26251 replies to this topic

[Victoria Watcher]

^ hey now.  

 

 

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 June 2021 - 05:06 AM.

[Szeven]

This week is our uptick week on 'pockets of dry timber' from Delta variant, no?

[Victoria Watcher]

if each were a state, from worst to best:

 

1.  yukon

8. manitoba

18. sask

34. ont

50. bc. / alberta / quebec

51. atlantic and other northern

[Victoria Watcher]

All of Quebec is now at the lowest alert level under the province’s COVID-19 response plan as public health restrictions continue to ease.

 

Nine of Quebec’s 17 regions, including the province’s largest cities and the areas surrounding them, move from yellow to green on the pandemic alert level system as of today.

 

The province’s other regions were already at the green level.

 

 

https://montrealgaze...d7-1434764130e1

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 June 2021 - 07:13 AM.

[amor de cosmos]

SASKATOON — Almost 30 per cent of respondents in a newly released Canada-wide survey admitted to breaking COVID-19 rules — and felt justified doing so.
 
The survey by the Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research at the University of Saskatchewan was done between June 1 and June 14. It asked 1,000 peopleabout how closely they stuck to public health orders and where they were getting their information about the pandemic.
 
Some 29 per cent said they broke at least one COVID-19 restriction. The most common transgressions were around gathering limits and wearing masks.
 
But the survey also found that respondents were generally diligent about following isolation requirements and gave honest responses to COVID-19 screening questions.
 
Of the people who broke rules, 62 per cent said they felt it was justified. Their reasons included wanting to see friends and family (27 per cent) and a belief that they were violating restrictions in a safe way (17 per cent). Some said they ignored rules they didn't think made any sense (21 per cent) and seven per cent said they didn't believe the pandemic exists or is a problem.

https://www.timescol...rvey-1.24336231
 

The global effort to develop vaccines against covid-19 has been a scientific triumph. The search for new therapies, however, has had far less success. 
 
More than a year and a half into the pandemic, few treatment options for covid-19 exist, and those that are available seem to have only modest impact on the course of the disease.
 
Vaccination rates may be high enough in some wealthy countries to put herd immunity within reach, but the need for new therapies is still urgent. The virus is raging in some countries with limited access to vaccines. And even in places where they are widely available, pockets of unvaccinated people remain. “The need for treatments for all stages of the disease is, in fact, more pronounced than ever,” says Rachel Cohen, North American executive director of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), a program aimed at developing new medicines for diseases that have historically been ignored by pharmaceutical companies. “Never in the history of infectious-disease control have we been satisfied with just one set of tools.”
 
New drugs might help people with early cases of covid avoid hospitalization, “especially in places where ICU and hospitalization capacity is very limited,” Cohen says. They might also prevent those who are hospitalized from dying.
 
New therapies could also be a crucial stopgap if SARS-CoV2 mutates enough to evade the immune response in people who are vaccinated. And there’s another reason to keep hunting for new medications. SARS-CoV2 is the third coronavirus to make the jump from animals to humans in the last 20 years. “This may not be the last coronavirus that we see,” says Michael Diamond, a virologist at the Washington University School of Medicine. 
 
The Biden administration hopes to help stock the medicine cabinet. In mid-June, officials announced that the federal government would put $3.2 billion toward antiviral drug discovery and development for treatments targeting covid-19 and future pandemic viruses. That’s just a fraction of the more than $10 billion the Trump administration spent on vaccine development with Operation Warp Speed, but it’s still “massive,” Cohen says. A number of other initiatives to bolster antiviral development are under way as well.

https://www.technolo...-actually-work/
 

МОСКВА, 28 июн — РИА Новости. За три дня QR-коды получили почти 2,5 миллиона москвичей, сообщили в оперативном штабе по контролю и мониторингу ситуации с коронавирусом в столице.

"Те, у кого возникли сложности, оставили почти 19 тысяч обращений в техподдержку портала mos.ru", — уточняется в заявлении.

Более девяти тысяч из них связаны с поиском цифрового сертификата после вакцинации и почти десять тысяч отправили пользователи, переболевшие COVID-19 в течение полугода. Большинство тех, кто оставил обращение в связи с прививкой (63 процента рассмотренных заявок), получат QR-код в понедельник до конца дня.

"Тем, кому цифровой сертификат в силу объективных причин не может быть сгенерирован, направляются разъяснения о том, почему код не может быть выдан, и что следует сделать для его получения", — отметили в штабе.

