Coronavirus COVID-19 - Global Health Pandemic #102

[Turkeytrot]

I don't agree with your governor. China has kept the virus at a minimum by closing down completely for short amounts of time. I have two friends living in China, one of them has been shut in twice for 2 weeks and one in another area, once for two weeks. They have all food and any other supplies they need delivered to their doors by neighborhood committees.

I can only imagine how that would go here in the US. Wouldn't bother me personally but..

 

[jjenny]

I don't agree with your governor. China has kept the virus at a minimum by closing down completely for short amounts of time. I have two friends living in China, one of them has been shut in twice for 2 weeks and one in another area, once for two weeks. They have all food and any other supplies they need delivered to their doors by neighborhood committees.

Yep, when people in US complain about lockdowns, they don't even know what a lockdown is. China has actual lockdowns.

 

[JayWill]

I can only imagine how that would go here in the US. Wouldn't bother me personally but..

Yes, I know. Other countries wont do it either.

 

[Herat]

How’s your candy stash holding up? Missed you! I’ll never forget that post you made in the early days about handling packages with tongs and honking the horn!! We were all laughing so hard, I was laughing so hard I was crying!!

Hi Margarita -

Those were the "good-old" pre-vaccine COVID days when we had no idea of what to do about this silent killer. We might as well have had plague flags to fly to warn off the healthy. Could anyone have envisioned that people would NOT want to get vaccinated and get militant and violent about it? Or roam about munching on elephant de-worming pills and flaunting AKR-57's to show how unafraid they were?

I still have many unopened jigsaw puzzles, and boxes of sanitizer and masks. The candy supply is running a bit low - using Christmas as an excuse to top-off. I really should have bought an exercise bike, too.

I truly thought we had reached the end of it when Costco had toilet paper and bleach back in stock, you could open a birthday present and not worry it had virus-spewing slithering cobras in it, and you could open the mail without treating it like it contained sachets of fresh Anthrax.

They seem like Good Times now.

Love the Lilac-Breasted Roller avatar. A very favorite bird.
H

 

[Skigh]

Covid cases in South Africa SOAR 92% just days after scientists raised alarm about Omicron variant | Daily Mail Online

cases in South Africa have soared by 92 per cent in 24 hours, just days after the country's scientists sounded the alarm about the Omicron variant.

Leading virologist Tulio de Oliveira described the surge in infections as 'scary' as he urged the public to get vaccinated and use face masks.

In the space of two weeks, the Omicron variant has sent South Africa from a period of low transmission to rapid growth of new confirmed cases.

More than ten per cent of those tested for Covid across South Africa have tested positive, official data showed, as 4,473 cases were recorded on Tuesday - an increase of 92 per cent compared to the day before.

But scientists in the country have warned that the vast majority of people who end up being hospitalised with the Omicron variant are unvaccinated.

De Oliveira said on Twitter: 'Goodness me! Scary increase of cases and positivity rate in South Africa. Please keep safe, use a mask and go for vaccination as 1000s of scientists in the world try to understand better.'

 

[jjenny]

Vast majority of South Africans is un-vaccinated. So it is expected that vast majority of people hospitalized is going to be un-vaccinated just for that reason alone.

 

[Mauig’ma]

It’s a shame the US didn’t distribute more vaccines to those countries in the first place. We wouldn’t be in this God awful situation. Greed is the Devils work. Idk maybe we should have listened to the WHO advice a long time ago. Moo

 

[jjenny]

It’s a shame the US didn’t distribute more vaccines to those countries in the first place. We wouldn’t be in this God awful situation. Greed is the Devils work. Idk maybe we should have listened to the WHO advice a long time ago. Moo

South Africa has a lot of vaccine doses. So it's low vax rate is not because they don't have vaccines.

 

[Mauig’ma]

South Africa has a lot of vaccine doses. So it's low vax rate is not because they don't have vaccines.

Not according to the news

 

[Turkeytrot]

Jen Psaki says South Africa turned down the US's offer of additional COVID-19 vaccine doses

I wasn't sure whether they had plenty or not, but I did see this in the news.

