26251 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says 87% of COVID-19 cases in Canada have recovered. More than 4,319,000 people have been tested to date. Over the last week, an average of 48,360 people were tested each day, with 1% testing positive.

[spanky123]

I don't really buy the media but when I talk to people who are in Phoenix and Houston I'm told some hospitals are full and patients are redirected elsewhere. I'm certainly not buying much of your analysis.   So to me they are reliable sources so maybe go down there yourself if you think that life there is normal.  It's fine for you to say you don't believe something until you read what you like to hear and it's also ok that you are very wrong..  Keep the wheels spinning.

 

Yep, happens all of the time with natural disasters as well. Patients get redirected based on availability of services.

 

I haven't seen any football fields filling up with dead bodies though or hospitals with patients on ventilators in the lunch room and closets. What was the forecast 50M US dead?

 

Speaking of ventilators, I wonder where the 60,000 we bought for $1.2B went, landfill anyone?

 

I get it, fear and anxiety lead to profit and greed.

[Ismo07]

Yep, happens all of the time with natural disasters as well. Patients get redirected based on availability of services.

 

I haven't seen any football fields filling up with dead bodies though or hospitals with patients on ventilators in the lunch room and closets. What was the forecast 50M US dead?

 

Speaking of ventilators, I wonder where the 60,000 we bought for $1.2B went, landfill anyone?

 

I get it, fear and anxiety lead to profit and greed.

 

There were some early guestimations of silly numbers (not sure 50M was ever that number)  that Trump likes to take as fact so he can spout about how many lives he has saved.  I'm not sure this happens all the time and this is still on-going, not really slowing down as is being spouted out.  I never understand the argument of 'well it's not as bad as originally forecasted before we knew much'.  Over 1,000 dead a day and over 50,000 infected found per day in the US alone.  I'm not sure how much worse it needs to be for it to be understood as something quite serious.  Latest info on the explosion in Beirut is 150 or so dead, more than that have died daily in Texas for the last couple of weeks.  No big deal because not every hospital room is being used?  No big deal cause they are well below the early guess work from March?  

 

I'm not sure we were really speak of ventilators but I'm not sure they have a short shelf life so likely they are being stored, if not used, in case things ramp up again.  It's not always about fear but about preparation.

 

While not a football field being used here is something.  This is a month ago now but for many states it's worse yet.

https://www.ajc.com/...hxmOEfIwVK0CzO/

Edited by Ismo07, 07 August 2020 - 12:01 PM.

[todd]

They are playing this bc transit propaganda ad a lot: https://youtu.be/xrDkkRAHu3M

[amor de cosmos]

The months when British Columbia could pat itself on the back for dealing with COVID-19 better than nearly any other place in Canada or the entirety of the United States has come to an end.

In the past month, the number of daily active cases in the province has quadrupled from about 10 a day to more than 40. The number of active cases has more than doubled, reaching levels not seen since May. Outbreaks are now widespread enough to require the self-isolation of more than 1,500 British Columbians. There are now more active cases per capita in B.C. than Ontario.

In other words, it's not good.

"The province, back in June and July, was right on the knife edge," said Daniel Coombs, a University of British Columbia mathematician who has been helping the provincial government with its modelling for COVID-19 since the outbreak began.

"It turned out that it didn't take much of a spark ... to ignite a fire."

https://www.cbc.ca/n...surge-1.5679225
 

The UK lockdown killed two people for every three whose deaths had been caused by coronavirus by the beginning of May, new Government figures suggest.

The estimates show that 16,000 people had died through missed medical care by May 1, while coronavirus killed 25,000 in the same period.

The figures include 6,000 people who did not attend A&E at the height of lockdown because of fears they might catch the virus and the feeling they should remain at home because of the "Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives" message.

Likewise, 10,000 people are thought to have died in care homes due to early discharge from hospital and not being able to access critical care.

The report also found that 2,500 lives may have been saved during lockdown because of healthier lifestyles, fewer infectious diseases in children, falls in air pollution and a decrease in road deaths.

The new figures – presented to the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) in the middle of July – were calculated by the Department of Health, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the Government Actuary's Department and the Home Office.

