Contagion??? That "vaccination wristband" allowed people freedom.

 

[nhmemorymaker]

this is my hood ya'll

New data shows COVID-19 pandemic now 'completely out of control' in Ontario, key scientific adviser says

Aren't you north of Michigan????
If so, It's one big circle of increased infections....

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Mr L and I have each gained at least 25 lbs above and beyond the 20 lbs we already had above normal. Ugh! On the other hand our hairdresser lost 50 lbs in the year since we had seen her! She’s in her 40’s so that helps, but she worked hard on her elliptical and ate better.

We just can’t get motivated. Food is comfort. Sigh.

oh i can relate....... i have learned so much from shows like The Great British Baking Show, and Nadia Cooks in this Pandemic.... it shows!!

 

[margarita25]

oh i can relate....... i have learned so much from shows like The Great British Baking Show, and Nadia Cooks in this Pandemic.... it shows!!

It’s sooo weird, nhm, I used to watch cooking shows every single day before the pandemic, Top Chef, Master Chef, and restaurant shows like Diners, Drive Ins and Dives & Beat Bobby Flay - however, I haven’t been able to watch a single one since the pandemic, because it reminds me in a sad way of how life used to be...

 

[nhmemorymaker]

Nations did not have to rely on 20:20 and they did have sets of rules to go by. The US had an excellent National Strategy for Pandemic Response. In fact, it was considered one of the world's best.

It was/is titled, "Playbook for Early Response to High Consequence Disease, Threats and Biological Incidents"

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819268/Pandemic-Playbook.pdf

America had the world's best pandemic response plan. Why did it fail?

But, at a critical time, the US leadership chose not to follow its own playbook. People, including political leaders, could not sort science from fantasy, expert from conspiracy.

Nigeria had a Pandemic Response and enacted it immediately. Although their population is huge, they have had 10 deaths per million. The US has had 1700 deaths per million.

I feel so frustrated and sad for those who died so needlessly. It is a great grief.

Isn't it just so painful... .. there are a lot of people who just accept our huge mistakes as "acceptable" or "normal".
Ohhhh how we could have brought the country together on this one.

There are still so many surprise yet to come.
This article today regarding Florida'a high number of covid Breakthrough cases (AFTER full vaccination) is making me really stew even more....

Volusia County has six documented breakthrough cases while Sumter County has six and Lake County has
26 cases, according to emails from each county’s spokesperson.

Dozens in Central Florida contract COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated

 

[WildOrchid]

This article is very disheartening. The vaccines are being touted as 100% effective in preventing hospitalization or death from symptoms. How is this happening (especially the hospitalized person in article)? Scientists aren’t just racing against the virus/variants. They’re also racing upstream against IMO misinformation. A year in and I’m still hearing ridiculousness every day. Maybe we are just past the good ol days when Americans had the desire or determination to stand together as one. I’m tired of division. I’m tired of conspiracy theories. I’m tired of relationships being torn asunder over political disagreements. And mostly I’m tired of watching people get sick every bleepin day. I’d scream but I’m too exhausted.

Isn't it just so painful... .. there are a lot of people who just accept our huge mistakes as "acceptable" or "normal".
Ohhhh how we could have brought the country together on this one.

There are still so many surprise yet to come.
This article today regarding Florida'a high number of covid Breakthrough cases (AFTER full vaccination) is making me really stew even more....

Volusia County has six documented breakthrough cases while Sumter County has six and Lake County has
26 cases, according to emails from each county’s spokesperson.

Dozens in Central Florida contract COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated

 

[margarita25]

What a novel idea - letting people make their own decisions on the best way to protect themselves. All states need to open up. MOO

Key word, “themselves”.

 

[LadyL]

Aren't you north of Michigan????
If so, It's one big circle of increased infections....

sorta
more Easterly

 

[LadyL]

a memory came up on my FB
one year ago Canada had 81 deaths in the entire country
now we're at 2,794,421

 

[MimosaMornings]

a memory came up on my FB
one year ago Canada had 81 deaths in the entire country
now we're at 2,794,421

 

[10ofRods]

Isn't it just so painful... .. there are a lot of people who just accept our huge mistakes as "acceptable" or "normal".
Ohhhh how we could have brought the country together on this one.

There are still so many surprise yet to come.
This article today regarding Florida'a high number of covid Breakthrough cases (AFTER full vaccination) is making me really stew even more....

Volusia County has six documented breakthrough cases while Sumter County has six and Lake County has
26 cases, according to emails from each county’s spokesperson.

Dozens in Central Florida contract COVID-19 after being fully vaccinated

Some of this is not so odd. The vaccines do not prevent COVID in everyone, but the big study of the almost 5000 healthcare workers and first responders shows that the ones who do get COVID (about 10%) are largely asymptomatic (as the woman quoted first in the above article also is). Only about 1% of those vaccinated are symptomatic, and of those almost none are hospitalized. Most of the symptomatic have the snifflers (meaning that the vaccine is doing its job before the virions get to their lungs).

None of the "breakthrough cases" has resulted in death and the article above doesn't even mention hospitalizations or serious symptoms - just the surprise people feel when their routine, work-related COVID tests come up positive.

They wouldn't have known they had it, otherwise. Except for the one person who "went to the hospital" out of concern (meanwhile the public health official maintains there have been no actual hospitalizations - so I take it to mean that the person, after learning they were positive, showed up in the ER out of an abundance of caution).

The vaccines seem to turn COVID-19 into a mild cold, IOW, for most people. There are a couple of very elderly people in Washington State who contracted COVID about 2 weeks after their second vaccine, so it is likely that people 85+ are not handling COVID in the same way as most of the people in the COVID trials and in the recently published 5000 person study. (all of them were under 70).

 

[LadyL]

Why Canada is suspending use of AstraZeneca vaccine in people under 55

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/canada-suspends-astrazeneca-vaccine-covid-19-1.5968657

 

[LadyL]

This article is very disheartening. The vaccines are being touted as 100% effective in preventing hospitalization or death from symptoms. How is this happening (especially the hospitalized person in article)? Scientists aren’t just racing against the virus/variants. They’re also racing upstream against IMO misinformation. A year in and I’m still hearing ridiculousness every day. Maybe we are just past the good ol days when Americans had the desire or determination to stand together as one. I’m tired of division. I’m tired of conspiracy theories. I’m tired of relationships being torn asunder over political disagreements. And mostly I’m tired of watching people get sick every bleepin day. I’d scream but I’m too exhausted.

I know it's like how much more can we take?

 

[LadyL]

I'm losing faith in my country.

Canada's nursing homes have worst record for COVID-19 deaths among wealthy nations: report

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/canada-record-covid-19-deaths-wealthy-countries-cihi-1.5968749?__vfz=medium=sharebar&fbclid=IwAR2LenvjbXNK3lysyfJ0m0I-i8z2PU5lSSDFMB15Eqi4XbHz7N_FCCyzf1o

 

[Inthedetails]

Ohhhh how we could have brought the country together on this one.

snipped

That, honesty, is the most painful part.

jmo

 

[MimosaMornings]

NC elementary school closes after 17 kids test positive for COVID, 95 in quarantine — The Charlotte Observer

 

[dspdenver]

.

 

[nightowl1975]

San Diego Teachers to Provide In-Person Instruction to Migrant Children before Public School Students

All this time, teachers, unions, and administrators of schools in California (and in other states as well) have insisted that in-person schooling is far too dangerous to contemplate. Yet...

I don’t get it it. At all.

If I had children in this district who hadn’t seen the inside of a classroom in over a year, yet the teachers clearly have no problem educating these unaccompanied minors in person, I just don’t know what I would do.