MOSCOW, June 28 - RIA Novosti. In three days, almost 2.5 million Muscovites received QR codes, according to the operational headquarters for control and monitoring of the situation with coronavirus in the capital.

“Those who encountered difficulties left almost 19 thousand calls to the mos.ru portal technical support,” the statement says.

More than nine thousand of them are associated with the search for a digital certificate after vaccination, and almost ten thousand were sent by users who had had COVID-19 within six months. The majority of vaccine-related petitioners (63 percent of applications reviewed) will receive a QR code on Monday before the end of the day.

"Those who cannot generate a digital certificate due to objective reasons are sent explanations about why the code cannot be issued and what should be done to obtain it," the headquarters said.

https://ria.ru/20210...1738903141.html

[Mike K.]

 

All of Quebec is now at the lowest alert level under the province’s COVID-19 response plan as public health restrictions continue to ease.

 

Nine of Quebec’s 17 regions, including the province’s largest cities and the areas surrounding them, move from yellow to green on the pandemic alert level system as of today.

 

The province’s other regions were already at the green level.

 

Now Canada is on high alert for travelling Quebecers.

[Victoria Watcher]

Ontario on Monday reported 210 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths The update came as the province prepares to move to the next phase of its reopening plan later this week. 

 

In Toronto, Mayor John Tory on Monday urged people to get their second dose and said that the city was aiming to have as many people as possible vaccinated in the weeks ahead. Tory's update came a day after workers at a mass vaccination clinic at Scotiabank Arena administered 26,771 shots inside the home of the Toronto Raptors and Toronto Maple Leafs, an event the city dubbed "Our Winning Shot."

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...-2021-1.6082580

 

_____________________________

 

• Quebec reported 76 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday and no new deaths. There has been a total of 254 new cases since Friday.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...ne-28-1.6082586

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 June 2021 - 08:40 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

BC:  Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said 145 infections were diagnosed in the past three days, with 38 of them recorded between Sunday and Monday. Five more people died, for a total of 1,754 deaths.

 

 

 

https://www.tricityn...g-in-bc-3914842

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 June 2021 - 05:34 PM.

[amor de cosmos]

A record-breaking heat wave has created a hiccup for B.C.'s COVID-19 vaccination program, as several clinics in the Lower Mainland are postponing appointments or redirecting patients to other locations.
 
Fraser Health says it is implementing heat-related measures at seven immunization and testing clinics in the region until the end of the day on Tuesday.
 
Any walk-in patients or people with appointments booked after 12 p.m. at those clinics are being redirected to other sites with cooler temperatures.

The affected clinics include the Testing and Immunization Centres in Burnaby, Mission, South Surrey, Coquitlam, Langley and Surrey 66, as well as the Abbotsford Ag-Rec Centre Immunization Clinic.

Vancouver Coastal Health postponed all vaccination appointments at the West End Community Centre and the Vancouver Community College clinic as of 1 p.m. on Monday.

People with appointments at the ICBC vaccination clinic were being diverted to the West Vancouver Community Centre clinic.

The health authority says it will monitor weather conditions throughout the week and will notify those affected if more adjustments are necessary.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...ation-1.6083923

4 dogs in Nanaimo die from heat stroke
https://www.nanaimob...om-heat-stroke/

A new corona test developed at the University Hospital Bonn can analyze a large number of swabs simultaneously using sequencing technology and has a similarly high sensitivity as the common qPCR test. The innovative method offers great potential, especially for systematic testing in daycare centers, schools or companies. Today, the results of the study on the new Corona test have been published in the renowned journal "Nature Biotechnology".
https://www.alphagal...y/ItemId/210013

Test Distinguishes SARS-CoV-2 from Other Coronaviruses with 100% Accuracy
https://pratt.duke.e...s/d4-covid-test
https://www.scienced...10625155626.htm
 

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists identified how SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, gets inside cells to cause infection. All current COVID-19 vaccines and antibody-based therapeutics were designed to disrupt this route into cells, which requires a receptor called ACE2.

Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that a single mutation gives SARS-CoV-2 the ability to enter cells through another route – one that does not require ACE2. The ability to use an alternative entry pathway opens up the possibility of evading COVID-19 antibodies or vaccines, but the researchers did not find evidence of such evasion. However, the discovery does show that the virus can change in unexpected ways and find new ways to cause infection. The study is published June 23 in Cell Reports.

