Covid 48： The Long March

[Gareth]

19 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

That’s kind of amusing. Do you think if countries didn’t ask for negative tests China would start being more transparent with information? Do you think the country that locked foreigners in their apartments for months at a time would consider a request for a negative test from travelers to be too burdensome?

I don't know what China will do but like I said before, after travel ban and testing requirement for negative tests for African countries due to omicron, majority of African countries are not sharing data anymore.  These kind of comfort measure behaviors by countries like the U.S. and Canada are impeding transparency and data sharing.  The first step to data sharing and transparency is to stop comfort measure behaviors that do nothing to eradicate this pandemic except to make the public feel like the government is doing something.

[Luzifer's right hand]

18 hours ago, Gareth said:

I don't know what China will do but like I said before, after travel ban and testing requirement for negative tests for African countries due to omicron, majority of African countries are not sharing data anymore.  These kind of comfort measure behaviors by countries like the U.S. and Canada are impeding transparency and data sharing.  The first step to data sharing and transparency is to stop comfort measure behaviors that do nothing to eradicate this pandemic except to make the public feel like the government is doing something.

Even some countries which have no real measures at all anymore, have recommended that sick people get not tested for a long time now and avoid mentioning masking as much as possible in the few recommendations that still exist suddenly want departure tests from travellers from China now. 

It is too funny to be honest.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Luzifer's right hand

[RhaenysBee]

Lol lol lol. Our national covid website disappeared  I can’t even. No more stats, no more sewer samples, no more nothing. Well, I suppose the time had to come but still, that’s a choice. I don’t suppose we will be doing further boosters either. Man, I feel sorry for kids in history class. Though the whole thing will probably be a paragraph. 

Edited January 5, 2023 by RhaenysBee

[Zorral]

I. Want. More. Boosters. Every year or few months at least.

And more masks.  And more ventilation.

[Zorral]

Nobody's escaping this round of Covid Variant, They Say.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/01/06/covid-update-xbb-variant-symptoms-reinfection/10995204002/

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

On 1/6/2023 at 9:51 AM, Zorral said:

Nobody's escaping this round of Covid Variant, They Say.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/01/06/covid-update-xbb-variant-symptoms-reinfection/10995204002/

 

Thanks for that info. Several key mentions in there througout.

The last few sentences offered a glimpse of a glimpse towards the end of the tunnel (although we have more suffering ahead of us im afraid).

From the article-

While she worries about how it might continue to evolve, she hopes it's a good sign that for the last year, all the variants have been descendants of omicron.

Before that, the original virus, alpha, beta and delta had been "radically" different from each other.

"The virus is now in this committed lineage," Cannon said, which might mean it won't evolve away from the protection against serious disease that nearly everyone now has from vaccinations and previous infections.

Edited January 9, 2023 by DireWolfSpirit

[The Anti-Targ]

The Omicron lineage seems to have hit the genetic sweet spot for transmissibilty and immune escape, and it seems like there's maybe not enough genetic road to ramp up on pathogenicity at the same time. Unfortunately it hasn't seemed to yet show further signs of attenuation for serious disease and death to become extremely rare.

[DireWolfSpirit]

I do not understand what happened to the Worldometer Covid numbers being reporting.

For the first couple years of the pandemic the site was very reliable and up to date in its tracking.

But in recent months its (Worldometers) numbers do not even match the government released numbers. China's government is reporting 60,000 Covid deaths, its in the frikn world headlines, yet Worldpmeter reporting them at less than 10,000 deaths, less than even tiny Cuba.

I do not understand the discrepancy, a discrepancy thats been ongoing all month from what the Chinese keep reporting and Worldometer keeps showing the Covid numbers as only a fraction of what China's own govt is reporting to the rest of the media.

In what World would Worldometer have us believe the Chinese government is exaggerating its Covid cases tenfold? Its mind boggling.

Edited January 14, 2023 by DireWolfSpirit

[Zorral]

Not to mention here in the last few days we see the numbers in the US of new cases going down after a rapid, steep rise, while the number of DEATHS go up a lot every day. What?

[DireWolfSpirit]

Again the China reporting 60,000 dead since December has been  daily, viral news for a while now-

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/14/china/china-covid-deaths-intl/index.html

Yet Worldometer insisting on sticking with a figure of less than a tenth of that, they are reporting less than 5800 total Covid deaths for China.

Worldometer has become wildy unreliable after being such a solid source from the onset of the pandemic. And sadly Worldometer cannot lay this inaccurate reporting on the governments when their own reports ignore and understate whats being widespread reported in multiple media and sourced from the govts themselves.

