there are a million other reasons to do this, not least because you can also scream & swear & blast your choice of music as loud as you want. it doesn't even take much, just read jailhouse strong:
Demand for sports equipment and home gyms booms as Canadians prepare for pandemic winter
Sports retailers see early rush on skis, snowshoes, exercise gear as people plan for ways to stay active
https://www.cbc.ca/n...inter-1.5738568
O'Toole, Blanchet met with dozens of supporters before testing positive for COVID
https://www.cbc.ca/n...masks-1.5738913
Fraser Health to open new COVID-19 clinic after Port Coquitlam clinic announces closure due to staff burnout
https://www.cbc.ca/n...linic-1.5738812
As COVID-19 cases surge across Canada and outbreaks in nursing homes flare up once again, experts say vulnerable elderly populations are at extreme risk in the second wave due to a lack of government action.
Long-term care facilities bore the brunt of the first wave of the pandemic in Canada, with more than 70 per cent of deaths from COVID-19 occurring in those aged over 80, about twice the average of rates from other developed countries.
"That is one of the most damning failures that's taken place through the pandemic," said Dr. Andrew Boozary, executive director of health and social policy for Toronto's University Health Network.
"If we were going to be judged by how we protected our most susceptible and people who are structurally vulnerable — we failed them."
*snip*
A July report from the Royal Society of Canada, an association that includes some of Canada's top scientists and scholars, described COVID-19 as "a shock wave that cracked wide all the fractures in our nursing home system." It called on the federal government to act "immediately" on creating national standards of care.
Months later, no concrete action has yet been taken, and the second wave of COVID-19 infections is well underway in previously hard-hit provinces, such as Ontario, B.C. and Quebec.
https://www.cbc.ca/n...anada-1.5739798
A relatively new but popular cafe in downtown Victoria has temporarily closed after an employee informed managers they’d tested positive for COVID-19.
https://www.victoria...e-for-covid-19/
Significance
Confronted with escalating COVID-19 outbreaks, countries at the leading edge of the pandemic have had to resort to imposing drastic social distancing measures which have serious societal and economic repercussions. Establishing herd immunity in a population by allowing the epidemic to spread, while mitigating the negative health impacts of COVID-19, presents a tantalizing resolution to the crisis. Our study simulating SARS-CoV-2 spread in the United Kingdom finds that achieving herd immunity without overwhelming hospital capacity leaves little room for error. Intervention levels must be carefully manipulated in an adaptive manner for an extended period, despite acute sensitivity to poorly quantified epidemiological factors. Such fine-tuning of social distancing renders this strategy impractical.
Abstract
The rapid growth rate of COVID-19 continues to threaten to overwhelm healthcare systems in multiple countries. In response, severely affected countries have had to impose a range of public health strategies achieved via nonpharmaceutical interventions. Broadly, these strategies have fallen into two categories: 1) “mitigation,” which aims to achieve herd immunity by allowing the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus to spread through the population while mitigating disease burden, and 2) “suppression,” aiming to drastically reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates and halt endogenous transmission in the target population. Using an age-structured transmission model, parameterized to simulate SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the United Kingdom, we assessed the long-term prospects of success using both of these approaches. We simulated a range of different nonpharmaceutical intervention scenarios incorporating social distancing applied to differing age groups. Our modeling confirmed that suppression of SARS-CoV-2 transmission is possible with plausible levels of social distancing over a period of months, consistent with observed trends. Notably, our modeling did not support achieving herd immunity as a practical objective, requiring an unlikely balancing of multiple poorly defined forces. Specifically, we found that 1) social distancing must initially reduce the transmission rate to within a narrow range, 2) to compensate for susceptible depletion, the extent of social distancing must be adaptive over time in a precise yet unfeasible way, and 3) social distancing must be maintained for an extended period to ensure the healthcare system is not overwhelmed.
https://www.pnas.org...9/21/2008087117
https://www.fastcomp...-this-new-study
In a special session addressing global mental health before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic held at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID) Professor Vikram Patel (Harvard Medical School, USA) will present a new review of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global mental health.
He will explain: "Mental health problems were already a leading cause of suffering and the most neglected health issue globally before the pandemic. The pandemic will, through worsening the social determinants of mental health, fuel a worsening of this crisis,"
The pressures on mental health, that already existed in abundance before this global pandemic, are increasing at an alarming rate. Prof Patel will touch on some of these in his talk. "There are so many issues which affect large sections of the population, including worries about jobs and income security, social exclusion, school closures and working from home creating huge pressure on families," he says. "There are also disruptions to medical services and care, potential domestic violence situations, and the varying levels of fear people have of being infected by this new virus."
