26251 replies to this topic

[Mike K.]

Kids are dependent on adults.

[dasmo]

Island Health has identified 50 exposure events at local K-12 schools thus far this September, including clusters at three schools, two of which had alerts identifying clusters twice.

 

Imagine, in a class of 25 kids (let's say on average), that's 1,250 potentially exposed students, not including teachers or other staff. In total those exposures reasonably relate to 1,300 individuals being exposed. Those 1,300 then go on to expose at least one parent or guardian or partner, doubling the exposure to 2,600. It can take days for Island Health to identify an exposure, and a need for people to monitor for symptoms. Very quickly, those 50 exposure events could be related to over 5,000 potential person exposures, which very quickly can relate to 10,000 potential person exposures in the community.

Now apply this to every potential, to every risk, to every danger. Living is risky. It's like going sailing. You can look at every danger and obsess about it and become so consumed by fear you just don't do it. Or you can be aware of the way things are and navigate, even harness these forces and enjoy a great day sailing.... 

Hope everyone enjoys the Dark Winter 2.0! 

[Ismo07]

and only about 30 kids have died all across the country since the start.

more have died from drowning. exponentially more in car crashes.

30 kids died this month from suicide alone.

you have to understand the risks.

 

The reasoning that people die more of other things is so weird to me.    Yes people die, we get it...  The report is that 30 kids have been infective in Victoria, draws more than a little interest and should be watched don't you think?  Or maybe just shouldn't be mentioned until more have than died from some chosen way deemed of value?

[Victoria Watcher]

I think there is no point being so concerned. Just like we are not concerned about car crashes and drownings and suicides. Why the covid hysteria? Just because it’s new?

That’s what is odd to me.

[Victoria Watcher]

Now apply this to every potential, to every risk, to every danger. Living is risky. It's like going sailing. You can look at every danger and obsess about it and become so consumed by fear you just don't do it. Or you can be aware of the way things are and navigate, even harness these forces and enjoy a great day sailing....
Hope everyone enjoys the Dark Winter 2.0!

Exactly.

[Ismo07]

I think there is no point being so concerned. Just like we are not concerned about car crashes and drownings and suicides. Why the covid hysteria? Just because it’s new?

That’s what is odd to me.

 

Yes a new threat that has not been defined entirely.  If a cougar is spotted a few times and hasn't attacked anyone that somehow draws interest even though heart disease kills thousands.  Reporting 30 kids have contracted a virus in a small area is of interest, this is not hysteria.  To turn around and wonder why we talk about it cause more kids die of other reasons?  That's likely a little aloof about it.  Can we confirm Covid kills more than cougars?

[Victoria Watcher]

we can confirm flu kills more kids. and there is little attention paid.

[Mike K.]

Now apply this to every potential, to every risk, to every danger. Living is risky. It's like going sailing. You can look at every danger and obsess about it and become so consumed by fear you just don't do it. Or you can be aware of the way things are and navigate, even harness these forces and enjoy a great day sailing....
Hope everyone enjoys the Dark Winter 2.0!

Yeah, but this is a new deadly risk. We don’t need more deadly risks in our lives.

[Victoria Watcher]

B.C. hospital occupancy remains far below pre-pandemic times

77.1% of B.C. hospitals beds are filled. Pre-pandemic, occupancy exceeded 100%.

https://www.coastrep...c-times-4467334

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 September 2021 - 02:26 PM.

[Victoria Watcher]

British Columbia has recorded another 813 cases of COVID-19 and 11 related deaths, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease Control.

The latest numbers, provided on the BCCDC's COVID-19 dashboard on Wednesday afternoon, pushed the province's seven-day average for coronavirus cases to 754 per day, the highest it's been since May 4.

https://bc.ctvnews.c...eaths-1.5604938

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 September 2021 - 03:19 PM.

[Nparker]

...The latest numbers, provided on the BCCDC's COVID-19 dashboard on Wednesday afternoon, pushed the province's seven-day average for coronavirus cases to 754 per day, the highest it's been since May 4....

Those "vaccine passports" are really working.

[todd]

“RCMP union says it supports a Mountie's 'right' to refuse vaccination”: https://www.cbc.ca/n...ation-1.6190803

[LJ]

I guess that means that Horgan and our other 'leaders' who received AZ won't be able to travel outside of Canada, or?

The US and most European countries recognize AZ as a valid vaccine.

