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COVID-19 / Coronavirus updates in Victoria, BC


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#18041 todd

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Posted 12 October 2021 - 06:31 PM

Politicians in both Canada and the United States are pushing the Biden administration to reopen the U.S. land border to fully vaccinated Canadian travellers.

Canadians have not been allowed to cross the land border to the U.S. since March 2020 except for essential purposes. The emergency measure was extended last month and will remain in effect until at least Oct. 21.


https://www.cbc.ca/n...ement-1.6208422

“Canada-U.S. will reopen land border to fully vaccinated visitors in November, Congress members say”: https://www.ctvnews....s-say-1.5620929

 

“U.S. to reopen land border to Canadians next month”: https://www.cbc.ca/n...eopen-1.6208838


Edited by todd, 12 October 2021 - 06:35 PM.


#18042 todd

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Posted 12 October 2021 - 06:38 PM

Does this includes children who attend public worship services?

Yes.



#18043 Nparker

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Posted 12 October 2021 - 07:15 PM

...Worship services are exempt from both the provincial mask mandate that requires mask use in indoor public spaces and the requirement to provide proof of immunization against COVID-19 to access some events, services and businesses...

http://www.bccdc.ca/...rship-practices

 



#18044 lanforod

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Posted 12 October 2021 - 08:08 PM

Many churches are requiring them anyways.

#18045 amor de cosmos

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 07:31 AM

COVID-19 outbreak declared at Tofino General Hospital
https://www.timescol...ital-1.24363494

West Shore man caught on camera gluing doors of COVID-19 vaccination clinic shut
https://www.victoria...on-clinic-shut/
 

More than one-third of Canadians don't trust parents to keep their children home from school if they develop COVID-19 symptoms.
 
This is just one of the compelling findings of the Taking the Pulse of Canada national survey conducted by the University of Saskatchewan's (USask) Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research (CHASR), which received responses from 1,000 Canadian adults 18 years of age and older, contacted between Sept. 3 and Sept. 28 via landlines and cellphone.
 
The primary focus was to ask about the extent to which COVID-19 may or may not be a problem in schools, and to gauge Canadians' response overall to public health guidelines.
 
*snip*
 
Among the survey's findings: 89 percent of respondents said they were vaccinated; Quebec and the Prairie provinces (Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan) are less likely than other regions to support requiring students and staff to wear masks inside schools or limiting the size of social gatherings; Ontario and Prairie respondents are less trusting of parents to keep kids with COVID-19 symptoms out of school than British Columbians or Quebecers; and B.C. and Prairie residents are less likely to think COVID-positive people should be required to isolate themselves.
 
Other highlights:

  • Vaccinated persons were more likely support most public health measures.
  • 21 percent of the respondents had children in school. Of them, 89 percent were vaccinated. Unsurprisingly, their children were more likely to be vaccinated, as well.
  • Women are more supportive of measures such as indoor masking, limiting the number of persons allowed in businesses, and restricting the size of social gatherings and mass gatherings.
  • Unvaccinated people were more trusting of parents to keep COVID-symptomatic children at home from school, while younger respondents (under age 55) were less likely to be as trusting.
  • Those over age 55 were far more concerned than younger respondents about the spread of COVID-19 in schools in their area, and at post-secondary institutions.
  • Quebec and Ontario parents (78 and 64 percent) were confident of COVID-19 safeguards enacted by schools, compared to those in Atlantic Canada, B.C. and the Prairies (51 percent or below).
"The overall national numbers on support for public health measure are driven largely by Central Canada and Atlantic Canada," said Disano. "Saskatchewan and Alberta actually bring those numbers down somewhat."

https://medicalxpres...ren-school.html
 

For the study, published in the Journal of Biological Dynamics, researchers introduced two models: a coupled disease-human behavior (or disease-game theoretic) model to study the impact of full social distancing, and a coupled disease-human behavior model with an economic component to study the interplay between infectious diseases, human response to disease control measures, and the associated economic impact.
 
Results reveal that disease elimination might be possible. According to the first model, this is possible only if the entire population practices complete social distancing. The second model, however, highlights the role of the economy. If the economy is weaker than the social norms, then elimination of the disease is only possible if the entire population practices complete social distancing – a scenario that is probably not very realistic. However, if the economy is stronger than the social norms, then elimination is possible with some portion of the population practicing complete social distancing at the expense of the economy.
 
“The lack of economic perspective has been identified as a serious drawback of the multiple COVID-19 mathematical models that have emerged since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Tuncer.  “In fact, the question is so important that it has driven some preliminary studies with limited mathematical discussion, which is what inspired us to develop our models, which combine epidemiological, evolutionary game theory and socio-economic perspectives in a single framework.” 
 