 

[weepingangel]

Father-daughter pair intubated in ICU battling COVID, while pregnant mother also tests positive
more at link
A Salem father and daughter are both intubated in the intensive care unit at Massachusetts General Hospital battling COVID-19, while the rest of the family, including the pregnant mother, struggles through the virus from home.

The DeCelle family — parents Mike and Erica and their daughters Kylie and Mikayla — have all tested positive for the virus

After first being taken by ambulance to Salem Hospital last week, Mike was transferred to MGH with dangerously low oxygen levels. Following two days without improvement, he was sedated and intubated

Mikayla, 12, was brought to Salem Hospital with breathing issues Thanksgiving night, but was also soon transferred to MGH On Monday, as her breathing struggles continued, Mikayla was intubated as well.

“We all tested positive. It started with just like the mild symptoms, and then like over the course of like two days, my dad and sister got really sick,” Kylie, 14, told Boston 25. “And it got to the point where they weren’t eating or drinking or anything. So, they both had to go to the hospital.”

Erica, carrying a baby due in February, and Kylie have both experienced mild symptoms, the network said. Both were vaccinated, but Mike and Mikayla were not.

 

[CrimeAway]

I've read conflicting information regarding vaccine availability in Africa. It may also depend on whether we are talking about the MULTIPLE countries in southern Africa, or the individual country of South Africa.

ETA BBC link:
New Omicron variant: Does southern Africa have enough vaccines?

I don't have a WaPo subscription, but they have an article about the vaccine situation in South Africa.
Maybe someone with a subscription can read it, and give us a brief synopsis.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/heal...ne-doses-issue-is-more-complicated-than-that/

This article said SA had too much stock of J&J and Pfizer vacines.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/a...covid-vaccine-deliveries-as-inoculations-slow

 

[HongKongPhooey]

Hi Margarita -

Those were the "good-old" pre-vaccine COVID days when we had no idea of what to do about this silent killer. We might as well have had plague flags to fly to warn off the healthy. Could anyone have envisioned that people would NOT want to get vaccinated and get militant and violent about it? Or roam about munching on elephant de-worming pills and flaunting AKR-57's to show how unafraid they were?

I still have many unopened jigsaw puzzles, and boxes of sanitizer and masks. The candy supply is running a bit low - using Christmas as an excuse to top-off. I really should have bought an exercise bike, too.

I truly thought we had reached the end of it when Costco had toilet paper and bleach back in stock, you could open a birthday present and not worry it had virus-spewing slithering cobras in it, and you could open the mail without treating it like it contained sachets of fresh Anthrax.

They seem like Good Times now.

Love the Lilac-Breasted Roller avatar. A very favorite bird.
H

Trade you a jigsaw puzzle for some jars of peaches? (Did I think we were going to get scurvy???)

 

[LaborDayRN]

It’s a shame the US didn’t distribute more vaccines to those countries in the first place. We wouldn’t be in this God awful situation. Greed is the Devils work. Idk maybe we should have listened to the WHO advice a long time ago. Moo

I'm not saying we couldn't and shouldn't do more, but......
"Today, the President will announce that the U.S. has now donated and shipped more than 110 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccines to more than 60 countries – a major milestone that cements the United States as the global leader in COVID-19 vaccine donations. According to the United Nations, this is more than the donations of all other countries combined and reflects the generosity of the American spirit.
These more than 110 million doses – that are already saving lives around the world – are just the beginning of the Administration’s efforts to provide vaccines to the world. Starting at the end of this month, the Administration will begin shipping a half a billion Pfizer doses that the United States has pledged to purchase and donate to 100 low- income countries in need."
FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Major Milestone in Administration’s Global Vaccination Efforts: More Than 100 Million U.S. COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Donated and Shipped Abroad | The White House

 

[acutename]

Greetings all. Like some, I stepped away from the forum for awhile. Not due to any disscussions on here, but the over abundance of information I was consuming got to be too much (Twitter esp),

I am triple jabbed, as are *most* folks in my retirement community. They held a booster clinic about two weeks ago.
Visiting family that I haven't seen in about two years now, for Thanksgiving.