[LJ]

^^ I know Mrs. Sparky is going to be pissed when I climb onto the jet for Hawaii and she is left standing at the gate.

Depends when you are going. As of now, no vaccine is required to travel to the US, in the future maybe, but AZ is recognized by the US.

[Victoria Watcher]

Alberta:


There are currently 1,084 people in hospital with COVID, including 268 in ICU. Of the 268 in ICU, 90.6 per cent are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...nuary-1.6194350

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 30 September 2021 - 02:06 AM.

[spanky123]

Depends when you are going. As of now, no vaccine is required to travel to the US, in the future maybe, but AZ is recognized by the US.

 

You are not getting on a plane these days unless you are double vaccinated. US is barring folks with AZ from entry as well.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...ravel-1.6187613

 

It is confusing as even people who are double vaccinated need a PCR test to cross the border. Some folks are confusing that with thinking only a PCR test is required.

Edited by spanky123, 30 September 2021 - 06:58 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

For the first time since June, the rate of new COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. is expected to decrease over the next four weeks, according to an ensemble forecast from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

And for the third week in a row, Wednesday's CDC forecast predicted that hospitalizations will decrease as well -- a bit of hope as the more transmissible Delta variant continues to spread.

 

 

https://www.ctvnews....asing-1.5606340

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 30 September 2021 - 07:01 AM.

[spanky123]

^ With the exception of BC and Alberta, rates around the world seem to have been dropping for the last month. I wonder what we are doing wrong?

Edited by spanky123, 30 September 2021 - 07:58 AM.

[Nparker]

Don't worry, BC's vaccine passport will make everything better.

[amor de cosmos]

REALLY???

Concerned about the economic toll of COVID-19 lockdowns, state and local governments began to experiment with lifting restrictions on businesses as early as last spring, leading to an ever-shifting array of rules that varied widely from place to place. Now, a new USC study of more than 80 counties nationwide reveals the difference more or less restrictive policies may have had on the spread of COVID-19.
 
The research, published in the Journal of Public Health, showed businesses that fully reopened during the height of the pandemic last fall saw more than a 10% rise in the COVID-19 infection rate in their first two weeks, nearly double the rise of establishments that only partially reopened, according to new USC research.
 
Among the businesses that fully reopened, with no additional restrictions in areas like capacity limits, gyms had the highest rise in infection rate, followed by hair salons and barber shops. Surprisingly, in this category, bars actually had the lowest change in infection rate among business types examined. But among businesses that only partially reopened, bars had the highest rise in infection rates, followed by gyms.
 
"Bars were among the last businesses to open and at the time of the study, only 13 counties allowed bars to be fully open, so there were fewer data points to analyze" said co-first author Alexander Bruckhaus, a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates fellow in the lab of Dominique Duncan, Ph.D., at the Laboratory of Neuro Imaging at the USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute (USC Stevens INI). "The high change in infection rate among partially reopened bars could be indicative that bars are a dangerous place to be during a pandemic because first, when people drink, they're not wearing their masks, and second, they could be intoxicated, and they wouldn't necessarily adhere to the safety precautions."

https://medicalxpres...ster-fully.html
 
Countries with greater resources are opening up for a more normal life. But COVID-19 and the SARS-CoV-2 virus are still a significant threat in large parts of the world. The lack of medicines that are effective, easy to distribute and easy to obtain are a significant part of the problem. However, recent research on a new drug combination is showing promising results. The combined use of nafamostat and Pegasys (IFNα) meets all availability and efficacy requirements.
https://medicalxpres...-infection.html

Stress of COVID-19 pandemic caused irregular menstrual cycles
First U.S. study to evaluate impact of pandemic stress on periods
https://news.northwe...nstrual-cycles/
https://www.scienced...10929155707.htm
 

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve, new variants are expected to arise that may have an increased ability to infect their hosts and evade the hosts' immune systems. The first key step in infection is when the virus’ spike protein binds to the ACE2 receptor on human cells. Researchers at Penn State have created a novel framework that can predict with reasonable accuracy the amino-acid changes in the virus’ spike protein that may improve its binding to human cells and confer increased infectivity to the virus.
 
The tool could enable the computational surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 and provide advance warning of potentially dangerous variants with an even higher binding affinity potential. This can aid in the early implementation of public health measures to prevent the virus’s spread and perhaps even may inform vaccine booster formulations.
 