The first model can have five different kinds of equilibria: a disease-free, social-distancing free equilibrium; a disease-free, full social-distancing equilibrium; and an intermediate level of full social distancing. The second model of social distancing with an economic compartment has 10 possible equilibria. The economic model, based on the neoclassical economic growth model, emphasizes structural relationships between different factors of production such as capital (e.g. equipment, infrastructure, education, health, among others), labor, and economic productivity. Specifically, the neoclassical growth model describes the change in capital with time according to the equation.

https://www.newswise...matical-models/

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a chemical compound that interferes with a key feature of many viruses that allows the viruses to invade human cells. The compound, called MM3122, was studied in cells and mice and holds promise as a new way to prevent infection or reduce the severity of COVID-19 if given early in the course of an infection, according to the researchers.
https://medicine.wus...entering-cells/
https://www.scienced...11012095043.htm
 

A leading medical historian from City's Department of Journalism has contributed an article on the scientific and political failures in the UK's response to COVID-19 to the Royal Society's Interface Focus journal.

Dr. Mark Honigsbaum, author of books including "The Pandemic Century" and "A History Of The Great Influenza Pandemics," has been a regular commentator on COVID-19 for the past couple of years.
 
The article is titled, "Imagining pandemics now, and then: a century of medical failure." It is included as part of a "COVID-19: science, history, culture and imagination" special issue also featuring Professor Chris Whitty, Professor Trisha Greenlagh, Professor Sir Roy Andersen and Phillip Ball.
 
Dr. Honigsbaum's criticisms in the article mirror those of the UK's management of the pandemic in the joint report issued yesterday by the House of Commons' science and technology committee and health and social care committee.
 
Like the House of Commons report, Dr. Honigsbaum [pictured] points to a culture of "group think" among key government scientific and medical advisors, many of whom appeared to countenance a policy of allowing the coronavirus to spread through the British population in order to generate 'herd immunity' – a term borrowed from vaccinology.
 
He argues that this 'failure of expertise' was compounded by political complacency and over-reliance on disease models predicated on influenza to 'mitigate' the spread of the coronavirus.
 
Following the article's publication, Dr. Honigsbaum said, "Unlike influenza, which has a two- to four-day incubation period, on average it takes 5–6 days and, in some cases as long as 14 days, for a person infected with SARS-CoV-2 to develop symptoms.
 
"That gives authorities a one- to two-week window in which to test, trace and isolate asymptomatic but potentially infectious individuals and suppress coronavirus infection chains before they can spiral out of control.
 
"But, as the joint report points out, despite being one of the first countries to develop a test for COVID in January 2020, the UK abandoned plans for test and trace and effectively 'squandered' its lead, resulting in the 'biggest health crisis in 100 years.'"
 
The article argues that the government's COVID response was a fundamental "imaginative failure." Although quarantines frequently provoke resistance, they are a familiar response to outbreaks, one whose logic has changed little since 1377 when Dubrovnik in southern Croatia passed an ordinance requiring travelers from plague-infested areas to isolate for 40 days beyond the city's limits.

https://medicalxpres...se-failure.html
 
Type 2 diabetes health checks down by 7.4 million due to UK's COVID restrictions in 2020
https://medicalxpres...ion-due-uk.html
 
Andaman Tribes At High Risk Of COVID-19, Scientists Urge "High Priority Protection"
India is home to several indigenous and smaller communities including Andaman Islanders that have been living in isolation for tens of thousands of years.
https://www.ndtv.com...tection-2574416
 

76% מחולי הקורונה במצב קשה אינם מחוסנים, עלייה קלה במקדם ההדבקה

76% of corona patients in severe condition are not vaccinated, a slight increase in the coefficient of infection
https://www.israelha...article/5038412

Russian Health Ministry issues permit for Phase Two trials of COVID nasal spray vaccine
The statement specifies that the vaccine will be tested on the base of the Eco-Safety scientific research center in St. Petersburg with 500 adult volunteers participating
https://tass.com/world/1349029

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The efficacy results of the single-dose Sputnik Light vaccine when administered alone against the Delta variant of COVID-19 reach 70% and surpass some of the two-shot vaccines, Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said on Wednesday.
https://sputniknews....1089890181.html
 

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - China will study thousands of samples from the Wuhan Blood Center, including those stored there since 2019, as part of the investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing a Chinese official.
 
The blood bank contains up to 200,000 samples, including those obtained in the last months of 2019. An expert panel from the World Health Organization (WHO) determined in early 2021 that the samples might be a useful source of data regarding the origins of the virus, the broadcaster said.

The tissue samples have been stored in the blood bank for a required period of two years to serve as evidence during probes, according to Chinese officials. As this term will soon expire for samples dating October-November 2019, Chinese experts are preparing to test them, the source told the outlet.

https://sputniknews....1089882481.html
 

NEW YORK/GENEVA, OCTOBER 11, 2021—Millions of people remain at risk of dying from COVID-19 because high-income countries (HICs), including the US, continue to hoard excess vaccine doses, warns a new report released today by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The international medical humanitarian organization is calling on governments to commit to a concrete plan to redistribute vaccine doses to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) via COVAX or regional procurement bodies by the end of October.