The paper also estimates that a further 26,000 people could die by next month because of the healthcare restrictions.

In total, researchers predict that 81,500 people could lose their lives in the next 50 years through waiting longer for non-urgent elective care and the impact of the recession caused by the virus crisis.

https://www.telegrap...ed-coronavirus/
https://sputniknews....nt-report-says/

Ireland on Friday announced new localised lockdown measures in three counties following an increase in coronavirus cases.
The counties of Kildare, Laois and Offaly, to the west of Dublin, will operate under the new rules for at least two weeks.
https://medicalxpres...irus-cases.html
 

It has come to my attention that all over Florence, Italy are these cute little things called buchetta del vino, which means "wine window" in English.

Back in the day, rich Italians who owned vineyards would sell their wines directly to customers through a tiny window in the wall.

But in the 1630s, the wine windows got really good use because of the Black Death. It was a way to sell socially distanced wine and hopefully not catch the literal plague.

https://www.buzzfeed...ly-wine-windows

A recent reportage by CNN’s Moscow-based correspondent Matthew Chance was billed by the channel as an expose to “investigate” Russia’s “claim of a cutting-edge virus response”, as the world eagerly awaits the coronavirus vaccine that is set to be unveiled by Russian scientists next week.

But strangely, Chance’s report featured an interview with Anastasia Vasilyeva, an ophthalmologist who has actually little to do with the development of the soon-to-be-registered vaccine, but a lot to do with Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, while being an outspoken critic of the country’s anti-coronavirus policies.

Vasilyeva is a leading light in the “Doctor’s Alliance”, an entity that exists under the umbrella organization of convicted felon Navalny, a self-described anti-corruption campaigner, who was previously sentenced to several terms in jail on embezzlement and fraud charges, as well as holding numerous unlawful rallies.

In a reportage titled “Russia claims rapid advances in testing & vaccine”, Vasilyeva questioned the safety and effectiveness of the upcoming vaccine, claiming that Russian scientists “did not do the necessary investigation” before its use. “They just want to say ‘we are the first’”, she said, citing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s personal ambitions and the need to present himself as the world’s “best” politician as a reason for such speed. And according to the CNN’s interviewer concluding remarks, Chance was eager to present Vasilyeva's arguments as the final word and absolute truth on the matter.

*snip*

The organization, which is now a part of "Trade Union of Navalny" umbrella association, exists based on private donations and contributions from its members and is fully “independent”, according to Vasilyeva. However, a deeper analysis of the union’s financial statements by an online investigator showed that it previously received funding from Russian commercial and non-profit organizations, dating back at least as far as 2018, when it was founded. The figures (or their absence) mentioned in the financial records raised some eyebrows, while the total number of the union’s members and lack of information on its regional branches remain obscure to those analysts who have tried to dig out more details about the alliance through Russia’s official register of legal entities.

https://sputniknews....vid-19-vaccine/

more about excess deaths

The coronavirus pandemic has killed so many Americans that the patterns of death in nearly every state look aberrant when compared to recent history. A New York Times analysis of estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows just how many lives are being lost in the pandemic, as some people die from the virus itself and others from the upheaval it has brought.

Nationwide, 200,700 more people have died than usual from March 15 to July 25, according to C.D.C. estimates, which adjust current death records to account for typical reporting lags. That number is 54,000 higher than the official count of coronavirus deaths for that period. Higher-than-normal death rates are now widespread across the country; only Alaska, Hawaii, Maine and West Virginia show numbers that look similar to recent years.

Our analysis examines deaths from all causes — not just confirmed cases of coronavirus — beginning in mid-March when the virus took hold. That allows comparisons that don’t depend on the availability of coronavirus tests in a given place or on the accuracy of cause-of-death reporting. What it shows is that some places have seen staggering death tolls, while a few states have experienced fewer deaths, but enough to clearly differentiate this year from a typical one.

lots of graphs
https://www.nytimes....th-toll-us.html
 

According to a recent survey of government data, Americans are continuing to renounce their citizenship at the highest levels on record since 2016.

