Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #95

[anneg]

Make room for me!

Me too! I'm good at doing tax returns! And I'd love to see Dixie's garden.

 

[Inthedetails]

Yes, we discussed this way back.

Would some places be prohibited during EUA to do such without lawsuits was discussed here over a year ago.

After EUA, I think they (governmental institutions and perhaps even private) would be shielded from such lawsuits, but some are frothing at the opportunity and $$$. I think that is why we are seeing law firms for liability suits come out like cockroaches now.... due to EAU vs. "approved" status which may not happen until next year.

And folks are seeing such law firms post such on FB etc and sharing on SM.

Glad not here!

Full approval is coming, probably before the start of the school year. I expect things to go fast after that with more and more schools, employers, etc. requiring proof of vaccine or immunity.

jmo

 

[anneg]

"Oregon State University announced on Tuesday that it will require COVID-19 vaccinations this fall for all students and employees who learn or work on-campus.

OSU is the first public university in Oregon to make such a decision. Private Oregon universities such as Lewis & Clark, University of Portland and Willamette University have made similar calls."

Oregon State University to require COVID-19 vaccines for students and employees

Good for OSU. DH is a grad, and he says "All right!"

Our older grandson is in college in CA and should be fully vaccinated with Moderna by now. Yay! I think our younger grandson will get his first shot next week.

 

[Inthedetails]

Good for OSU. DH is a grad, and he says "All right!"

Our older grandson is in college in CA and should be fully vaccinated with Moderna by now. Yay! I think our younger grandson will get his first shot next week.

Looks like CA is waiting for the full FDA approval. I don't have a link, but noticed something about CA waiting while I was looking at other college info today.

I really do sense a tidal wave of change is coming, where the covid vax will be required by schools as a standard.

jmo

 

[margarita25]

After a over a year of Dr. Sanjay Gupta doing the podcast, “Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction”, he is now changing up the format:

“For the first time in more than a year, many of us are imagining the next chapter of our lives. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is on a mission to help us approach our new normal mindfully as we balance self-care and productivity. We'll talk to doctors and researchers about the surprising science behind how we can thrive. It’s time to chase life again. New episodes starting May 11th.”

Introducing Chasing Life - Chasing Life - Omny.fm

‎Chasing Life: Introducing Chasing Life on Apple Podcasts

 

[margarita25]

WHO:
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): How is it transmitted?
Updated April 30, 2021

—

BC CDC updates website to acknowledge COVID-19 is spread by aerosols
May 5, 2021

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[LadyL]

and we think we have it bad ...

India Covid-19: In Goa state, one in every two people tested is positive - CNN

 

[MimosaMornings]

WHO:
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): How is it transmitted?
Updated April 30, 2021

—

BC CDC updates website to acknowledge COVID-19 is spread by aerosols
May 5, 2021

—

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

“Along with directly using the term aerosol, the updated language now that “Indoor accumulation is greater when more people share a space, spend more time together, or exercise, sing, shout, or speak loudly. These conditions can lead to COVID-19 transmission.”

I thought indoor activities had been reported as high risk and to be avoided from the beginning of the pandemic?

Or is it the word “aerosol” they are emphasizing now?

 

[Satchie]

and we think we have it bad ...

India Covid-19: In Goa state, one in every two people tested is positive - CNN

From the article in this link:

The positivity rate of over 50% is "suggesting a total lockdown may be needed to contain the spread of the virus."....

Maybe this will be kind of a science test about what happens if no lockdowns are imposed.

 

[ParkerParky]

Having had Covid, which has been proven to be deadly for people in all age ranges, I will take my chances on a vaccine that will help me avoid Covid again. At 75, I don’t have 12 years to wait for it to be proven perfectly safe, nor does the world IMO. There are risks to anything we do in the field of medicine. No drug is 100% safe. But we are in the midst of a global emergency and the vaccine has been approved on an emergency use basis. For me, the benefit of the vaccine outweighs its possible risk. I really don’t see people being bullied into taking the vaccine, unless you call it bullying for me to refuse to have close association with a friend who won’t be vaccinated. We all make choices in connection with the vaccine and should be willing to accept the consequences, whether imposed by a friend or an employer or a church or a school. JMO

well said.

 

[GRT]

I wanted to share this because--to me--it signifies resilience and the ability to make the best of the situation foisted on us this past year. Where there's a will, there's a way.

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[anneg]

WHO:
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): How is it transmitted?
Updated April 30, 2021

—

BC CDC updates website to acknowledge COVID-19 is spread by aerosols
May 5, 2021

—

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For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Here is an excellent, LONG opinion piece by brilliant UNC prof Zeynep Tufekci in the NY Times:
Opinion | Why Did It Take So Long to Accept the Facts About Covid?

Why Did It Take So Long to Accept the Facts About Covid?
May 7, 2021, 2:11 p.m. ET

A few sentences have shaken a century of science.