“Emerging variants could potentially be highly contagious in humans and other animals,” said Suresh Kuchipudi, clinical professor of veterinary and biomedical sciences and associate director of the Animal Diagnostic Lab, Penn State. “Therefore, it is critical to proactively assess what amino acid changes may likely increase the infectiousness of the virus. Our framework is a powerful tool for determining the impact of amino acid changes in the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that affect the ability of the virus to bind to ACE2 receptors in humans and multiple animal species.”

https://news.psu.edu...more-infectious
https://www.scienced...10929163800.htm
 

The transmission of new coronaviruses from animals to humans may be more common in Southeast Asia than previously thought, German local media has reported.
 
"Evidence suggests that some bat SARS-related coronaviruses (SARSr-CoVs) could infect people directly, and that their spillover is more frequent than previously recognized," says a study led by Cecilia Sanchez of the EcoHealth Alliance.
 
By matching data on bat distribution with population density, and possible overlap zones of human and animal habitats and activities, researchers determined that there could be around 400,000 infections with SARS-related bat coronaviruses in Southeast Asia every year.

http://www.ecns.cn/n...pe0572955.shtml
 
YouTube is banning a wide range of anti-vaccine misinformation, saying it will remove videos that falsely claim vaccines cause diseases or alter people's genetic makeup, that vaccines are used to track people, or that vaccines "are part of a depopulation agenda."
https://arstechnica....n-youtube-bans/

Police Officer Wayne Couzens 'Used Knowledge of Covid Regulations' to Abduct and Kill Sarah Everard
https://sputniknews....1089510114.html

Pope Francis to Require Vaccination or Negative COVID-19 Tests From Vatican Staff
https://sputniknews....1089535304.html
 

GENEVA, September 30. /TASS/. There is "a horrifying inequity" between countries as far as access to coronavirus vaccines goes, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in remarks at Columbia University World Leaders Forum.
 
"More than 6 billion vaccine doses have now been administered globally, and almost one-third of the world’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But those numbers mask a horrifying inequity. More than 75% of vaccines have gone to high-and upper-middle income countries. Low-income countries have received less than half of one percent of the world’s vaccines. In Africa, just 4% of people are fully vaccinated," he pointed out. "WHO’s targets are to vaccinate 40% of the population of every country by the end of this year, and 70% by the middle of next year. These targets are eminently achievable, but only if the countries and companies that control the global vaccine supply do their part," the WHO director general added.

https://tass.com/society/1344091
 

Vaccine nationalism amid the COVID-19 crisis has been disappointing, said Aaditya Mattoo, World Bank chief economist for East Asia and Pacific Region, urging policymakers to boost trade openness to rein in the virus and support recovery.
 
"I am a trade economist and all my life, I believed that production should happen where it is most efficient and then be distributed to where there is greatest need," Mattoo told Xinhua in a remote video interview Monday.
 
"But this crisis has disappointed me because instead of countries pursuing a globally optimal cooperative strategy, there has been what we call vaccine nationalism," Mattoo said.
 
According to the World Bank's East Asia and Pacific Fall 2021 Economic Update, vaccination in the region faces three major constraints, as availability held back vaccination rates in larger countries like Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, smaller, poorer countries are constrained by limited distribution infrastructure, and there is also vaccine hesitancy.
 
Faced with vaccine nationalism, Mattoo said "perhaps not nationally, but at least regionally," it is necessary to have reliable supplies, so countries are "not hostage to a situation where other countries do not share vaccines."
 
In addition, the trade economist called for allowing easier access and facilitating transfer of vaccine technology, where the whole world can work together to expand production now.
 
"You see the perverse result of a strategy that just focuses domestically, because if you do not suppress infection outside your country, you will remain vulnerable to the emergence of new variants," he said.
 
"We might be condemned to a perpetual race between vaccines and variants, and we need to win that race globally, not nationally," he added.

http://www.ecns.cn/n...pe0573132.shtml

Ukraine reports highest daily COVID cases since April
https://medicalxpres...ovid-cases.html

Despite Covid-19, restrictions on foreign pilgrims, number of Arbaeen pilgrims broke record
AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The Secretariat of the Holy Shrine of Hazrat Abbas (a.s.) announced, “The number of pilgrims participating in the Arbaeen Hussaini (a.s.) ceremony this year has reached more than 16 million.”
https://en.abna24.co...ge_1184450.html

Western Coronavirus Vaccines May Be Coming to Russia – Kommersant
https://www.themosco...mmersant-a75173