*snip*

To determine whether the ability to use an alternative entry pathway allowed the virus to escape COVID-19 antibodies or vaccines, the researchers screened panels of antibodies and blood serum with antibodies from people who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 or recovered from COVID-19 infection. There was some variation, but in general, the antibodies and blood sera were effective against the virus with the mutation.

It is not yet clear whether the alternative pathway comes into play under real-world conditions when people are infected with SARS-CoV-2. Before the researchers can begin to address that question, they must find the alternative receptor that the virus is using to get into cells.

“It is possible that the virus uses ACE2 until it runs out of cells with ACE2, and then it switches over to using this alternative pathway,” Kutluay said. “This might have relevance in the body, but without knowing the receptor, we cannot say what the relevance is going to be.”

Major added, “That’s where we’re going right now. What is the receptor? If it’s not ACE2, what is it?”

https://medicine.wus...o-infect-cells/
 

Fearing the arrival of a resistant strain, the Danish authorities ordered a blanket cull of the nation's million-strong mink stock, which has been severely criticised as one of its most grave missteps during the entire pandemic. A new study has proven the mutation to be largely unsusceptible to antibodies.
 
Cluster 5, the coronavirus mutation that spurred the Danish government into culling the country's entire mink stock of over 15 million, has proven resistent to both naturally attained antibodies and those generated by the Pfizer vaccine, a new study by the Danish Serum Institute (SSI) has concluded.
 
"Blood samples have been taken from people who have recovered from COVID-19 with Cluster 5 and we looked at how well their antibodies could neutralise this virus", Tyra Grove Krause of the SSI said. "You can see that Cluster 5 is more resistant to these antibodies than the other virus variants that were in circulation at the time. So on that basis, one can say that this raises concerns about whether the same could apply to vaccine antibodies".

https://sputniknews....covid-19-scare/

 

 

His 2015 paper, “A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence,” was a tour de force, utilizing bleeding-edge genetic technology to alert the civilized world to a looming danger on its periphery. It also revived concerns about gain-of-function experiments, which Baric had known it would. In the paper, he spelled out the extra precautions he’d taken and held up the research as a test case. “The potential to prepare for and mitigate future outbreaks must be weighed against the risk of creating more dangerous pathogens,” he wrote. “Scientific review panels may deem similar studies building chimeric viruses based on circulating strains too risky to pursue.”

 

The NIH decided the risk was worth it. In a potentially fateful decision, it funded work similar to Baric’s at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which soon used its own reverse-genetics technology to make numerous coronavirus chimeras.

 

Unnoticed by most, however, was a key difference that significantly shifted the risk calculation. The Chinese work was carried out at biosafety level 2 (BSL-2), a much lower tier than Baric’s BSL-3+.

 

What caused the covid-19 pandemic remains uncertain, and Shi says her lab never encountered the SARS-CoV-2 virus before the Wuhan outbreak. But now that US officials have said the possibility of a lab accident needs to be investigated, the spotlight has fallen on American funding of the Wuhan lab’s less safe research. Today a chorus of scientists, including Baric, are coming forward to say this was a misstep. Even if there is no link to covid-19, allowing work on potentially dangerous bat viruses at BSL-2 is “an actual scandal,” says Michael Lin, a bioengineer at Stanford University.

etc

https://www.technolo...erica-to-wuhan/

Bali reopening to foreign tourists delayed as COVID-19 surges
https://www.channeln...vid-19-15115682
 

A study published in the medical journal The Lancet in 2018 compared South Asian countries on access to health services and health care quality. It ranked India the lowest, despite the fact countries such as Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have much lower GDPs.
 
The answer to India’s current health crisis lies in over four decades of under-investment in health at the federal and state levels, and rampant commercialisation.
 
Health is primarily a state responsibility in India, with some funding coming from the federal and local governments. Publicly funded schemes support the poor and government workers, and people who are privately employed pay for their own health insurance.
 
However there is great variation on spending between states. And most of that spending goes to hospitals in urban areas. This has meant that over the years, regional areas and services like general practice and paramedicine have been neglected.
 
Several government committees have acknowledged the need to increase spending to strengthen public systems. And the pandemic has provided an urgent case. But despite this, funding has not increased.

https://theconversat...policies-162508

India Reports Second Rare Post-COVID Brain Disease in 13-yr-old As Issues Rise Among Kids
https://sputniknews....ise-among-kids/
 

Russia will not meet its widely publicized goal of reaching herd immunity against coronavirus through vaccination by this fall, the Kremlin said Tuesday as the country struggles against the highly infectious Delta variant, record-breaking deaths and a lagging vaccine uptake.
 