Tremendously lazy and obtuse on Worldometers part.

Edited January 16, 2023 by DireWolfSpirit

[The Anti-Targ]

Hard to definitively attribute to COVID, but a work colleague started experiencing greater arthritic symptoms with COVID and they have continued for coming up to 2 months now. She said she'd had intermittent arthritic symptoms in the past, but not like what she's experiencing now. Hopefully it's just a general immune system freak out that will calm down after a few more months, not a permanent deterioration.

[Padraig]

11 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

Again the China reporting 60,000 dead since December has been  daily, viral news for a while now-

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/14/china/china-covid-deaths-intl/index.html

Yet Worldometer insisting on sticking with a figure of less than a tenth of that, they are reporting less than 5800 total Covid deaths for China.

You are being quite harsh.  I'm pretty sure that was the first official announcement that there were a lot more deaths in China than previously reported.  People knew there were more deaths but there was nothing official.

I imagine this announcement was outside the normal channels (over the weekend), so Worldometers (and other websites) probably didn't instantly reflect it.  

Its a symptom of modern society that we want everything now and get upset when it isn't delivered.  And maybe there are other issues with Worldometers but this is understandable.

On 1/14/2023 at 11:37 PM, Zorral said:

Not to mention here in the last few days we see the numbers in the US of new cases going down after a rapid, steep rise, while the number of DEATHS go up a lot every day. What?

This is normal enough also.  There has always been a 2 to 3 week lag between cases and deaths.  Cases go up.  Then hospitalisations.  Then deaths.  Cases go down.  Then hospitalisations.  Then deaths.  We seem to have got over the latest COVID wave in terms of reported cases and deaths should follow in the next week or so.  Until the next one!

[Zorral]

Some good news on the infection / case rates, for the moment:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/20/health/flu-covid-rsv-trending-down/index.html

 

[Zorral]

U.S. Plans to End Public Health Emergency for Covid in May

The end of the emergency will bring about a complex set of policy changes, and it signals a new chapter in the government’s pandemic response.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/us/politics/biden-covid-public-health-emergency.html

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration plans to let the coronavirus public health emergency expire in May, the White House said on Monday, a sign that federal officials believe the pandemic has moved into a new, less dire phase.

The White House wants to keep the emergency in place for several more months so hospitals, health providers and health officials can prepare for a host of changes that will come when it ends, officials said. Millions of Americans have received free Covid tests, treatments and vaccines during the pandemic, and not all of that will continue to be free once the emergency is declared over.

An average of more than 500 Americans are still dying daily from Covid. But at the three-year mark, the coronavirus is no longer upending everyday life to the extent it once did, partly because much of the population has at least some protection against the virus from vaccinations and prior infections. 

Still, the White House said on Monday that the nation needed an orderly transition out of the public health emergency. The administration said it also intended to allow a separate declaration of a national emergency to expire in May. ....

[Week]

 

Very concerning considering Zeynep's track record and reputation.

[Fragile Bird]

27 minutes ago, Week said:

 

Very concerning considering Zeynep's track record and reputation.

Is this the disease that has wiped out so much US poultry? Wiped out and many birds being ordered slaughtered to stop the spread.

Good thing we don’t slaughter humans to stop the spread of disease.

[williamjm]

5 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Is this the disease that has wiped out so much US poultry? Wiped out and many birds being ordered slaughtered to stop the spread.

It is indeed. There's an article about the October mink farm outbreak here:

https://www.science.org/content/article/incredibly-concerning-bird-flu-outbreak-spanish-mink-farm-triggers-pandemic-fears

[DireWolfSpirit]

"Good thing we don’t slaughter humans"

Okay maybe not the good ones, but its up for debate whether at least some of them deserve it, at least in the U.S.

[mcbigski]

On 2/7/2023 at 1:48 PM, DireWolfSpirit said:

"Good thing we don’t slaughter humans"

Okay maybe not the good ones, but its up for debate whether at least some of them deserve it, at least in the U.S.

Apparently some genocide is cool.

The vaccines are safe and effective.  So when there's someone who's vaxed and someone who is unvaxed, Darwin will figure out the rest.  Since the vaccine is effective, the unvaxed are only hurting themselves.  Let them suffer from their own decisions.  No need to go slaughtering.  Just follow the science and keep a clean conscience.

[Week]

6 hours ago, mcbigski said:

The vaccines are safe and effective.  

Correct.

 

Proud of you that you're learning. You didn't even mention ivermectin which has been proven to be ineffective and dangerous in large doses for COVID-19 (always and forever). Baby steps.