Even while factoring in third-dose boosters for high-risk groups, high-income countries are hoarding an estimated 870 million excess doses—nearly 500 million in the US alone. The rapid redistribution of these doses to low- and middle-income countries could save nearly one million lives by mid-2022.

“Despite its claim to be a global leader on COVID-19, the US is hoarding nearly 500 million excess COVID-19 vaccine doses—more than any other country,” said Dr. Carrie Teicher, director of programs at MSF-USA. “It’s reckless and dangerous for the US and other high-income countries to be sitting on excessive stocks of COVID-19 vaccines while others—including in many places where MSF is battling surges of COVID-19—are desperate to provide their most vulnerable people with even their first dose. The longer people everywhere remain unprotected, the more lives will be lost and the more likely it is that new and potentially deadlier variants will take hold. The US must immediately make public and concrete commitments to redistribute excess COVID-19 vaccines globally if it truly wants to end this pandemic.”

https://www.doctorsw...9-vaccine-doses
 
Pentagon Lacks COVID-19 Status of Thousands of Civilian Staff Amid Looming Jab Deadline
https://sputniknews....1089892334.html
 
Boeing will require all 125,000 of its U.S.-based employees to be vaccinated against covid-19, according to a new statement from the company and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Boeing employees will need to show proof of vaccination by December 8, when President Joe Biden’s executive order for vaccine requirements at government contractors takes effect.
https://gizmodo.com/...00-u-1847852952

Citing NYC's COVID Vaccine Mandate, Brooklyn Nets Ban Kyrie Irving From Team
https://gothamist.co...rie-irving-team

Catholic Troops Can Refuse COVID Vaccine, Archbishop Declares
“No one should be forced to receive a COVID-19 vaccine if it would violate the sanctity of his or her conscience,” Broglio wrote.
https://www.govexec....eclares/186062/
 

A Wisconsin brewery that says it's fed up with "anti-science," "Tucker Carlson-watching zombies" is funding a series of lawsuits against school boards that do not follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on COVID-19. So far, the Minocqua Brewing Company's Super PAC has helped parents sue two school districts and says it plans on "suing every school board in Wisconsin that doesn't follow CDC guidelines to protect the spread of COVID in schools."
 
In a Facebook post Sunday, brewery owner and Super PAC founder Kirk Bangstad answered a question that he said he was asked in "every interview" he did with news outlets last week: "Why is a brewery funding this lawsuit?"
 
"Our Super PAC should NOT be funding these lawsuits," Bangstad wrote. "We always thought that our government, the teacher's union, the ACLU, the hospitals, the nurse's unions, or any other number of progressive groups or 'academies of smart people who understand stuff' should be stepping up to block the alt-right, anti-science, and anti-history nonsense that has overcome school boards across our state. Wisconsin communities have exploded with the Delta variant because many school districts have dropped all forms of COVID mitigation that were in place last year due to the shrieking hordes of Tucker Carlson-watching zombies separated from their cerebrums and driven only by their lizard brains."

https://arstechnica....s-covid-advice/
 

A Colorado-based health system says it is denying organ transplants to patients not vaccinated against the coronavirus in “almost all situations,” citing studies that show these patients are much more likely to die if they get covid-19.
 
UCHealth’s rules for transplants entered the spotlight Tuesday when Colorado state Rep. Tim Geitner ® said it denied a kidney transplant to a Colorado Springs woman because she was not vaccinated against the coronavirus. Calling the decision “disgusting” and discriminatory, Geitner shared a letter that he said the patient received last week from UCHealth’s transplant center at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus in the city of Aurora.

The letter said the woman would be “inactivated” on a kidney transplant waiting list and had 30 days to start coronavirus vaccination. If she refused to be vaccinated, it said, she would be removed.

Geitner did not identify the patient allegedly denied a transplant, but Leilani Lutali told 9News that it was her and said she is “being coerced into making a decision that is one I’m not comfortable making right now in order to live.”

UCHealth declined to discuss particular patients because of federal privacy laws. But the health system confirmed Tuesday that nearly all of its transplant recipients and organ donors must get vaccinated against the coronavirus, in addition to other vaccinations and health requirements. A spokesman, Dan Weaver, said that other transplant centers in the United States have similar policies or are transitioning to them.

The policy illustrates the growing costs of being unvaccinated and wades into deeply controversial territory — the use of immunization status to decide who gets limited medical care. The mere idea of prioritizing the vaccinated for rationed health resources has drawn intense backlash, as overwhelmingly unvaccinated covid-19 patients push some hospitals to adopt “crisis standards of care,” in which health systems can prioritize patients for scarce resources based largely on their likelihood of survival.

Conditions on organ transplants are not new. Weaver noted that transplant centers around the country may require patients to get other vaccinations, stop smoking, avoid alcohol or demonstrate that they will take crucial medications in an effort to ensure that people do well post-surgery and do not “reject” organs for which there is fierce competition.

More than 100,000 people are on the transplant waiting list, and only a fraction of those seeking a kidney got one in 2020, according to the federal government. An estimated 17 people die every day waiting for an organ.