The 9 psychological barriers that lead to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and refusal
https://theconversat...-refusal-168643

'Manageable' COVID-19 to continue to exist for some years, says BioNTech co-founder
Ozlem Tureci suggests world should not live in fear as pandemic already started to become manageable
https://www.aa.com.t...founder/2379392

U.S. Sanctions Blamed as Venezuela Laments Frozen Order for Medicine
One of Portugal’s largest banks is holding up a $12.7 million order to fund shipment of medical supplies and vaccines to Venezuela.
https://theintercept...ons-novo-banco/

Philippine economy to take 10 years to recover from COVID-19
http://alriyadhdaily...8ab980764b14bc7
 
Activity in China’s vast factory sector contracted in September for the first time since the pandemic began, the latest sign of deceleration in the world’s second-largest economy.
https://www.bloomber...-pandemic-began
 
Cui Gang, an official at the National Health Commission, said the commission will guide local governments to give booster shots first to people who have been fully vaccinated for six months and work in high-risk areas including airports, ports, border checkpoints and hospitals, as well as people over the age of 60.
http://www.ecns.cn/n...pe0573084.shtml
 

China was the first country to be affected by Covid-19 and took unprecedented lockdown measures that led to a historic decline in growth of at least 6% in 2020. But in 2021, the country has mounted a recovery and economic growth is projected to reach 8.5 percent by the end of the year, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
 
Yet the pandemic has still led to lasting changes the labour market in China, following which the country may need to pursue new avenues for growth.
 
In the hospitality and export industries, companies were forced to lay off staff or delay their return to work in 2020. The delivery sector, on the other hand, has been growing continuously for a number of years now and has recruited en masse during the pandemic, with many workers who lost their jobs in other sectors turning instead to more flexible roles as couriers and drivers.

*snip*

By the end of July 2020 there were over 13 million migrant workers employed locally. Alongside those who became farmers or were taken on by companies, 5% started making local products and selling them directly via live-streaming, thus undermining the Chinese model of modernisation which had previously been based on the mobilisation of cheap and easily exploitable rural labour in towns and cities for the past three decades.

Women lose out

In China, as elsewhere, the position of women in the job market in particular has deteriorated, with the pandemic only serving to accentuate the steady decline in their rate of employment, which had already dropped from 80% in the 1980s to 60% in 2019. In cities, family members have once again been called upon to care for children and the elderly – a task normally entrusted to migrant women.
 
*snip*
 
The pandemic has made it all the more difficult for young graduates to find work in 2021 since large numbers of the previous cohort are still yet to find employment. Many of them are consequently preparing to continue their studies or to take the entrance exams for the civil service in an attempt to delay their entry into such a hostile market. A survey conducted in Hunan province estimated that 37.5% of young graduates intended to set up their own businesses, a move encouraged by the authorities, 20.8% to continue their studies and 10.5% to take civil service exams.

https://theconversat...for-good-167597

Alabama Governor on Defensive Over Plan to Use $400 Million in Federal Covid Relief to Build Prisons
https://sputniknews....1089534811.html
 

A network of health care providers pocketed millions of dollars selling hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and online consultations, according to hacked data provided to The Intercept. The data show that vast sums of money are being extracted from people concerned about or suffering from Covid-19 but resistant to vaccinations or other recommendations of public health authorities.
 
America’s Frontline Doctors, a right-wing group founded last year to promote pro-Trump doctors during the coronavirus pandemic, is working in tandem with a small network of health care companies to sow distrust in the Covid-19 vaccine, dupe tens of thousands of people into seeking ineffective treatments for the disease, and then sell consultations and millions of dollars’ worth of those medications. The data indicate patients spent at least $15 million — and potentially much more — on consultations and medications combined.
 
The Intercept has obtained hundreds of thousands of records from two companies, CadenceHealth.us and Ravkoo, revealing just how the lucrative operation works. America’s Frontline Doctors, or AFLDS, has been spreading highly politicized misinformation about Covid-19 since the summer of 2020 and refers its many followers to its telemedicine partner SpeakWithAnMD.com, which uses Cadence Health as a platform. People who sign up then pay $90 for a phone consultation with “AFLDS-trained physicians” who prescribe treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to prevent and treat Covid-19. The drugs are delivered by Ravkoo, a service that works with local pharmacies to ship drugs to patients’ doors. Of course, that’s if patients ever get the consultation; many customers told Time they never received the call after paying.
 