5,816 Americans gave up their passports in the first six months of 2020, thus presenting an over ten-fold spike from the last six months of 2019, when 444 citizens relinquished their citizenship, according to research by the Enrolled Agents and Bambridge Accountants New York.

2,072 Americans gave up their citizenship in 2019 in total.

The surge in renunciations during the first half of 2020 also breaks a previous record set in 2016, when 5,409 Americans gave up their citizenship over the course of the year, which was itself a 26 percent jump from figures registered in 2015.

The new data compiled by Bambridge Accountants and drawn from the Federal Register does not offer the reasons motivating citizens to give up their passports, yet Alistair Bambridge, partner at Bambridge Accountants New York, was cited by PRNewswire as suggesting that the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the “huge turnaround” of US expats renouncing.

https://sputniknews....t-surveys-show/
 

The responsibility for balancing public health and an economic recovery has fallen on state governments. Some states, such as Massachusetts, New York and Washington, chose to go slow with lengthy stay-at-home orders and a gradual reopening. Others, such as Florida, Georgia and Texas, imposed only short stay-at-home orders and aggressively reopened. The aggressive reopening has led to massive spikes in new infections and record numbers of daily deaths from the novel coronavirus in short order. It did not lead to a promised economic boom, though.

In fact, states that aggressively reopened did not gain any economic advantage in exchange for the tragic health toll. A few weeks ago, my colleague Ryan Zamarripa and I summarized weekly data from the U.S. Census’ Household Pulse Survey, which captures Americans’ economic situation in the pandemic. We looked at four contemporaneous measures – renters either not paying or deferring their rent, homeowners either not paying or deferring their mortgage, families often or sometimes being unable to afford food, and people losing earnings amid the pandemic. We also considered three forward-looking indicators – renters’ confidence in paying their rent, homeowners’ confidence in paying their mortgage, and people’s expectation about possible earnings losses in the future. Specifically, we looked at how these indicators changed after stay-at-home orders ended, relative to the period during stay-at-home orders. We then compared these differences between two groups of states: those with short and those with long stay-at-home orders, based on data from Opportunity Insights’ tracktherecovery.org. At a minimum, the economies of states with risky public health approaches clearly did not improve more than those that proceeded more cautiously. It actually may be the opposite. In all cases, states with long stay-at-home orders showed greater improvements than states with short stay-at-home orders.

*snip*

There is no way around it: getting the economy back on track means controlling the pandemic. There are no short cuts. Putting people’s lives at risk and wishing the virus away are not going to produce a magic economic recovery.

https://www.forbes.c...nomic-recovery/
 

In October 2019, months before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the Southeast Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in San Antonio received a citation for failure to “provide and implement an infection prevention and control program.” This was far from the first citation the facility had received. The report, which lists several problems at the facility, describes a staff member using a soiled towel to wipe clean a resident’s buttocks and then subsequently failing to wash their hands — and said residents were at risk of foodborne illness.

The nursing home, residents’ relatives said, did not take the necessary steps toward improving conditions. But in early November, the owner, nursing home magnate Eliezer Scheiner, attended a fundraiser in New York City and donated $750,000 to the top super PAC supporting Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, America First Action.

*snip*

By late April, when the coronavirus was ripping through nursing homes nationwide, the San Antonio nursing home hadn’t made sufficient preparations for how to stop an infection in the facility. The Covid-19 outbreak at Southeast has killed 18 residents and one member of the staff, a nurse’s aide. Southeast houses about 85 residents, the overwhelming majority of whom are Black or Latino and are on Medicaid.

Residents of other nursing homes controlled by, operated by, invested in by, or are tenants of Scheiner, his business partner Teddy Lichtschein, or his company TL Management have borne the brunt of the Covid-19 pandemic. In all, facilities in Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., have seen over 135 coronavirus deaths. At the same time, TL Management hired lobbyists to assist them in getting federal funding, and Scheiner-affiliated nursing homes identified by The Intercept have received over $27 million in grants and loans since the Covid-19 crisis began, public records show — and many of them are among the worst-rated nursing homes in their states.

etc
https://theintercept...homes-covid-19/
 

The federal government has systematically shortchanged communities with large Black populations in the distribution of billions of dollars in Covid-19 relief aid meant to help hospitals struggling to manage the effects of the pandemic, according to a study published Friday.