*snip*
 
Multiple studies show that covid-19 is especially deadly for recipients of kidney transplants. Weaver said the mortality rate observed for transplant patients who develop covid-19 ranges from about 20 percent to more than 30 percent — far higher than the 1.6 percent fatality rate observed generally in the United States.

“An organ transplant is a unique surgery that leads to a lifetime of specialized management to ensure an organ is not rejected, which can lead to serious complications, the need for a subsequent transplant surgery, or even death,” Weaver wrote in an email. “Physicians must consider the short- and long-term health risks for patients as they consider whether to recommend an organ transplant.”

Living donors could also pass a coronavirus infection to an organ recipient, threatening the patient’s life, Weaver said.

etc
https://www.washingt...t-unvaccinated/



#18046 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 07:40 AM

Ontario marks lowest COVID-19 daily case count in months with 306 infections

https://toronto.ctvn...tions-1.5621279

 

 

Quebec registers 512 new cases, 7 more deaths linked to COVID-19

https://globalnews.c...ctober-13-2021/


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 October 2021 - 07:41 AM.


#18047 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 08:45 AM

After weeks of insisting Quebec would go ahead and impose a vaccination mandate for health-care workers and suspend those who don't comply without pay, the province's health minister, Christian Dubé, has backtracked and is now giving them an extra month to get adequately vaccinated.

 

Health-care workers now have until Nov. 15 to get the necessary shots. The original deadline was this Friday.

 

Dubé says 96 per cent of health workers have received at least one vaccine dose, but with 21,900 workers still not adequately vaccinated, the health system wouldn't be able to handle losing so much staff.

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...-plan-1.6208975


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 October 2021 - 08:45 AM.


#18048 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 11:26 AM

No Vax, No Problem At Post

 

The post office, the biggest civilian employer in the federal public service, will permit unvaccinated employees to work by taking free weekly Covid tests, according to its largest union. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers said accommodation was reached with management and lawyers to ensure workers “have options that respect your rights.”

 

 

https://www.blackloc...roblem-at-post/

 

 


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 October 2021 - 11:27 AM.


#18049 Nparker

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 11:28 AM

No issues with that except the tests shouldn't be free. At the very least they should be paid through union dues.


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#18050 sebberry

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 11:31 AM

They seem to be overlooking the fact that postal workers (at least the ones on postal routes) are interacting closely with the public every day.  An infected postal worker could easily infect a dozen or more people a day.  


Victoria current weather by neighbourhood: Victoria school-based weather station network

Victoria webcams: Big Wave Dave Webcams

 


#18051 lanforod

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 01:14 PM

What? Posties drop mail in mailboxes. They don't knock on your door. Most are community mailboxes now too, but even individual house mailboxes don't result in interaction with the public other than perhaps a wave or a 'hi'/'thank you'.

Even for packages they generally ring the doorbell/knock and leave the package.

The exception is stuff that needs a signature, I guess, but that isn't the 'ones on postal routes'.



#18052 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 01:17 PM

What? Posties drop mail in mailboxes. They don't knock on your door. Most are community mailboxes now too, but even individual house mailboxes don't result in interaction with the public other than perhaps a wave or a 'hi'/'thank you'.

Even for packages they generally ring the doorbell/knock and leave the package.

The exception is stuff that needs a signature, I guess, but that isn't the 'ones on postal routes'.

 

 

 

the-wisdom-of-cheers-cliff-clavin-212.jp



#18053 Redd42

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 01:26 PM

What? Posties drop mail in mailboxes. They don't knock on your door. Most are community mailboxes now too, but even individual house mailboxes don't result in interaction with the public other than perhaps a wave or a 'hi'/'thank you'.

Even for packages they generally ring the doorbell/knock and leave the package.

The exception is stuff that needs a signature, I guess, but that isn't the 'ones on postal routes'.

 

They haven't been getting signatures since the beginning of the pandemic.


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#18054 laconic

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 01:26 PM

They seem to be overlooking the fact that postal workers (at least the ones on postal routes) are interacting closely with the public every day.  An infected postal worker could easily infect a dozen or more people a day.  

 

Postal workers have worked every working day during the pandemic. They have long been classified as an essential service, so had no choice. Various governments have legislated the carriers back to work and mandated arbitration, as in the current contract. If you have studies/cases/statistics of postal workers having easily infected all these members of the public I'd like to see them.

 

Postal workers who deliver door-to-door don't interact with the public much at all. Postal workers who have predominantly business routes tend to interact with those businesses much more often.


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#18055 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 01:29 PM

Postal workers have worked every working day during the pandemic. They have long been classified as an essential service, so had no choice. Various governments have legislated the carriers back to work and mandated arbitration, as in the current contract. If you have studies/cases/statistics of postal workers having easily infected all these members of the public I'd like to see them.

 

Postal workers who deliver door-to-door don't interact with the public much at all. Postal workers who have predominantly business routes tend to interact with those businesses much more often.