Last Friday, more than a year after the World Health Organization declared that we face a pandemic, a page on its website titled “Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19): How Is It Transmitted?” got a seemingly small update.

The agency’s response to that question had been that “current evidence suggests that the main way the virus spreads is by respiratory droplets” — which are expelled from the mouth and quickly fall to the ground — “among people who are in close contact with each other.”

The revised response still emphasizes transmission in close contact but now says it may be via aerosols — smaller respiratory particles that can float — as well as droplets. It also adds a reason the virus can also be transmitted “in poorly ventilated and/or crowded indoor settings,” saying this is because “aerosols remain suspended in the air or travel farther than 1 meter.”

The change didn’t get a lot of attention. There was no news conference, no big announcement.

But this latest shift challenges key infection control assumptions that go back a century, putting a lot of what went wrong last year in context. It may also signal one of the most important advancements in public health during this pandemic.

[major snip]

So much of what we have done throughout the pandemic — the excessive hygiene theater and the failure to integrate ventilation and filters into our basic advice — has greatly hampered our response. Some of it, like the way we underused or even shut down outdoor space, isn’t that different from the 19th-century Londoners who flushed the source of their foul air into the Thames and made the cholera epidemic worse.

Righting this ship cannot be a quiet process — updating a web page here, saying the right thing there. The proclamations that we now know are wrong were so persistent and so loud for so long.

It’s true that as the evidence piled on, there was genuine progress and improvement, especially as of late. Even before the change in language last Friday, for example, the W.H.O. published helpful guides on ventilation, first in July and updating it in March. Recently, though the organization’s documents have lagged, more of its officials have started giving advice compatible with aerosol transmission, emphasizing things like close mask fit — which matters little for droplet transmission — and ventilation — which matters even less. All this is good, but nowhere near enough to change the regulations and policy bundles that had already been put in place around the world.

[Snip]

So big proclamations require probably even bigger proclamations to correct, or the information void, unnecessary fears and misinformation will persist, damaging the W.H.O. now and in the future.

[Snip]

It [WHO] needs to begin a campaign proportional to the importance of all this, announcing, “We’ve learned more, and here’s what’s changed, and here’s how we can make sure everyone understands how important this is.” That’s what credible leadership looks like. Otherwise, if a web page is updated in the forest without the requisite fanfare, how will it matter?

 

[SouthAussie]

.
UK free of virus by August: vaccine chief

Departing vaccine task force chief Clive Dix .... told the Telegraph he expected everybody in the UK to have been vaccinated at least once by the end of July, by which time "we'll have probably protected the population from all the variants that are known".

The UK has administered more than 51 million vaccines and has been the second-quickest country to give a first dose to at least half its adult population.

 

[SBops]

I have already determined that I will not be traveling in the future to any other country. It’s sad but I simply cannot give up my freedom for a luxury.

What freedom is being taken from you by showing a vaccination record?

 

[SBops]

and we think we have it bad ...

India Covid-19: In Goa state, one in every two people tested is positive - CNN

If you have ever been to India, you would know why. It is so densely populated, social distancing and isolation is not possible.

 

[SouthAussie]

.
The World Has An Oxygen Problem

Oxygen is an essential medical treatment to save human lives. But, in recent weeks, it’s become clear just how vital it is as India reels from a deadly surge in COVID-19 cases. Express trains are racing across the country to deliver oxygen from the eastern town of Angul to the capital of Delhi and other regions. Meanwhile, desperate pleas fill social media from people forced to helplessly watch their family members slowly suffocate.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, medical oxygen shortages have struck hospitals in Brazil, Peru, Nigeria, Jordan, Italy, and beyond. In the United States, too, oxygen supplies at hospitals in New York City and California have run dangerously low at times. Combined with the crisis in India, these have now captured international attention.

 

[SouthAussie]

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has given its stamp of approval to China’s Sinopharm vaccine, the first jab developed by a non-Western country to obtain emergency authorisation.

The official tick offers a guideline to health regulators around the world that the drug is safe and effective and opens the door to it being shipped to poorer countries in the COVAX initiative.

A separate group advising the UN agency on vaccines said it was “very confident” the Sinopharm vaccine protected people ages 18-59.

WHO authorises emergency use of China's Sinopharm vaccine

 

[LadyL]

If you have ever been to India, you would know why. It is so densely populated, social distancing and isolation is not possible.

that's part of it yes - complicated by their lack of resources and poverty

 

[Satchie]

Proof of vaccination for travel is nothing new.

Exactly, many southern hemisphere countries require proof of yellow fever vaccine. Travellers just get the vaccine and go, no big deal. Just like you need to have a regular passport, and, for many countries, need to apply for a visa well in advance. It's been a few centuries since people could just roam across international borders as they please.

 

[LadyL]

The virus is an airborne threat, the C.D.C. acknowledges.