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the funding inequities resulted from a formula that allocated large chunks of a $175 billion relief package based on hospital revenue, instead of numbers of Covid-19 cases or other health data.

The effect was to distribute more money through the federal CARES Act to large hospitals that already had the most resources, leaving smaller hospitals with large numbers of Black patients with disproportionately low funding to manage higher numbers of Covid-19 cases.

“We are finding large-scale racial bias in the way the federal government is distributing” the funds to hospitals, said Ziad Obermeyer, a physician and a co-author of the study from the University of California, Berkeley.

https://www.statnews...al-aid-formula/
https://jamanetwork....article/2769419

[Greg]

I'm not sure the Sunbelt has actually turned the corner on COVID-19 (I fear the recent plateauing may be more about delays in getting back testing results), but I'll be surprised if the tens of thousands of people returning from Sturgis after bike week don't show up as a real spike in the numbers a couple of weeks later.

[todd]

They are playing this bc transit propaganda ad a lot: https://youtu.be/xrDkkRAHu3M

Tried entering the bus like they demonstrate it was not the same experience mostly blank stares.

[todd]

“ Party houses defying COVID-19 orders may have utilities shut off, mayor says ”: https://www.latimes....f-garcetti-says

[exc911ence]

“ Party houses defying COVID-19 orders may have utilities shut off, mayor says ”: https://www.latimes....f-garcetti-says

 

Meanwhile gay bath houses are OK!

 

NSFW... language.

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=190OELTxchk

[todd]

They haven’t had a bath this whole time?

[amor de cosmos]

Vancouver Coastal Health has put out a public notice warning of two COVID-19 exposures in the downtown area.

Anyone visiting Pierre's Champagne Lounge at 1028 Hamilton St., and the West Oak Restaurant at 1035 Mainland St. during the evening or late hours of July 31 to August 3 could have been exposed.

B.C.'s public health authorities only put out public notices when they can't contact everyone who was potentially exposed during the dates and times of exposure.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...ouver-1.5679613

Only half of Brits will get COVID-19 vaccine
34% of those who will refuse vaccine believe government using it as tool to control population
https://www.aa.com.t...vaccine/1936335

At least 11 coronavirus patients were killed early on Sunday by a fire at a southern Indian hotel being used as a COVID-19 facility
https://www.aljazeer...9064454139.html

23 members of Tangiers Union football club are infected
23 إصابة بفيروس كورونا داخل فريق مغربي لكرة القدم
https://arabi21.com/...غربي-لكرة-القدم

President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Neel Kashkari has called for "a more restrictive lockdown" for up to six weeks to crush the spread of COVID-19, as the "viral fire" continues to "rage out of control."

In a Friday New York Times opinion piece he authored with Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, the Fed official argued that the imperative for a more restrictive lockdown is clear because "what we have done so far hasn't worked."

"Some 160,000 people have died, and in recent days, roughly a thousand have died a day. An estimated 30 million Americans are collecting unemployment," Kashkari and Osterholm noted.

As of Saturday night, the United States has reported nearly 5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The country hit the 3 million mark on July 8, and then hit 4 million on July 23.

"The next six months could make what we have experienced so far seem like just a warm-up to a greater catastrophe," Kashkari and Osterholm wrote. "With many schools and colleges starting, stores and businesses reopening, and the beginning of the indoor heating season, new case numbers will grow quickly," they said.

Reflecting on the failure of U.S. COVID-19 containment response compared with many nations in Asia and Europe, the authors argued that their country gave up on lockdown efforts to control virus transmission "well before the virus was under control."

http://www.ecns.cn/n...hw7469891.shtml
https://www.nytimes....ment-death.html

[Rob Randall]

Fleece worse than no mask:

 

Neck fleeces, also called gaiter masks and often used by runners, were the least effective. In fact, wearing a fleece mask resulted in a higher number of respiratory droplets because the material seemed to break down larger droplets into smaller particles that are more easily carried away with air.

 

 

Fitted N95s work best but good homemade cotton masks are pretty good.