 

newman_jerry_seinfeld.png


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#18056 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 13 October 2021 - 02:29 PM

B.C. is reporting 605 new cases of COVID-19, including 18 epi-linked cases, for a total of 195,186 cases in the province.

 

https://news.gov.bc....HLTH0061-001968

 

 

 

  • Alberta reported 652 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday out of 8,620 tests.

https://www.cbc.ca/n...er-13-1.6208989


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 13 October 2021 - 02:30 PM.


#18057 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 14 October 2021 - 03:01 AM

 

https://www.worldome...country/canada/



#18058 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 14 October 2021 - 06:04 AM

In a clip shared on social media, which had been viewed more than 800,000 times as of Thursday morning, The Joe Rogan Experience host grilled Gupta over CNN reports that criticized his taking the drug ivermectin after being diagnosed with the disease.

https://www.newsweek...k-times-1638833

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 October 2021 - 06:05 AM.


#18059 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 14 October 2021 - 06:54 AM

Babylon Bee:

 

 

 

Australian hospitals are bursting at the seams, having reached their breaking point after being flooded with patients during the pandemic. The Australians streaming into the hospitals don't have COVID, though, but instead are just bloodied and bruised from cops beating them up for not wearing masks, going outside for fresh air, and talking to other people.

While Australia has done well keeping case numbers down throughout the pandemic, their performance fighting the virus has been offset by the number of people getting curb-stomped by police.

https://babylonbee.c...t-wearing-masks


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#18060 amor de cosmos

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Posted 14 October 2021 - 08:10 AM

CRD gives notice to staff, volunteers to get fully vaccinated by Dec. 13
https://www.timescol...c-13-1.24363790
 

Plenty of attention has been paid to rising job vacancy rates as provinces re-opened their restaurant and hospitality industries this summer. This is backed by plenty of anecdotal reports of restaurateurs’ inability to find workers.

Whenever I hear that “there is a worker shortage” I wait (in vain) for the critical proviso “at the wage I’m offering.”

This is a classic labour market problem: what do you do if you don’t get enough applicants for a job at the wage being offered? You increase the wage.

If firms are unwilling to raise wages to entice workers, it may also mean their business model is incompatible with the post-pandemic labour market.

Offered wage and whether people apply are related

Just prior to the pandemic, in the first quarter of 2020, the average wage for a new job posting in the restaurant and bar sector was $14.35 an hour. Fast forward to the second quarter of 2021 and the average new job in the sector is offering $14.75 an hour. If you adjust the difference for inflation, the real wage has actually fallen by 0.1% over the course of the pandemic.

To boot, restaurant jobs in the sector are harder now than they were pre-pandemic. Not only are you exposed to a deadly health risk, but you have to wear a mask all day, endure customer abuse while enforcing mask and vaccination rules, all while hoping new lockdowns don’t shut your job down for the fourth time.

A harder job for lower real pay does not make for a compelling case for workers.

Of course wages aren’t the only thing determining job vacancy rates. You also need to consider educational requirements, work location and job desirability. But it will come as no surprise that there has always been a negative relationship between the wages being offered for a new job and the vacancy rate in an industry (although this is often missing from articles on rising job vacancies).

If you are offering lower wages, you’re more likely to have job vacancies.

The food and accommodation industry has always had this problem, since they often offer at or near minimum wage, which is why they tend to lead the pack in job vacancies. This was just as true before the pandemic, before the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and before the recent rehiring boom.

etc (longish)
https://monitormag.c...r-paying-jobs-2
 
Ontario's new plan for lifting COVID-19 restrictions coming next week
Path for exiting Step 3 of 'Roadmap to Reopen' will be cautious, says senior official in Ford government
https://www.cbc.ca/n...age-3-1.6209162
 

People who received Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine may benefit from a booster dose of Pfizer or Moderna, preliminary results of a US study published Wednesday showed.
 
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was eagerly awaited in the United States because it looked at the possibility of "mixing" vaccines—using a different vaccine than the initial doses for the booster shot—which is not currently allowed in the country.
 
The study was conducted on 458 adults who had been vaccinated with one of three US-approved brands (Pfizer, Moderna or J&J) for at least 12 weeks.
 
These three groups were each divided into three new groups to receive one of the available vaccines as a booster. The nine groups consisted of about 50 people each.
 
Researchers then analyzed antibody levels 15 days after the booster shot.
 
For people originally inoculated with J&J, antibody levels were four times higher after a J&J booster, 35 times higher after a Pfizer booster and 76 times higher after a Moderna booster.
 
And antibody levels for those who had originally received Moderna shots were higher "irrespective of the booster vaccine administered," when compared with those who had initially received Pfizer or J&J, the study said.

https://medicalxpres...vaccinated.html
 

HERSHEY, Pa.  —  More than half of the 236 million people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 worldwide since December 2019 will experience post-COVID symptoms — more commonly known as “long COVID” — up to six months after recovering, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers. The research team said that governments, health care organizations and public health professionals should prepare for the large number of COVID-19 survivors who will need care for a variety of psychological and physical symptoms.
 