The data from the Cadence Health and Ravkoo sites was provided to The Intercept by an anonymous hacker who said the sites were “hilariously easy” to hack, despite promises of patient privacy. It was corroborated by comparing it to publicly available information. The Intercept is not publishing any individual patient data and has taken steps to secure the data. After The Intercept reached out, Cadence Health’s Roque Espinal-Valdez said he shut the platform down, not wanting any part in profiting off of Covid-19 “quackery.”
 
America’s Frontline Doctors, which debuted in the summer of 2020, has close ties to a network of right-wing efforts to undermine public health during the pandemic, including the Tea Party Patriots. AFLDS’s founder, physician Simone Gold, was arrested and charged after the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. She and other doctors have appeared in widely shared videos arguing that the drugs hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin — which are primarily used to treat malaria in humans and parasitic worms in livestock, respectively — are effective treatments for Covid-19, despite warnings from the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention against using them.

longish, unsurprisingly
https://theintercept...rmectin-hacked/
via https://www.dailykos...roxychloroquine
 

The MAGA medical group that spent the pandemic pushing horse paste and malaria meds as quack COVID cures has a new crusade: suing the Pentagon to stop its vaccine mandate. The lawsuit, first filed on behalf of Army and Marine Corps staff sergeants, has since enlisted the support of an Army lieutenant colonel and flight surgeon to help argue their case.
 
Lt. Col. Theresa M. Long, who serves as the brigade surgeon for the Army’s 1st Aviation Brigade, filed an affidavit late last week in support of the suit’s motion to block the vaccine mandate, arguing against the requirement based in part on her (false) belief that “all persons who have received a Covid 19 Vaccine are damaged in their cardiovascular system in an irreparable and irrevocable manner.”
 
Long did not respond to requests for comment from The Daily Beast.
 
The affidavit was filed as part of a suit brought by lawyers working with America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS), according to the group, and requests a declaratory judgment blocking the vaccine requirement, on behalf of Staff Sergeants Dan Robert (USA), Hollie Mulvihill (USMC), and anti-vaxxers within the military.
 
The legal effort faces long odds in overturning Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s order directing the armed services mandate of COVID-19 vaccination for active duty service members. “We have a [Uniform Code of Military Justice] that really addresses all of the issues in the military and gives our leadership what they need to be able to enforce standards,” Austin said at a Senate hearing on Tuesday when questioned about the mandate. “Taking the vaccine is a requirement, and again I’ll just leave it at that.”

https://www.thedaily...vaccine-mandate

94%: In Air Force, Vaccine Reluctance Falls Away as Deadline Approaches
https://www.military...approaches.html

Universal Studios Will Require Proof of Vaccination and Masks Starting Next Week
Starting Monday, visitors 12 and above must show vaccination cards or a negative covid-19 test taken within 72 hours of visiting.
https://gizmodo.com/...-and-1847770511

Hospitals in several states are ramping up security and even providing wearable panic buttons to staff amid a wave of violent attacks sparked by COVID-related misinformation, denialists, and conspiracy theorists.
https://arstechnica....rs-get-violent/
 

When President Joe Biden announced his administration would require vaccines or weekly COVID tests for federal workers and businesses with 100 or more employees, Republicans pounced—as the saying goes—into fundraising mode.
 
The day after the announcement, the Republican National Committee began blasting out emails and text messages asking supporters to reach into their pockets to help fund a coming legal challenge against the supposedly “authoritarian” mandate.
 
“WE WILL SUE BIDEN TO END HIS AUTHORITARIAN VACCINE MANDATE,” the first of the emails read, claiming Americans risk losing their freedoms “like never before.”
 
“We’re calling on EVERY Patriot to step up and help fund our efforts. Are you going to join us or will you sit on the sidelines?” email asked, and suggested a $45 donation.

https://www.thedaily...en-vax-mandates
via https://www.dailykos...sing-off-it-too
 

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the largest U.S. mass-transit provider, is running on borrowed time, facing budget and revenue challenges as federal aid is set to tap out in 2025, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, said in a report Tuesday.
 
Ridership sank on the MTA’s subways, buses and commuter rails during the coronavirus pandemic. Its subway system is still only carrying about half the number of weekday passengers it did in 2019. Recent severe weather has pummeled the transit network with record rainfall, flooding subway stations and suspending service.

https://www.bloomber...omptroller-says
via https://archinect.co...-work-continues