 

https://www.cnn.com/...trnd/index.html

[Victoria Watcher]

is there any evidence mask usage is working?

 

it might be working to remind people to stay apart but it's unclear to me if they actually screen or limit any particles.

[Victoria Watcher]

One of the largest studies in the world on coronavirus in schools, carried out in 100 institutions in the UK, will confirm that “there is very little evidence that the virus is transmitted” there, according to a leading scientist.

 

Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of the government advisory group Sage, said: “A new study that has been done in UK schools confirms there is very little evidence that the virus is transmitted in schools.

 

https://www.thetimes...covid-27q6zfd9l

 

 

 

 

 

teachers' unions "believe the science" until it works against them.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 09 August 2020 - 10:36 AM.

[spanky123]

teachers' unions "believe the science" until it works against them.

 

 

We all know that virii hate schools as much as the rest of us.The much prefer parties, concerts, bars and groups of more than 6 people.. 

[Greg]

 

One of the largest studies in the world on coronavirus in schools, carried out in 100 institutions in the UK, will confirm that “there is very little evidence that the virus is transmitted” there, according to a leading scientist.

 

Professor Russell Viner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and a member of the government advisory group Sage, said: “A new study that has been done in UK schools confirms there is very little evidence that the virus is transmitted in schools.

 

https://www.thetimes...covid-27q6zfd9l

 

 

 

 

 

teachers' unions "believe the science" until it works against them.

 

 

Not sure that reflects what is going on in Mississippi and Georgia, but it would be great news if it proves to be true. (As far as teachers' unions "believing the science" it might be good to wait until the study is actually published rather than basing it on media quotes.)

[spanky123]

^ Very true but we both know we are going to see more of this type of 'research'.

 

With schools closed women are largely paying the price. They are the ones who most often stay home with children and recent surveys have indicated that women are not able to return to the workforce even though men have largely caught up to pre-covid levels. With Federal and Provincial elections coming up this is a critical issue for Governments. Schools have to open and parents have to feel that it is safe for their kids to return. 

 

I wonder what Dr. Henry is going to say.

Edited by spanky123, 09 August 2020 - 03:26 PM.

[Greg]

^Yeah, kids staying home is not a great situation. I think this debate should be (and maybe in Canada for the most part is) not about school vs. no-school, but about how to best do school in a reasonably safe manner. (Obviously in the US, everything has a tendency to become about Trump.)

 

And of course the pandemic is under far better control in BC than it is in the Sunbelt.

[exc911ence]

We all know that virii hate schools as much as the rest of us.The much prefer parties, concerts, bars and groups of more than 6 people.. 

 

But not riots, er, peaceful protests. Apparently the virus avoids mass get-togethers of this type.

 

Oh, and it's more likely to infect a person after 10pm hence the many lockdown curfews popping up worldwide.

 

 

 

What the actual EFF? A comedian couldn't write more laughable guidelines than the ones being forced upon the populace.

[Victoria Watcher]

here we go.  doctor is outspoken and God forbid might agree with a therapy trump has mentioned.  and now she's under canadian government-funded media attack.  for her tweets!

 

 

Ontario doctor subject of complaints after COVID-19 tweets

 

Ontario doctor Kulvinder Kaur Gill has been criticized by fellow physicians and others after a series of tweets that they say spread misinformation about COVID-19.

 

CBC has reviewed two email complaints about Gill's tweets, including one by a family doctor to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which sets regulatory standards for doctors in the province.

 

One of her tweets, from Aug. 6, stated: "#Humanity's existing effective defences against #COVID19 to safely return to normal life now includes: -Truth, -T-cell Immunity, -Hydroxychloroquine."

 

That tweet has since been taken down for violating Twitter's rules. Twitter doesn't confirm what rules a specific tweet may have violated when it has been taken down. Many doctors also replied critically to Gill's tweet.

 

Hydroxychloroquine is a drug used to treat malaria and it has been touted by U.S. President Donald Trump as a potential fix for COVID-19. However, the drug has been shown to be ineffective in combating the virus, according to a major study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...-cpso-1.5680122

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 August 2020 - 05:41 AM.