During their illnesses, many patients with COVID-19 experience symptoms, such as tiredness, difficulty breathing, chest pain, sore joints and loss of taste or smell.
 
Until recently, few studies have evaluated patients’ health after recovering from the coronavirus. To better understand the short- and long-term health effects of the virus, the researchers examined worldwide studies involving unvaccinated patients who recovered from COVID-19. According to the findings, adults, as well as children, can experience several adverse health issues for six months or longer after recovering from COVID-19.
 
*snip*
 
According to the findings, survivors experienced an array of residual health issues associated with COVID-19. Generally, these complications affected a patient’s general well-being, their mobility or organ systems. Overall, one in two survivors experienced long-term COVID manifestations. The rates remained largely constant from one month through six or more months after their initial illness. 
 
The investigators noted several trends among survivors, such as:

  • General well-being: More than half of all patients reported weight loss, fatigue, fever or pain.
  • Mobility: Roughly one in five survivors experienced a decrease in mobility.
  • Neurologic concerns: Nearly one in four survivors experienced difficulty concentrating.
  • Mental health disorders: Nearly one in three patients were diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorders.
  • Lung abnormalities: Six in ten survivors had chest imaging abnormality and more than a quarter of patients had difficulty breathing.
  • Cardiovascular issues: Chest pain and palpitations were among the commonly reported conditions.
  • Skin conditions: Nearly one in five patients experienced hair loss or rashes.
  • Digestive issues: Stomach pain, lack of appetite, diarrhea and vomiting were among the commonly reported conditions.
“These findings confirm what many health care workers and COVID-19 survivors have been claiming, namely, that adverse health effects from COVID-19 can linger,” said co-lead investigator Vernon Chinchilli, chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences. "Although previous studies have examined the prevalence of long COVID symptoms among patients, this study examined a larger population, including people in high-, middle- and low-income countries, and examined many more symptoms. Therefore, we believe our findings are quite robust given the available data.”

“The burden of poor health in COVID-19 survivors is overwhelming,” said co-lead investigator Dr. Paddy Ssentongo, assistant professor at the Penn State Center for Neural Engineering. “Among these are the mental health disorders. One's battle with COVID doesn’t end with recovery from the acute infection. Vaccination is our best ally to prevent getting sick from COVID-19 and to reduce the chance of long-COVID even in the presence of a breakthrough infection.”

https://news.psu.edu...esearchers-find
https://www.scienced...11013114112.htm

Estimated pulse wave velocity (ePWV), a readily available marker of aortic stiffening, has been shown to be an effective addition in identifying patients at risk of death in hospital due to the virus.
https://www.ncl.ac.u...ctsseverecovid/
https://www.scienced...11013114101.htm

 

study/survey of the week

Some high-profile examples of harassment have been well documented. Anthony Fauci, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was assigned personal security guards after he and his family received death threats; UK chief medical adviser Chris Whitty was grabbed and shoved in the street; and German virologist Christian Drosten received a parcel with a vial of liquid labelled ‘positive’ and a note telling him to drink it. In one extraordinary case, Belgian virologist Marc Van Ranst and his family were placed in a safe house when a military sniper went on the run after leaving a note outlining his intentions to target virologists.

 

These examples are extreme. But in Nature’s survey, more than two-thirds of researchers reported negative experiences as a result of their media appearances or their social media comments, and 22% had received threats of physical or sexual violence. Some scientists said that their employer had received complaints about them, or that their home address had been revealed online. Six scientists said they were physically attacked (see Supplementary information for survey data tables).

 

Coordinated social-media campaigns and threatening e-mails or phone calls to scientists are not new: topics such as climate change, vaccination and the effects of gun violence have drawn similar attacks in the past. But even scientists who had a high profile before COVID-19 told Nature that the abuse was a new and unwelcome phenomenon tied to the pandemic. Many wanted the extent of the problem discussed more openly. “I believe national governments, funding agencies and scientific societies have not done enough to publicly defend scientists,” one researcher wrote in their survey response.

 

*snip*

 

Some aspects of COVID-19 science have become so politicized that it is hard to mention them without attracting a storm of abuse. Epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz at the University of Wollongong in Australia, who has gained a following on Twitter for his detailed dissection of research papers, says that two major triggers are vaccines and the anti-parasite drug ivermectin — controversially promoted as a potential COVID-19 treatment without evidence it was effective. “Any time you write about vaccines — anyone in the vaccine world can tell you the same story — you get vague death threats, or even sometimes more specific death threats and endless hatred,” he says. But he’s found the passionate defence of ivermectin surprising. “I think I’ve received more death threats due to ivermectin, in fact, than anything I’ve done before,” he says. “It’s anonymous people e-mailing me from weird accounts saying ‘I hope you die’ or ‘if you were near me I would shoot you’.”

