Coronavirus COVID-19 Thread

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I've decided to stop looking at Deaths and Cases for my local area and I'm just looking at what's happening with staffing with basic services to gauge how well it's going with Omicron.

So, there aren't enough Latteral Flow Tests to go round as everyone wants one now PCR tests aren't required... the trains are on a reduced service because not enough drivers or conductors... The hospitals have had to call in combat medics to cover and they are still short staffed on mainline services because combat metics are great at stopping bleeding but they are not really trained for a tonne of other stuff like strokes, heart attacks, hip replacements etc... the bin collection hasn't been stopped yet but I have seen a couple of collections now going round with one driver and one guy grabbing, where it's usually one driver and three people grabbing...

The headlines of falling cases are encouraging but from the ground it still looks like loads of people are getting sick all at once... Either I'm just in a hold-out zone and it'll start to drop soon or those headline numbers are no longer looking at the big picture...?

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

I don't have kids or friends with kids in school. Could you imagine being in school during the pandemic though? Mannnnn, it's gotta really suck.

CDC's suggestion to cancel football, band in nearly every US school called 'unrealistic' - CNN

The headlines of falling cases are encouraging but from the ground it still looks like loads of people are getting sick all at once... Either I'm just in a hold-out zone and it'll start to drop soon or those headline numbers are no longer looking at the big picture...?

I think its difficult for all the news agencies to paint an accurate picture, but I would hope they're doing the best they can.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Corner - Some reports from some news outlets* from today, Tuesday 18th of January 2022:
*claims made by headlines or articles are those of the outlets and have not been independently verified, or in some cases even read, by myself.

- World: Global Confirmed 331,475,550 Global Deaths 5,548,410

- US: U.S. Confirmed 66,498,299

- US: US inmates sue over unapproved Covid treatment

- UK: Boris Johnson: nobody warned me No 10 party broke rules

- UK: UK records highest number of deaths since February

- UK: Covid contract to Cummings friends ruled lawful

- UK: Scotland to lift most remaining Omicron Covid restrictions

- France: Calls for French MP to resign after announcing Covid protocol from Ibiza

- Vatican: Vatican secretary of state and his deputy test positive for Covid-19

- Poland: Poland expects daily cases to top 60,000 by mid-February in 'fifth wave'

- Hong Kong: Hong Kong to cull thousands of hamsters after Covid found on 11

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

At least the UK is doing something right.

Biden Free COVID Test Program Is Slower, Gives Fewer Tests Than UK (businessinsider.com)

 

[Vavrik]

- UK: Boris Johnson: nobody warned me No 10 party broke rules

Uh, exactly who in the UK is responsible for making the rules and regulations that the rest of ya'll have to follow?
Apparently it's not the PM. Or he doesn't have enough brain cells to put "The public can't do this, maybe I should actually set some kind of a good example" together.
He is the Prime Minister, which makes him a powerful example of how the rest of you should behave... Sorry ranting. Apparently he doesn't have the required neurons (which actually makes him disabled?)

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Uh, exactly who in the UK is responsible for making the rules and regulations that the rest of ya'll have to follow?
Apparently it's not the PM. Or he doesn't have enough brain cells to put "The public can't do this, maybe I should actually set some kind of a good example" together.
He is the Prime Minister, which makes him a powerful example of how the rest of you should behave... Sorry ranting. Apparently he doesn't have the required neurons (which actually makes him disabled?)

No need to apologise for ranting, as Roy Walker always said "Say what you see".

The defence of "I thought it was a work thing" is also, if true, void as well. At the time people were not permitted to meet in socially distanced groups even in the work place, most of which were closed with Furlough in full swing - outdoors you were only allowed to meet one other person, socially distanced, in a public space. You couldn't even meet people in your own garden. Either way, if it's lies it's lies, and if it's true it's still rule breaking.

There is a turn of phrase in the UK: "bang to rights". I can't see how it is any other way, unless the results of the pending official government investigation reveal something spectacular to weight it in the other direction.