The pandemic threatens to reverse years of global development, including in the countries that can least afford to start going backwards. In August 2020, World Bank President David Malpass predicted as many as 100 million people will be pushed back into extreme poverty. As a result of the global economic recession, the mental health tsunami is going to sweep through all countries, rich and poor. "The 2008 recession, which largely affected only the US, was followed by a wave of 'deaths of despair' in the USA, driven by suicide and substance use," explains Prof Patel. "Without huge levels of government support for both the mental health sector and a whole host of other sectors, we are tragically facing a repeat of this, but perhaps on a much greater scale."
https://www.eurekale...c-dwt092520.php
U.S. Hospital Admissions for Non-COVID-19 Have Only Partially Rebounded from Initial Decline
https://www.dartmout...-rebounded.html
https://www.scienced...00925134714.htm
same conference
Analysis of samples taken to test for respiratory viruses over the past five years suggests that the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 was associated with a large drop in circulation of other common respiratory viruses during the first wave. The study, presented at this week's ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID), is by Dr Stephen Poole, BRC Clinical Research Fellow from the Southampton NIHR BRC, Southampton, UK, and colleagues.
https://www.eurekale...c-sds092520.php
same conference
Contact tracing study results recommend consistent wearing of masks, handwashing, and social distancing in public
https://medicalxpres...ing-social.html
WASHINGTON -- The anxiety, stress and worry brought on by COVID-19 is not limited to daytime hours. The pandemic is affecting our dreams as well, infusing more anxiety and negative emotions into dreams and spurring dreams about the virus itself, particularly among women, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
https://www.eurekale...a-csa092520.php
* Nation-wide cross-sectional analysis of U.S. patients receiving dialysis finds fewer than 10% of people had COVID-19 antibodies by July 2020, and fewer than 10% of those with antibodies had been diagnosed by antigen or PCR testing.
* Researchers say this representative population is ideal for studying the general spread of COVID-19 in the U.S. because these patients undergo monthly, routine blood draws and represent other similar COVID-19 risk factors such as age, non-white race, and poverty.
* COVID-19 control efforts should prioritize minorities and people living in densely populated areas to prevent general community spread. The first cross-sectional, nation-wide analysis of more than 28,000 patients on dialysis in the U.S. found that fewer than 10% of U.S. adults had COVID-19 antibodies as of July 2020 and fewer than 10% were diagnosed.
Published today in The Lancet, the new study also shows higher COVID-19 infection rates among ethnic minorities and people living in lower-income, high density, urban areas - underling the need for COVID-19 public health efforts that prioritize these populations in order to prevent general community spread.
Researchers from Stanford University explain that patients on dialysis represent an important population to study general COVID-19 seroprevalence. These patients already undergo routine, monthly laboratory studies and represent similar risk factors to contracting COVID-19 as the general population, including age, non-white race, and poverty. Unlike community-based surveys, where a select group may show up for or agree to be tested and require a significant on-the-ground effort to launch, patients on dialysis are amenable to random sampling as part of their routine care.
*snip*
"Not only is this patient population representative ethnically and socio-economically, but they are one of the few groups of people who can be repeatedly tested. Because renal disease is a Medicare-qualifying condition, they don't face many of the access-to-care barriers that limit testing among the general population," said Shuchi Anand, MD, Director of the Center for Tubulointerstitial Kidney Disease at Stanford University and lead author of the study. "We were able to determine - with a high level of precision - differences in seroprevalence among patient groups within and across regions of the United States, providing a very rich picture of the first wave of the COVID-19 outbreak that can hopefully help inform strategies to curb the epidemic moving forward by targeting vulnerable populations."
https://www.eurekale...pss_1092420.php
https://www.thelance...2009-2/fulltext
The 1,035 patients in the study faced a staggeringly high risk of death, as ventilators and other care failed to support their lungs. But after they were placed on ECMO, their actual death rate was less than 40%. That's similar to the rate for patients treated with ECMO in past outbreaks of lung-damaging viruses, and other severe forms of viral pneumonia.
The new study published in The Lancet provides strong support for the use of ECMO - short for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation -- in appropriate patients as the pandemic rages on worldwide.
https://www.eurekale...u-lls092420.php
Diagnostic testing for COVID-19 infections is one of the linchpins of the global effort to combat the deadly pandemic. But the strategy normally used for that has a few downsides. For one, the nasopharyngeal swabbing required demands the services of a health care worker, who is then put at risk of contracting the disease. Also, the sample-taking procedure, which involves sticking a very long flexible swab through a nostril and into the nasopharynx at the back of the nose and throat, is so unpleasant that some people resist being tested. And because the samples must normally be sent to a distant lab for processing, it often takes hours to days for results to become available.
