Coronavirus spreads. But don't panic! (topical thread)

[Dom]

945 were breakthrough cases, and of those, 468 were fully vaccinated and boosted.

Each and every breakthrough infection is defined as "detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA
or antigen in respiratory specimen collected from a person 14 days after receipt of all
recommended doses of one of the three vaccines authorised in the US".  [AMA, 20 Jan]

An individual cannot have a breakthrough infection if they've not been vaccinated.

945 were vaccinated, and of those, 468 were vaccinated AND boosted. The report breaks it down into boosted or not. And it matters, I want to know.

[SYZ]

Australia's ATAGI (Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation) advisory
group has recommended a "winter" COVID jab for our most vulnerable Australians.

Ahead of a feared surge in cases during the coming colder months, people over the age
of 65 (me) and those who are immunocompromised will be eligible for an extra dose,
with the first doses to be administered from the beginning of April.

Australia changed its definition of "fully vaccinated" against COVID to require three
doses of a vaccine in February. Authorities are eager to move away from "numbered"
doses and make this "winter" jab more akin to receiving a seasonal flu vaccine. They'll
also stress the importance of receiving a flu vaccine this year, as concerns mount that
the country could be in for a bad season.

Earlier this month, the Health Minister indicated the next round of doses could be the
beginning of an annual vaccine program. "To be completely transparent about the latest
thinking is they are... going to recommend a second booster, which would then be
potentially the start of an annual program for people 65 and above", he said yesterday.

[Thingymebob]

Well as expected it's a free for all to take advantage of the new rules in England.

Businesses are discouraging people who test positive from coming into work, and of course are paying them.

There's half the staff in work at the college at the moment, and the staff that are off just need to say that they've tested positive. No checks no fuck all.

I sometimes wonder how people sleep at night.

[mordant]

China at a Covid Tipping Point

Altogether, there’s currently over 50 million residents of major cities under strict, stay at home, lockdown, plus almost 40 million more in partial lockdown, plus additional smaller medium cities also in varying degrees of lockdown. Thus, well over 90 million people in China have their daily activities restricted because of the new COVID surge. As result, China’s stock market so far this week has seen some of the largest drops in recent memory.


While we will cover how did China get here, I want to first explore where this is going based on what we know about the predominant BA2 variant and how bad this could get:

• As China is [color=var(--global-palette2)]reinstating measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus[/color] in several cities amid a spike in infections, China is desperately trying to avoid the fate of Hong Kong— [color=var(--global-palette2)]HK deaths are surging so high it is approaching NYC in spring 2020[/color]. 
  
  
• Furthermore, experts say HK’s deaths have not even peaked yet. Moreover, [color=var(--global-palette2)]cases may not come down for quite a while [/color]to low levels until May or even June. 
  
  
• All while HK is running out of morgue space and hospitals continue to be overrun. Hong Kong was once as strict on COVID-19 as mainland China was. 
  
  
• Yet somehow it partly gave up and lost control. [color=var(--global-palette2)]Compared to 44 other high incomecounties—HK’s mortality rate is now highest in the world[/color]. 
  
  
• If HK is a country, its COVID-19 death rate per capita would be 5x higher than the next highest country. 
  
  
• If this hits Shanghai & other major Chinese industrial cities… supply chains worldwide will suffer.
  

As mainland China has already begun to [color=var(--global-palette2)]divert flights away from Shanghai & began partial lockdown this week, which schools either closing or going to remote learning. Moreover, shipping vessels have even stopped departing from Shanghai as a port! This is damn serious—Shanghai is one of the largest ports in the entire world! Along with the [color=var(--global-palette2)]lockdown in Shenzhen[/color] and adjacent Dongguan, China’s disruption could mean that the world’s supply chain might completely melt down for a period. Already, [color=var(--global-palette2)]Apple supplier FoxConn has announced it is suspending all its factories[/color] in Shenzhen, among countless other critical technically and industrial factories. While temporary suspensions and brief lockdowns have occurred before, the potential scale of this BA2 wave is massive, and like HK experts warn, could be very long and extensive.[/color]

[Dānu]

I guess I better buy that graphics card now before the downward price trend reverses again.

[mordant]

Nature has published a scathing assessment of Sweden's pandemic response as the country declares COVID's endemicity.

... paints a grim picture of a country seemingly culling its elderly & vulnerable populations while deliberately infecting children in an effort to reach "herd immunity"

Their approach to Covid stuck out to me right from the early days. I guess there are a few hiccups in Sweden's status among the "happiest" countries.

More on the impossibility of 'herd immunity' here.

[Thingymebob]

A record 4.9 million people in the UK now have the virus, that's one in thirteen.
Jabs are now being offered to 5-11 year olds.

Free tests are being scrapped, which means people will stop testing.

[Dancefortwo]

A record 4.9 million people in the UK now have the virus, that's one in thirteen.
Jabs are now being offered to 5-11 year olds.

Free tests are being scrapped, which means people will stop testing.

Is this the new Ba 2 Omicron virus or regular Omicron?

[Thingymebob]

A record 4.9 million people in the UK now have the virus, that's one in thirteen.
Jabs are now being offered to 5-11 year olds.

Free tests are being scrapped, which means people will stop testing.

Is this the new Ba 2 Omicron virus or regular Omicron?

It's the new variant that's caused the huge rise in infection, along with mask wearing becoming a thing of the past over here.

[SYZ]

Australia is now offering a second Pfizer booster (4th vaccination) to people over 65... me!   