I watch events with anticipation over steepled fingers.

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

COVID Hamsters!

COVID-infected hamsters in pet shop trigger animal cull in Hong Kong | Ars Technica

EDIT:

Nice graphic showing how prominent Omicron is becoming.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Corner - Some reports from some news outlets* from today, Wednesday 19th of January 2022:
*claims made by headlines or articles are those of the outlets and have not been independently verified, or in some cases even read, by myself.

- World: Global Confirmed 335,465,548 Global Deaths 5,559,712

- US: U.S. Confirmed 67,824,455

- UK: PM announces end to all Omicron Covid restrictions in England

- UK: Millionaires ask to pay more tax

- US: US health official suspended over vaccine advocacy

- Czech Republic: Czech singer dies after getting Covid deliberately

- Netherlands: Hairdressers take the stage in Dutch Covid revolt

- Australia/Tennis guy: Djokovic has 80% stake in biotech firm developing Covid drug

- Bulgaria: Bulgaria reports highest daily tally of pandemic with 11,181 infections

- UK: PM announces end to all Omicron Covid restrictions in England

- Ireland: Ireland announces annual bank holiday to honour Covid victims

- Russia: St Petersburg detects record cases as Russia clocks over 33,000 daily cases

- Portugal: Portugal to allow Covid-positive voters to leave home on election day

 

[Radegast74]

Not for the squeamish (so, not for me...)

Hamster killing underway in HK

Hong Kong hamster owners have begun heeding the government’s call to surrender their pets as part of a mass killing sparked by suspicions of a possible animal-to-human transmission of…

www.scmp.com

 

[Aramsolari]

Not for the squeamish (so, not for me...)

Hamster killing underway in HK

Hong Kong hamster owners have begun heeding the government’s call to surrender their pets as part of a mass killing sparked by suspicions of a possible animal-to-human transmission of…

www.scmp.com

That includes all the hamsters in your forum signature Gif!

 

[Vavrik]

Not for the squeamish (so, not for me...)

Hamster killing underway in HK

Hong Kong hamster owners have begun heeding the government’s call to surrender their pets as part of a mass killing sparked by suspicions of a possible animal-to-human transmission of…

www.scmp.com

Very easy to be the pot that called the kettle black in this case. I can describe what would happen to them here in the US, but won't for the sake of civility. All of it "meets or exceeds the FDA's (minimum) requirements" The parenthesis are totally mine, the word they encapsulate is not.

 

[Aramsolari]

Hong Kongers are a different breed from Mainland Chinese. They're not as....callous when it comes to animals, especially pets.

This will not go down well with the local population as this has all the markings of orders straight from Beijing.

Also Carrie Lam can piss off.

 

[Vavrik]

Hong Kongers are a different breed from Mainland Chinese. They're not as....callous when it comes to animals, especially pets.

This will not go down well with the local population as this has all the markings of orders straight from Beijing.

Also Carrie Lam can piss off.

I know what you're trying to say, but it's not a valid answer to what I said - which is (in different language) on this side of the pacific, we aren't doing much better.

"We don't kill pet hamsters"... Don't kid yourself. They would if they thought the alternative is dead people. That's what's going on in China.

And honestly this is probably a hard, sad, but worthwhile experience for the kids to go through. It is immensely easier to deal with the death of a pet hamster than it is to deal with a parent, grandparent or other family member.

 

[Aramsolari]

I know what you're trying to say, but it's not a valid answer to what I said - which is (in different language) on this side of the pacific, we aren't doing much better.

"We don't kill pet hamsters"... Don't kid yourself. They would if they thought the alternative is dead people. That's what's going on in China.

And honestly this is probably a hard, sad, but worthwhile experience for the kids to go through. It is immensely easier to deal with the death of a pet hamster than it is to deal with a parent, grandparent or other family member.

Not disagreeing with your post.

My post is more of a comment on that news story rather than a direct reply to yours. Not sure how I ended up replying to your post.....gonna go ahead and change it lol.