President Vladimir Putin’s office made the admission after the independent Dozhd broadcaster reported that the Kremlin has lowered its vaccination target to 30-35% from the initial 60% by Sept. 1. Health officials told Dozhd, which reported that unvaccinated people with antibodies would now be counted toward the 60%, they have not changed their vaccination targets.

https://www.themosco...s-surges-a74372

Moscow restaurants lose 80% of revenue during first COVID-free day regime
Starting from June 28, the experiment forcing catering establishments to operate in a "coronavirus-free" regime is in force across the Russian capital
https://tass.com/economy/1308295

Russia on Tuesday recorded 652 more COVID-19 fatalities -- the maximum since the beginning of the pandemic -- pushing the death toll to 134,545, Russia's coronavirus emergency task force said.
https://www.aa.com.t...-deaths/2288657

Первым компонентом от коронавируса привили 23 миллиона россиян
23 million Russians vaccinated with first component from coronavirus
https://ria.ru/20210...1739069913.html
 

The laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been the focus of attention because of its study of coronaviruses and its closeness to the presumed cradle of the infection. Although the original theory, promoted by Donald Trump, that the virus was man-made was dismissed as fake, the new US administration suddenly decided to revive it.
 
The last and only foreign scientist to work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology ahead of the pandemic, Australian virologist Danielle Anderson, has broken her silence about how work was conducted at the high-containment facility. Spoiler alert: this does not chime with the way some western media try to portray it.
 
In her interview with Bloomberg, Anderson explained how she was pleasantly struck by the lab's bespoke method at disinfections and overall focus on containing the dangerous pathogens studied at the facility. She stressed that all employees with access to the lab had to undergo "very, very extensive" 45-hour-long training on handing pathogens, working in air-pressure suits and undergoing disinfection. In all other respects, the Wuhan lab was no different from any other facilities at which the 42-year-old expert in bat-borne viruses had worked.
 

"It’s not that it was boring, but it was a regular lab that worked in the same way as any other high-containment lab […] What people are saying [about the Wuhan lab] is just not how it is," Anderson said.

The virologist suggested that half-truths and distorted information in the media impaired people's ability to perceive properly what the laboratory does and how it functions.

https://sputniknews....-media-reports/

[Victoria Watcher]

Masks will no longer be mandatory when B.C. enters stage 3 of its restart plan on July 1. However, they will still be recommended for people aged 12 and older who are not fully vaccinated. Dining in larger groups at restaurants will once again be allowed and nightclubs and casinos will be able to re-open with capacity limits and safety plans.

Up to 5,000 people will be allowed for organized outdoor events with safety protocols. Fairs, festivals, and trade shows will be able to resume. There will also be no limits on religious services and some spectators will be allowed for indoor sporting events.

[Victoria Watcher]

BC health officials announced 29 new test-positive COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of recorded cases in the province to 147,578.

https://dailyhive.co...es-june-29-2021


I’m not sure. did we ever get this low last summer? oh yes we did. but the last time we were this low was late July last year.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 June 2021 - 02:25 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Alberta reported 61 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and four deaths. The positivity rate was 1.6 per cent on Monday after about 3,400 tests.


https://www.cbc.ca/n...berta-1.6084324

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 June 2021 - 03:14 PM.

[amor de cosmos]

83% of the Spanish population trusts in vaccination against COVID, 25 points more than in January
https://www.eurekale...f-8ot062921.php
 

12 lessons Covid-19 taught us about developing vaccines during a pandemic

Basic science investments can pay huge dividends

Redundancy is critical in a vaccine quest

mRNA was ready for prime time

mRNA vaccines aren’t the sole solution

When one vaccine crosses the finish line, challenges arise for other clinical trials

Experience is important, but it’s not everything

Vaccines aren’t vaccinations

Complex priority schedules are hard to execute

Packaging matters

There’s power in numbers

Pregnant and lactating people were left in the lurch yet again

Vaccine inequity is well and truly entrenched

https://www.statnews...oping-vaccines/

More than 3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across the world, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.
http://www.ecns.cn/n...kz8719706.shtml
 

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said his country was facing a “great crisis” thanks to the “incapable and irresponsible work attitude” of his underlings, during a recent speech about the covid-19 pandemic, portions of which were published on Wednesday.
 