 

Andrew Hill, a pharmacologist at the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Translational Medicine, received vitriolic abuse after he and his colleagues published a meta-analysis in July. It suggested ivermectin showed a benefit, but Hill and his co-authors then decided to retract and revise the analysis when one of the largest studies they included was withdrawn because of ethical concerns about its data (A. Hill et al. Open Forum Inf. Dis. 8, ofab394; 2021). After that, Hill was besieged with images of hanged people and coffins, with attackers saying he would be subject to ‘Nuremberg trials’, and that he and his children would ‘burn in hell’. He has since closed his Twitter account.

etc

https://www.nature.c...586-021-02741-x
 
Fewer patients sought treatment for kidney failure in early months of COVID-19 pandemic
https://medicalxpres...ey-failure.html

 

МОСКВА, 14 окт — РИА Новости. Исследование немецких ученых показало, что коронавирус SARS-CoV-2 проникает в глаза и инфицирует фоторецепторы и ганглиозные клетки сетчатки. Авторы отмечают, что это может быть одной из причин, почему некоторые пациенты с постковидным синдромом жалуются на проблемы с глазами. Статья опубликована на сервере препринтов bioRxiv.org.

MOSCOW, October 14 - RIA Novosti. A study by German scientists showed that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus enters the eyes and infects the photoreceptors and ganglion cells of the retina. The authors note that this may be one of the reasons why some post-COVID-19 patients complain of eye problems. The article was published on the bioRxiv.org preprint server.

https://ria.ru/20211...1754586603.html
 
more of the usual

Ivermectin is an over 30-year-old wonder drug that treats life- and sight-threatening parasitic infections. Its lasting influence on global health has been so profound that two of the key researchers in its discovery and development won the Nobel Prize in 2015.
 
I’ve been an infectious disease pharmacist for over 25 years. I’ve also managed patients who delayed proper treatment for their severe COVID-19 infections because they thought ivermectin could cure them.
 
Although ivermectin has been a game-changer for people with certain infectious diseases, it isn’t going to save patients from COVID-19 infection. In fact, it could cost them their lives.
 
Let me tell you a short story about the history of ivermectin.
 
*snip*
 
Not every attempt at repurposing a drug works as hoped, however.
 
At the start of the pandemic, scientists and doctors tried to find inexpensive medications to repurpose for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine were two of those drugs. They were chosen because of possible antiviral effects documented in laboratory studies and limited anecdotal case reports from the first COVID-19 outbreaks in China. However, large clinical studies of these drugs to treat COVID-19 did not translate to any meaningful benefits. This was partly due to the serious toxic effects patients experienced before the drugs reached a high enough dose to inhibit or kill the virus.
 
Unfortunately, lessons from these failed attempts have not been applied to ivermectin. The false hope around using ivermectin to treat COVID-19 originated from an April 2020 laboratory study in Australia. Although the results from this study were widely circulated, I immediately had serious doubts. The concentration of ivermectin they tested was 20 to 2,000 times higher than the standard dosages used to treat human parasitic infections. Indeed, many other pharmaceutical experts confirmed my initial concerns within a month of the paper’s publication. Such high concentrations of the drug could be significantly toxic.
 
*snip*
 
At the time of this writing, two large randomized clinical trials both showed no significant benefit from the use of ivermectin for COVID-19. Reputable national and international health care organizations, including the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Infectious Diseases Society of America, unanimously recommend against the use of ivermectin to prevent or treat COVID-19 unless in the context of a clinical trial.
 
*snip*
 
Ivermectin, when used correctly, has prevented millions of potentially fatal and debilitating infectious diseases. It’s meant to be prescribed only to treat infections caused by parasites. It’s not meant to be prescribed by parasites looking to extract money from desperate people during a pandemic. It’s my sincere hope that this unfortunate and tragic chapter in the otherwise incredible story of a lifesaving medication will come to a quick end.

https://theconversat...covid-19-168449
 

Even though all medications have a potential for side effects, the risks of taking a parasite-killing drug may be higher than others, said Dr. Waleed Javaid, epidemiologist and director of Infection Prevention and Control at Mount Sinai Downtown in New York.
 
“These drugs are not nontoxic,” he said. “Parasites are big organisms, they are not microscopic. You can see them — they are big worms in the belly — so just thinking about them, the drugs that affect them have to be more toxic than drugs that affect bacteria and viruses, which are much smaller. The bigger the organism you want to kill, usually you need to escalate the dose and the toxicity.”
 
Any drug taken at the incorrect dose or formulation can be ineffective or even dangerous. That’s why taking ivermectin intended for farm animals — like cattle, which can weigh 1,500 pounds or more — can be especially harmful.
 
According to the CDC, at least one person has tried to prevent COVID by drinking a type of ivermectin meant to be injected into cattle. They ended up with confusion, hallucinations, shortness of breath, tremors, and drowsiness.
 
“The patient recovered after being hospitalized for nine days,” the CDC reported.
 
Another person who already had COVID took ivermectin tablets they bought on the internet and had an “altered mental status” and couldn’t really answer questions or follow commands. They improved after they were hospitalized and stopped taking ivermectin, according to the CDC.
 