[Cavebear]

With all the vaccines and booster shots, and the option of wearing a mask, anyone not immuno-compromised or too young who catches it deserves it!

Evolution In Action...

[c172]

Pelosi tests positive.

[mordant]

I'm going Saturday for my 2nd booster. Have gotten Moderna up to now, am mixing it up w/Pfizer this time. This is the shot being offered in the US to everyone 60 or older.

My wife cancelled as she's currently suffering an acute case of pancreatitis, and the vaccine -- especially Pfizer -- can possibly exacerbate this.

[mordant]

So this is just spooky as hell, to put it nicely. People screaming from windows of high rise apartment buildings in Shanghai, as they run out of food after 7 days of hard at-home lock downs. This appears to be legit; it's a Twitter post from an epidemiologist I've been following. He was born & raised in the area and knows the regional dialect.

Elsewhere I saw someone had moved an empty fridge onto their balcony.

Thread includes videos of people rationing food for 1 meal per day. Also a doctor collapsing in hospital and being carried to a bed by patients.

There's an account of a guy breaching police lines trying to get taken into custody on the theory that there's food in prison. Police say no, they will just take him back home, they don't even know where they can buy food at this point.

Narrator says he believes this will devolve into rioting shortly.

[arewethereyet]

I made hundreds of masks when all this started and supplied family and friends all over the county. I still wear one whenever in a store. I have about a dozen in my car, just in case, so I am never without.

Monday I went for my second booster. The only ill effects have been that I wake up and immediately want to go back to sleep since that day. Hoping to wake up soon.

[Minimalist]

Australia is now offering a second Pfizer booster (4th vaccination) to people over 65... me!   

We are scheduled for Tuesday for the booster.  It's Arizona so I don't expect a big crowd!

[Cavebear]

I'm going Saturday for my 2nd booster. Have gotten Moderna up to now, am mixing it up w/Pfizer this time. This is the shot being offered in the US to everyone 60 or older.

My wife cancelled as she's currently suffering an acute case of pancreatitis, and the vaccine -- especially Pfizer -- can possibly exacerbate this.

I may be wearing a mask and getting booster shots every 6 months for the rest of my life. And therefore not die of covid. There are other causes of death, but covid is not likely going to be one.

[mordant]

I made hundreds of masks when all this started and supplied family and friends all over the county.   I still wear one whenever in a store.  I have about a dozen in my car, just in case, so I am never without.

Monday I went for my second booster.  The only ill effects have been that I wake up and immediately want to go back to sleep since that day.  Hoping to wake up soon.

Had mine yesterday (Saturday) noon (Pfizer this time) ... been pretty muzzy / woozy all day, cancelled most plans, stared at walls. Hopefully back to normal by morning.

We have plenty of N95 masks in stock here at Chez Mordant and use them in the store and even on our walking path (due to huffing-puffing runners / bikers we encounter, mostly). Probably more than we need to, but taking no chances.

[brewerb]

Haven't been here for the discussion, apologies.

People need to consider their health status, age and vaccination response plus the infection/hospitalization rate in their area.

I'm in my 60's and have three vaccinations. Plan on getting my fourth this fall (low infection/hospitalization rate here). May seek the forth if things change.

I'm using nasal steroids prior to going into a enclosed crowded area (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8381621/) and have a supply of famotidine (https://www.northwell.edu/news/the-lates...9-symptoms). Both are very easy for the general public procure. 

I might be overacting but have a potentially compromised wife. You do what you think you need to do.

[Thingymebob]

Johnson and Sunak to be fined over lockdown partying.

How they still have their jobs is beyond me.

[Dānu]

Not even one in three people have completely recovered from COVID-19 a full year after being hospitalised with the disease, a United Kingdom study indicated on Sunday (Apr 24), warning that long COVID could become a common condition.

The study involving more than 2,300 people also found that women were 33 per cent less likely to fully recover than men.

It also found that obese people were half as likely to fully recover, while those who needed mechanical ventilation were 58 per cent less likely.

The study looked at the health of people who were discharged from 39 British hospitals with COVID-19 between March 2020 and April 2021, then assessed the recovery of 807 of them five months and one year later.

Just 26 per cent reported a full recovery after five months, and that number rose only slightly to 28.9 per cent after a year, according to the study published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal.

"The limited recovery from five months to one year after hospitalisation in our study across symptoms, mental health, exercise capacity, organ impairment and quality of life is striking," said study co-leader Rachel Evans of the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

(source)

[SYZ]

In Australia, 20% of COVID survivors still experience symptoms
of "long COVID" within a month and around 5% at three months.

—Martin Hensher, et al. Estimating the likely scale of Long COVID
   as Australia re-opens,  Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin
   University Melbourne, 2021

[mordant]

There's also stories in the press in recent days about some 170 kids in 12 countries have a rare and very severe form of Hepatitis, that often requires liver transplants. The main common denominator: they've all had Covid in the past few months.

It's caused by an adenovirus that normally just causes lung congestion. But in immune-compromised people, it's been known to destroy the liver. Now it seems these kids are either immune compromised post-Covid or some other post-covid sequelae is opening them up to this.

[SYZ]

Had our second Pfizer boosters yesterday with no side effects.   

[mordant]

Had our second Pfizer boosters yesterday with no side effects.   

Personally I found Pfizer side effects milder and shorter-lived (and less delayed) than the Moderna shots I've gotten previously. Even arm soreness was milder and resolved more quickly. I was quite "off" the day after, and that was it.

Of course this could be due to other causes than the change in vaccines.