 

[Vavrik]

Not disagreeing with your post.

My post is more of a comment on that news story rather than a direct reply to yours. Not sure how I ended up replying to your post.....gonna go ahead and change it lol.

Heh, no problem.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Corner - Some reports from some news outlets* from today, Thursday 20th of January 2022:
*claims made by headlines or articles are those of the outlets and have not been independently verified, or in some cases even read, by myself.

- World: Global Confirmed 338,978,919 Global Deaths 5,569,279

- US: U.S. Confirmed 68,674,170

- World: How a misleading vaccine claim went viral

- US: Carhartt facing boycott calls over vaccine mandate

- UK: Patient spent four nights in A&E waiting for a bed

- UK: Hospital patients sent to hotel to free bed space

- UK: NHS England Covid absences fall amid signs staffing crisis is easing

- UK: Covid infections at record high among schoolchildren in England

- Austria: Austria creates Covid lottery with €500 prizes to woo vaccine hesitant

- Austria: Austria extends lockdown by 10 days

- Sweden: Sweden to relax isolation rules, tells people working from home not to take tests due to test kit shortage

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Corner - Some reports from some news outlets* from today, Friday 21st of January 2022:
*claims made by headlines or articles are those of the outlets and have not been independently verified, or in some cases even read, by myself.

- World: Global Confirmed 343,385,893 Global Deaths 5,577,111

- US: U.S. Confirmed 69,366,460 (milestone number)

- US/UK: US plane turns around mid-flight over mask row

- UK: Campaigners bid to halt jabs using 'crime number'

- UK: UK ministers 'distracting people from awful mess'

- Austria: Austrian lawmakers back mandatory vaccination bill

- Tonga: How to get aid safely into Covid-free Tonga

- China: China’s zero Covid policy ‘not sustainable’ in light of Omicron

- Australia: Australia’s Omicron wave has likely peaked in NSW and Victoria – experts

- UK: ‘Half a million’ new Covid cases each day in UK over Christmas, ONS estimates

- UK: Sadiq Khan stands down 'major incident' over Covid in London

- Poland: People in Poland urged to work from home as Covid cases reach highest level

- Mutants: Omicron sub-lineage designated variant of under investigation in UK

 

[Vavrik]

- US/UK: US plane turns around mid-flight over mask row

"Airlines reported nearly 6,000 incidents involving unruly passengers last year and 151 in the first two weeks of this year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Most of them involved passengers who refused to wear masks."

Why am I not surprised?

 

[Radegast74]

Hello, nurse!

The UK student nurse who has caught Covid four times

Mea Walton got her first infection in September 2020 and her fourth at the start of this year

www.theguardian.com

The last paragraph states:

“The funniest thing about it all, really, is every time I’ve had it I’ve never been near a hospital. But all the time I’ve been working with Covid patients I’ve never got it,” she said.

Gee, I wonder if it is because everybody at the hospital is rigorously following COVID protocols/precautions, such as wearing a a mask?

 

[Vavrik]

Gee, I wonder if it is because everybody at the hospital is rigorously following COVID protocols/precautions, such as wearing a a mask?

The truth comes out in the statistics, this is what they're for. There is emerging evidence from the NHS about the UK data... kind of hope this is true in the US, Canada etc. too: It certainly LOOKS like it in the US.

The number of people who died with no comorbidities in the UK over the last 18 months was a tiny minority of the total pandemic deaths like 16,000 or 17,000 or so people give or take. That's like on par with around 10% of all deaths attributed to the pandemic. The largest cohort of COVID-19 and nothing else deaths were the oldest age groups.

If you get what I just said - COVID-19 had other "helpers" in something like 90% of cases. Obesity and complications due to obesity figure high on the list.

Of those non COVID deaths during the same period, voluntarily not seeking health care was on top.

Personal conclusion is ... I'm not speaking about anyone but me ... need to hurry up on losing the next 30 pounds to get out of the fat people list.