Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #95

[GRT]

COVID-19 was likely present in Massachusetts in December 2019, new study says
More at link
A new study from the National Institutes of Health suggests that COVID-19 may have present in Massachusetts as early as December 2019.

It makes sense to me that the virus was here in December. With international travel the way it was--and maybe still is--I can't see any reason to think the virus wasn't jumping across the globe by then.

I think it was January 2020 when my sister got so sick. She's a national Hospice nurse and both she and another nurse got sick after a trip to Atlanta. International hubs like Hartsfield-Jackson have travelers coming and going from all places in the world. No one was taking precautions at that point.

I remember thinking her illness sounded a lot like the one they were talking about in China, but of course, there were no tests for it here at that point. She self-isolated and no one else caught it, but we've discussed it a number of times. Plus, she'd had her flu shot.

Flying seems to be one of the easiest ways to spread a virus because everyone on the plane is breathing recycled air. And, the cabin is so small and people are so close to one another.

I think we'll be learning about this virus for years to come, and my hope is that we'll learn how to quickly take steps to prevent another one from doing this.

 

[GRT]

As the US lifts restrictions and holds celebrations, people in South Africa, India, and elsewhere are still dying in large numbers.

I remember last summer when the heat (they said) caused a slowdown in transmission. Maybe summer is our friend.

I'm thankful we have the vaccine now, and I hope by fall we'll have a large enough number vaccinated that we don't see a surge in variants.

Where COVID-19 Cases Are Rising and Falling

 

[Skigh]

Nursing centre workers will be told to get a Covid vaccine... or risk losing their job | Daily Mail Online

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Nursing centre workers will be told to get a Covid vaccine... or risk losing their job | Daily Mail Online

This is going to set the cat among the pigeons!

 

[Sundog]

Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace | Occupational Safety and Health Administration

June 10, 2021, OSHA updated its guidance for employers and employees

“Except for workplace settings covered by OSHA's ETS and mask requirements for public transportation, most employers no longer need to take steps to protect their workers from COVID-19 exposure in any workplace, or well-defined portions of a workplace, where all employees are fully vaccinated. Employers should still take steps to protect unvaccinated or otherwise at-risk workers in their workplaces, or well-defined portions of workplaces. “


This will be interesting in the fall. Many faculty want to continue to teach online, but in Ohio, universities are going back to normal classroom protocols, in-person classes with no social distancing, so there will be some very large classes. Anyone who is not vaccinated is supposed to wear a face covering, but it is an honor system for students. Also, university policy is such that you aren't able to ask people about their vaccine status due to medical confidentiality and HIPPA laws related to students.

And the new OSHA guidelines absolve employers from any responsible to take any precautions for vaccinated employees.

 

[ilovewings]

Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace | Occupational Safety and Health Administration

June 10, 2021, OSHA updated its guidance for employers and employees

“Except for workplace settings covered by OSHA's ETS and mask requirements for public transportation, most employers no longer need to take steps to protect their workers from COVID-19 exposure in any workplace, or well-defined portions of a workplace, where all employees are fully vaccinated. Employers should still take steps to protect unvaccinated or otherwise at-risk workers in their workplaces, or well-defined portions of workplaces. “


This will be interesting in the fall. Many faculty want to continue to teach online, but in Ohio, universities are going back to normal classroom protocols, in-person classes with no social distancing, so there will be some very large classes. Anyone who is not vaccinated is supposed to wear a face covering, but it is an honor system for students. Also, university policy is such that you aren't able to ask people about their vaccine status due to medical confidentiality and HIPPA laws related to students.

And the new OSHA guidelines absolve employers from any responsible to take any precautions for vaccinated employees.

Honor system? they're joking right?

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

FL Gov. Ron DeSantis pardons Floridians who violated local COVID restrictions | WFLA

TAMPA (WFLA) – Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state clemency board pardoned all Floridians who were arrested or fined for violating local COVID restrictions.

“This action is necessary so that we can recover, have a good transition to normal operations, and also just a recognition that a lot of this stuff was way, way overboard,” DeSantis said.

 

[SouthAussie]

On a sweltering April night in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat, Shayar Rawal rode his motorbike to a COVID-designated government hospital at 11:55 p.m. Over the next 24 hours, he had just one task: to count the number of dead bodies being brought to the mortuary.

Rawal—a reporter at the Gujarati daily newspaper Divya Bhaskar—counted four deaths in the first hour. Grieving relatives collected five more dead bodies in the next hour. When the number reached 100, he says, reality sunk in.

“I knew the government was hiding numbers, but this was way more than what I had expected,” Rawal says.

Officially, the city recorded just 15 COVID-19 deaths that day. But by the end of his vigil, Rawal had counted 112 bodies—and that was just the dead from one city hospital.

Will we ever know the real death toll of the pandemic?

 

[ringbearer]

On a sweltering April night in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat, Shayar Rawal rode his motorbike to a COVID-designated government hospital at 11:55 p.m. Over the next 24 hours, he had just one task: to count the number of dead bodies being brought to the mortuary.

Rawal—a reporter at the Gujarati daily newspaper Divya Bhaskar—counted four deaths in the first hour. Grieving relatives collected five more dead bodies in the next hour. When the number reached 100, he says, reality sunk in.

“I knew the government was hiding numbers, but this was way more than what I had expected,” Rawal says.

Officially, the city recorded just 15 COVID-19 deaths that day. But by the end of his vigil, Rawal had counted 112 bodies—and that was just the dead from one city hospital.