When taken at the low doses and for conditions that are known to respond to the drug, there may be relatively few or mild side effects, like nausea, rash, or itchy skin, said Khabbaza.
 
However at high doses, side effects “can get really profound,” he said.
 
The following side effects and drug interactions that can occur with ivermectin are signs of ivermectin toxicity, according to the CDC:

  • Abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea
  • Dizziness
  • Low blood pressure
  • Tachycardia (an abnormally fast heart rate)
  • Headache
  • Blurred vision and visual hallucinations
  • Confusion
  • Tremors and loss of coordination and balance
  • Seizures
  • Central nervous system depression, decreased alertness, and coma
Ivermectin can also be dangerous when mixed with drugs that also can suppress the central nervous system, like benzodiazepines and barbiturates. It can sometimes increase the risk of side effects in people taking the blood-thinning drug warfarin.

The CDC recommends calling the poison control hotline (1-800-222-1222) and seeking immediate medical treatment if you have taken ivermectin and are experiencing symptoms.

https://www.buzzfeed...id-side-effects
 
Duterte's Quip About Vaccinating People in Their Sleep Was a Joke, Spokesman Says
https://sputniknews....1089918385.html

 

Куба смягчит санитарные требования для въезжающих иностранцев с 15 ноября
Cuba will ease sanitary requirements for entering foreigners from 15 November

https://iz.ru/123557...v-s-15-noiabria

Mexico hopes for early approval of Russian Sputnik V jab by WHO, says top diplomat
https://tass.com/society/1349549
 

A 41-year-old patient at the ICC Casalpalocco COVID hospital, who gave his name as Francesco, said he was opposed to the vaccine but that if he could go back, he would get jabbed.
 
"The vaccine doesn't inspire confidence but unfortunately we've got to do it, because in any case it's the only thing that can help at this precise stage of the pandemic," he told AFP.
 
At the hospital, there are currently 19 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) for coronavirus, of whom 17 are unvaccinated, according to medical director Roberto Mezzanotte.
 
"Almost 90 to 95 percent in our ICU are non-vaccinated," he told AFP.
 
*snip*
 
Breathing oxygen through a mask, another patient, Salvatore, said he was a big supporter of vaccines but had not yet had his coronavirus jab before he felt gravely ill.
 
"In the space of a few hours, I went from being a person full of vitality to an empty sack, deprived of force," the 55-year-old said.
 
He said he had little patience for violent protesters who took to the streets of Rome last weekend against Italy's coronavirus health pass.
 
"When I see these demonstrations against the Green Pass, they don't understand, they don't realise," said Salvatore.
 
*snip*
 
Mezzanotte said the reasons vary for why the patients chose not to be vaccinated, but primary among them is "fear that the vaccine is harmful".
 
"It's strange... they're not scared of COVID but they're scared of the vaccine," he said.
 
Other Italian hospitals are seeing the same high percentages of non-vaccinated COVID patients, he said.
 
"Currently we have only one instrument to prohibit the pandemic from continuing and it's vaccination."

https://medicalxpres...oronavirus.html

Sputnik Light may serve as universal booster for most COVID jabs, says RDIF chief
According to the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, the one-shot Sputnik Light jab has shown 70% efficacy against the Delta variant for three months after vaccination
https://tass.com/science/1349289

 

В РФ впервые за время пандемии заболели более 31 тысячи человек

In the Russian Federation, for the first time during a pandemic, more than 31 thousand people fell ill

https://ria.ru/20211...1754562135.html

Pentagon Report Shows More US Military Died of Suicide in Q2 of 2021 Than From COVID-19 Pandemic
https://sputniknews....1089911287.html
 

Cuban joined The Ringer’s Kyle Brandt on his Spotify podcast “10 Questions,” and he responded to people who — as Brandt put it — want him to “shut the hell up about the vaccine.”
 
He said that getting vaccinated is certainly a personal choice, but “there’s consequences that come with that.”
 

If you work for me, I require my employees to be vaccinated, unless there’s a doctor’s reason where they can’t be. Like you, I don’t want my kids to be at risk. So the consequences of you not being vaccinated is I’m not gonna shut the **** up. I’m gonna be in your mother****ing ear driving you mother****ing crazy.


The Mavs are requiring fans to either show proof of vaccination or a negative covid-19 test within 48 hours of the game in order to attend.
 
Cuban partly defended his position by talking about the need to protect immunocompromised individuals, including cancer survivors.
 
“We’ve had cancer patients that are lifelong Mavs fans as well come to us and say, ‘Oh my God, this is the only place I feel as safe as I can be,'” he said. “There are 16.9 million cancer survivors in this country. And there are 75 percent of people who have gotten at least one vaccination shot. We have to give consideration to them as well.”
 
“I’d rather feel good knowing that someone who’s immunocompromised or a cancer survivor is going to feel as safe as we can possibly make it coming to a game.”

https://www.mediaite...therfcking-ear/



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