And while Kim didn’t get into specifics about just how dire the coronavirus situation was in North Korea, he said that top officials in his government had already been fired.
 
“Senior officials in charge of important state affairs neglected the implementation of the important decisions of the party on taking organizational, institutional, material, scientific and technological measures as required by the prolonged state emergency epidemic prevention campaign associated with the worldwide health crisis,” Kim said, according to North Korean state news outlet KCNA and South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

“And thus caused a crucial case of creating a great crisis in ensuring the security of the state and safety of the people and entailed grave consequences,” Kim reportedly continued.

https://gizmodo.com/...ring-1847200100

Putin Reveals He Took Russia’s Sputnik V Coronavirus Vaccine
https://www.themosco...-vaccine-a74386
 

The authors of a new book about former President Donald Trump's handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic are spilling additional details about Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner's role in mismanaging the public health crisis.
 
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Washington Post reporters Damian Paletta and Yasmine Abutaleb explain how one of Kushner's big initiatives at the start of the pandemic actually backfired and slowed down the national response to the deadly disease that has claimed the lives of more than 600,000 Americans.
 
The initiative in question was a plan to use big-name pharmacies like CVS and Walgreen's as drive-through testing sites to make it easier for Americans to get quick COVID-19 test results.
 
"When he came in and wanted to launch that initiative, he actually caused a two-week shortage of testing because all the swabs and a lot of the personal protective equipment had been diverted to this drive-thru site," Abutaleb explained.

https://www.alternet.../jared-kushner/
 

The administration of the most recent Republican POTUS continues to face harsh criticism for its initial downplaying of the threat of the COVID-19 outbreak and its response during the first months of the pandemic.

US President Donald Trump referred to his own administration's coronavirus pandemic response team in derogatory terms such as "that f**king council that Mike [Pence] has", a new book, written by two Washington Post reporters, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta, claims.
 
It is unclear what sources the authors of "Nightmare Scenario: Inside the Trump Administration’s Response to the Pandemic That Changed History" relied on in their reporting of Trump's attitude towards the response team.
 
The book, released on 29 June with excerpts cited by The Guardian, details other problems that the administration purportedly faced trying to slow the spread of the deadly disease across the US due to Trump's inaction. The WaPo reporters also insist that the president's term for the task force was "a signal that he wished it would go away". They add that Trump did not want anyone to "exert leadership" on the COVID task force and that this desire was mutual.
 

"Many on the task force didn’t want the responsibility either, fearful of the consequences", the book claims, noting that even US Vice President Mike Pence resisted his appointment as the head of the working group.

The authors of the book further claim that the COVID task force was impeded by "outside consultants" to Trump, including a TV contributor on economic issues, Stephen Moore. The reporters claim that Moore "strode into the Oval Office" to convince Trump that lockdowns must be lifted immediately, despite the raging pandemic. The commentator, who helped Trump's campaign in 2016, reportedly argued that the lockdowns were ineffective, because they were hurting the economy.

 

https://sputniknews....ew-book-claims/

[Victoria Watcher]

There are 126 new COVID-19 cases in Quebec, health officials reported Wednesday.

 

https://montreal.ctv...-week-1.5491427

 

Ontario health officials are reporting fewer than 200 new cases of COVID-19 for the first time in months.

 

The province confirmed 184 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday. The case count today marks the lowest seen in Ontario since Sept. 10 when officials logged 170 cases.

 

https://toronto.ctvn...ember-1.5491380

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 30 June 2021 - 07:31 AM.

[vortoozo]

Canada has now surpassed the US in terms of delivering overall vaccine doses per capita.

 

 

Attached Images

• 

[Victoria Watcher]

Canada has now surpassed the US in terms of delivering overall vaccine doses per capita.

 

yet 40% of Canadians are still not allowed to play a soccer game or eat inside a restaurant.

[vortoozo]

yet 40% of Canadians are still not allowed to play a soccer game or eat inside a restaurant.

 

Yes, I certainly wouldn't want to live in Ontario right now. Or, well, ever.

[Victoria Watcher]

I guess they can stay home and watch Cosby re-runs now.  

[Rob Randall]

^Were you aware Cosby's conviction was overturned just minutes before you wrote that or is it another example of your prescient brainpower?

 

Just got an invitation for my second dose of Pfizer or Moderna (no choice).

[Victoria Watcher]