What the world desperately needs is a way to diagnose infections with the virus more quickly and easily. Breakthroughs here would allow for truly widespread testing and the identification of people with asymptomatic infections, who often inadvertently spread the disease.
Researchers across the world have been racing to develop better COVID-19 tests, and biochemists and molecular biologists have made significant progress in just a handful of months. But engineers, too, have been working on technologies that might provide what everyone so dearly wants: inexpensive tests that don’t require swabbing and that can be rapidly performed by anyone, anywhere—if not for this pandemic, then perhaps in time for the next one.
https://spectrum.iee...w-covid-19-test
Two million virus deaths 'likely' without collective action: WHO
https://medicalxpres...ths-action.html
On Thursday, the Health and Human Services Department released a solicitation for wastewater testing and data analysis that would have a contractor testing fecal and other sewage waste for approximately 10% of Americans within six weeks.
“The contractor shall support wide-scale and regular testing of the American population for COVID-19 using wastewater epidemiology to help guide the overall reopening strategy, but also serve as an early warning system for local re-emergence events to enable rapid containment,” the solicitation states.
Previous research has shown the ability to predict new COVID-19 cases five to 11 days before the outbreak occurs by analyzing wastewater—specifically sewage from residential toilets.
“Wastewater testing data provided by the contractor will illustrate a more complete picture of local, community-level COVID-19 trends, where clinical cases may be underreported and transmission levels not well understood,” the solicitation states. “This can be particularly helpful for communities with limited testing access, or for communities in which demand for testing remains low for other reasons.”
https://www.nextgov....ovid-19/168781/
US Vaccine Reportedly Shows Strong Immune Response to Coronavirus in Clinical Trials
https://sputniknews....linical-trials/
Two former leaders of a Massachusetts home for aging veterans where nearly 80 people sickened by the coronavirus died have been criminally charged for their handling of the outbreak
https://www.military...erans-home.html
A total of 12,492 people working at the Qingdao Port had been tested for nucleic acid as of Friday after two stevedores were reported as asymptomatic COVID-19 cases on Thursday
http://www.ecns.cn/n...pz4254765.shtml
China's nucleic acid testing capacity has hugely improved, which is the key to the epidemic response in the coming autumn-winter season, a health official said Friday
http://www.ecns.cn/n...pz4254752.shtml
Vector’s clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccine are successful
The volunteers are developing the necessary titers and no one has any clinical signs after the vaccine, said Russia’s chief sanitary doctor Anna Popova
https://tass.com/russia/1205357
Hackers Targeted Russia's Gamaleya Center During COVID-19 Vaccine Development, Director Says
https://sputniknews....-director-says/
Uruguay as of Friday September 24, has recorded 1967 infections and 47 deaths, despite beginning to reopen some schools in April and no mandatory stay-at-home order. Many South American countries also acted swiftly with stricter obligatory lockdowns—among them neighboring Argentina—but still saw infections soar.
*snip*
Less than two weeks into his new job as Uruguay’s president, Luis Lacalle Pou acted promptly when Uruguay’s first case of covid-19 was confirmed in the capital of Montevideo on 13 March. Lacalle Pou announced that all public events and potential centers of crowding such as bars, churches, and shopping centers would be shut down. Schools were also closed, along with the country’s 1000 km porous border with Brazil, the epicenter of the pandemic in the region. Unlike most Latin American presidents, Lacalle Pou asked rather than ordered people to stay at home to protect the population, the oldest in Latin America.
The swift action of the government slowed the spread of the virus and bought the country vital time to prepare its hospitals and testing system, says the team of scientists advising it. It also meant they could stop the virus’s spread before it became exponential as it did in the hardest hit nations.
*snip*
The urgency and scientific grounding of the government’s early decision making characterized the country’s response ever since—and even before the first case was detected. All decisions passed through a cross-disciplinary committee of scientists who refocused their research to covid-19.
“The alignment of decision makers, scientists, and national health authorities was perfect and clearly with great timing,” says Gonzalo Moratorio, a virologist directing Uruguay’s covid-19 testing unit.
https://en.mercopres...-19-this-is-how
שיא תחלואה חדש: יותר מ-8,000 חולי קורונה אובחנו אתמול; 708 במצב קשה
8000 new cases in israel yesterday, another new record, 708 in serious condition
https://www.israelha.../article/804317
"מרגיש מצוין": שלומי שבת נדבק בקורונה
אחרי שחום גופו עלה, הזמר שלומי שבת עבר בדיקת קורונה וקיבל תשובה חיובית. כעת הוא שוהה בבידוד בביתו ועל פי מנהליו, חש בטוב
israeli singer shlomi shabbat has tested positive, says it feels great
https://www.ynet.co....icle/r1t11ocnBv