Right before I left on vacation, a youngish lady (early 60's) in a wheelchair (she had a previous brain anyuresm she had recovered from) was dx with Covid when she fell in the community and was taken to the hospital. She now has pnemonia and is still in hospital. Rumor has it that she was not vaccinated.

We have been very lucky here - I fear our luck though may run out- with the new *omicron* variant abroad probably coming to the US soon. Interesting times.

************************************************
Welp- we have ANOTHER Covid positive resident. He is a man in his 90's - 3x vaxxed. So far he is confined to his apartment and taking meals there. I don't know anything more, but our community is soooo very lax on masks and visitors wearing masks
and just an overall feeling that the pandemic is over.
He did travel to Atlanta recently with his son, so we are all thinkiing that is where/when he was exposed.

Then there is the mysterious case of a resident who is in the hospital (not the original Covid resident- she is still in the hospital) but her neighbor....who according to the grapevine has a "virus in her throat" but its not Covid...ummmmm yah sure its not! Hospitalized? Virus in her throat? Not Covid?

one of my coworkers got bacterial pneumonia shortly after we all returned to work- so maybe that other person does have a non-COVID virus. remember we were all a little sheltered and now people are traveling and mingling again and suddenly garden variety stuff is on the attack.

We have COVID cases most weeks at work- it is a multi-story building so they will tell you "some one on floor 5 was diagnosed; we are cleaning today." Or they will say "we just found out that someone on floor 2 has COVID but they were last in the building November 20th, so no cleaning required." Some days I feel threatened by all of this and other days, not so much.

 

[Sundog]

Jen Psaki says South Africa turned down the US's offer of additional COVID-19 vaccine doses

I wasn't sure whether they had plenty or not, but I did see this in the news.

I posted earlier today that Pfizer sent 30 million doses of the vaccine to South Africa and they have only used 19 million doses, and because they can't use the doses they already have, they have asked Pfizer not to send them any more doses. This was reported by Scott Gottlieb, former FDA director who now serves on Pfizer's Board.

 

[Sundog]

Very interesting analysis and possibility discussed and great synopsis of where we are now with omicron, which, of course, we are still learning about.

 

[JayWill]

South Africa has a lot of vaccine doses. So it's low vax rate is not because they don't have vaccines.

How do you know that? MOO.

 

[Lilibet]

I’m not sure this has been posted yet. This would go over like a lead balloon here.

Making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory was once unthinkable. But European countries are showing it can work - CNN

Earlier this month, Austria took a step once unthinkable for a Western democracy: It announced that Covid-19 vaccinations would become compulsory for its entire population.

Up until then, governments around the world had rejected the idea of a universal coronavirus vaccine mandate, opting instead for incentives and other "nudges" to motivate people to get shots. Even in authoritarian states, like China, it is not mandatory policy.

Austria's extraordinary move came just days after it introduced a lockdown for the unvaccinated— a restriction that went farther than other European nations in singling out the people who have been driving a worrying surge in hospitalizations.

 

[musicaljoke]

I'm not saying we couldn't and shouldn't do more, but......
"Today, the President will announce that the U.S. has now donated and shipped more than 110 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccines to more than 60 countries – a major milestone that cements the United States as the global leader in COVID-19 vaccine donations. According to the United Nations, this is more than the donations of all other countries combined and reflects the generosity of the American spirit.
These more than 110 million doses – that are already saving lives around the world – are just the beginning of the Administration’s efforts to provide vaccines to the world. Starting at the end of this month, the Administration will begin shipping a half a billion Pfizer doses that the United States has pledged to purchase and donate to 100 low- income countries in need."
FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Major Milestone in Administration’s Global Vaccination Efforts: More Than 100 Million U.S. COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Donated and Shipped Abroad | The White House

Canada is donating 200 million doses.

Even so, need is so great.

Canada’s international vaccine donations