Will we ever know the real death toll of the pandemic?

I'd like to see how this number compares with the typical daily deaths in India. Thousands and thousands of people die there every day...always.

 

[SouthAussie]

I'd like to see how this number compares with the typical daily deaths in India. Thousands and thousands of people die there every day...always.

Pre-covid, India's typical death rate was about 7.23 deaths per 1,000 people.

During covid, India's death rate is now 274 per 1,000,000 people from covid alone.
And the current covid death rate is severely under-reported, as various people have been trying hard to show - like the journo in the link I posted.

India - death rate 2008-2018 | Statista
COVID Live Update: 177,842,616 Cases and 3,849,768 Deaths from the Coronavirus - Worldometer

(I think I have done that maths right @CoverMeCagney ? ETA forget it, I can't do the maths because all I have is the covid death stat for recent times. It does not include typical deaths, and is under-reported.)

 

[GRT]

FL Gov. Ron DeSantis pardons Floridians who violated local COVID restrictions | WFLA

TAMPA (WFLA) – Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state clemency board pardoned all Floridians who were arrested or fined for violating local COVID restrictions.

“This action is necessary so that we can recover, have a good transition to normal operations, and also just a recognition that a lot of this stuff was way, way overboard,” DeSantis said.

I was never on board with arresting anyone who didn't comply, unless they acted out violently.

 

[GRT]

Pre-covid, India's typical death rate is about 7.23 deaths per 100,000 people.

During covid, India's death rate is now 27.4 per 100,000 people.

India - death rate 2008-2018 | Statista
COVID Live Update: 177,842,616 Cases and 3,849,768 Deaths from the Coronavirus - Worldometer

(I think I have done that maths right @CoverMeCagney ?)

That would mean the death rate from Covid in India is 2.74%.

That's pretty darned high. And, had the vaccine not been coming out, it almost certainly would have been higher.


ETA -- also, India's normal death rate would be 0.00723%.

That's a huge difference.

 

[GRT]

I'm guessing we'll be seeing more of this in the near future...

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey issued an executive order on Tuesday that prohibits public universities and community colleges from requiring students to get COVID-19 vaccines or show proof of vaccination to attend class.
​

Universities can't require vaccines: Arizona governor's executive order

 

[CoverMeCagney]

That would mean the death rate from Covid in India is 2.74%.

That's pretty darned high. And, had the vaccine not been coming out, it almost certainly would have been higher.


ETA -- also, India's normal death rate would be 0.00723%.

That's a huge difference.

No, it’s not 2.74%.

274 deaths per million
= 0.0274 per 100


Much lower than the U.K. or USA which stands at approx 1850 per million = 0.185 per 100. Our rate of death is roughly 6 times as many as India’s, per capita.

 

[SouthAussie]

No, it’s not 2.74%.

274 deaths per million
= 0.0274 per 100


Much lower than the U.K. or USA which stands at approx 1850 per million = 0.185 per 100. Our rate of death is roughly 6 times as many as India’s, per capita.

And I had to edit my previous post as I was trying to compare apples with oranges. A typical year as compared with covid deaths only.

As has been shown, their covid rate for even one night was severely under-reported (there is a lot of politcal stuff going on there) so I cannot even begin to imagine what their real current covid death rate is.

It is obviously very bad if they are reporting thousands of covid deaths each day (now over 1400 covid deaths per day) and that reporting is a fraction of what is actually happening.

There is just no minimising what is happening there.

 

[SouthAussie]

I was never on board with arresting anyone who didn't comply, unless they acted out violently.

I was under the impression that they received tickets/fines for non-violent infractions.

I wish they would fine some (more) people here. We recently had a couple who drove from Melbourne through Victoria then the entire state of NSW and on to Queensland - during Melbourne's lockdown when they were supposed to stay home - and were covid positive when they arrived in Queensland.

Nothing like carrying the virus around and potentially spreading it at every stop along the long journey.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

And I had to edit my previous post as I was trying to compare apples with oranges. A typical year as compared with covid deaths only.

As has been shown, their covid rate for even one night was severely under-reported (there is a lot of politcal stuff going on there) so I cannot even begin to imagine what their real current covid death rate is.

It is obviously very bad if they are reporting thousands of covid deaths each day (now over 1400 covid deaths per day) and that reporting is a fraction of what is actually happening.

There is just no minimising what is happening there.

I imagine due to the sheer chaos going on there, that we are not getting a true true number for India. So many have died out of hospital, and god knows how many ended up in the Ganges or on a hasty funeral pyre.

 

[Gibbo214]

I was under the impression that they received tickets/fines for non-violent infractions.

I wish they would fine some (more) people here. We recently had a couple who drove from Melbourne through Victoria then the entire state of NSW and on to Queensland - during Melbourne's lockdown when they were supposed to stay home - and were covid positive when they arrived in Queensland.

Nothing like carrying the virus around and potentially spreading it at every stop along the long journey.

And took the boring, longer inland route to avoid testing centres on the Qld border, risking infecting inland towns who had been safe.

 

[Gibbo214]

I imagine due to the sheer chaos going on there, that we are not getting a true true number for India. So many have died out of hospital, and god knows how many ended up in the Ganges or on a hasty funeral pyre.

Unless you have been to India, you cannot imagine the sheer crush of humanity.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Unless you have been to India, you cannot imagine the sheer crush of humanity.

I have, and I agree. Just about the only place I got a huge culture shock!