Coronavirus COVID-19 Thread

[CitizenDad]

I just got the call that my doctor's appointment was canceled. Good thing it was not serious. This really sucks for anyone who breaks a leg, or get's in a car crash, or has a heart attack, or even just needs to see the doctor for a checkup.

Hospitals across Oregon are at their breaking point with only seven ICU beds available across the state. KGW's Christine Pitawanich takes us inside Oregon Health & Science University Hospital, where health care workers are exhausted and straining to keep up with the surge of Covid-19 patients.
by u/nbcnews in Portland

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/Portland/comments/pbrmpq/hospitals_across_oregon_are_at_their_breaking/


And please people, if you are even thinking about eating Livestock De-wormer, please don't. It is so sad that I have to say this.

OHSU, WA: 18 people treated after taking ivermectin

The Oregon Poison Center at Oregon Health & Science University has treated nine people since the beginning of August after they intentionally misused ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasitic…

www.koin.com

 

[Radegast74]

the other part of the "worst case scenario" prediction is coming true:

Hospital filled with Covid-19 patients was forced to turn away someone needing emergency cancer treatment, doctor says | CNN

Dr. Nitesh Paryani, a third-generation radiation oncologist in Tampa, Florida, recently was forced to make a decision that he says he and his family have never had to make in 60 years of treating patients.

www.cnn.com

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

It's not that I don't appreciate their take on things, its more I see it as Pub talk. You go down the pub with your mates and give your 2 cents on everything. Doesn't mean any of you actually know the facts of the matter.

I my experience of pub talk (and telesales, yes for years I worked in a call center) the more passionately you say something, the more personally you sound like you know and believe in what you are saying, the more likely you are to convince others your angle is the one which is the right one even of you are as clueless as the rest of them.

Having lived the above, I am now very much an innocent until proven guilty kinda guy. You have to be or all the smoke in the world will blow up your ass until it comes out of your ears and nose and fog youryour vision of the reality of the situation.

That said China is not helping itself not being cooperative with the Origins investigation. When someone avoids a question long enough they start to qualify under Admission By Omission. 20+ years of arguing with idiots on the internet (and watching politicians on TV) taught me that one - just because someone avoids the question it doesn't mean that in itself is not an answer.

The longer the Origins investigation is denied access to the resources the more and more it appears there is something to hide - admission by omission. I understand China doesn't want a whitewash fake-em-up but this is not how to avoid that. If they are innocent and the evidence does indeed show that, they need to release all that data to everyone, neutral, friendly and hostile at the same time it is released to the investigation team.

Total transparency is the way to slay any kind of false accusations being made because the argument moves from you and the accusers to the crowd analysing the info.

Many angles will appear from the sublime to the ridiculous but the Origin Teams reading of it will be the one everyone else will then analyse the data off and then say if they agree or not. As long as the evidence is clear any attempt at false accusation would be shot down in seconds.

I had intentions to reply to this, but I got distracted. Sorry it took so long lol. Its been a while, so all I really have to say is that I agree and its good insight into the perspective of Mr. Bobface.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Thursday 26th of August:

- World: 214,275,388 confirmed cases and 4,469,247 confirmed deaths.

- UK: Cases and deaths begin to creep back up. Researchers advise a cause may be Vaccine efficiency which they advise wanes about 5 months after last dose injected.

- UK: National Health Service has to pause some types of blood test as vials for collection run out.

- UK: 5,000 cases linked to Boardmasters Music and Surfing Festival.

- US: Florida Man removed from his post as a hospital doctor after selling mask exemption letters for students at $50 each.

- US: Hospitalizations rise above 100,000 for first time since January (when the vaccination programme had only just begun).

- Japan: Halts use of Moderna vaccine after foreign matter contamination detected in batch vials from a batch of about 560,000. About 4,700 were used before the contamination was detected.

- India: Passes 600 million administered doses of vaccine, with roughly 5.3 million being given every day for the last month.

- Kenya: Announces vaccine to be used in hard to get to rural areas will be Johnson and Johnson as it only requires one dose and does not need ultra-deep freeze infrastructure to store.

- Namibia/Wales: Unused PPE such as masks and gowns are being sent from Wales to Namibia to assist in its battle with a harsh third wave.

- EU: Commission advises its bloc members that if they choose to administer Boosters they will individually be legally liable for anything going wrong as the Regulator has not yet approved third doses for use (I assume it's also not in the Union contract with the manufacturers).

- Africa: Inoculations trippled over the last week, however getting the continent vaccinated will still be a huge task: "We have not covered even 5% of the population yet with the initial vaccinations that are needed to slow down the spread of the virus and most importantly, stop what we think might be a fourth wave, which is coming.”

 

[Aramsolari]

- US: Florida Man removed from his post as a hospital doctor after selling mask exemption letters for students at $50 each.

Florida Man strikes again!

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

- US: Director of the national institutes of health said in interview: "The vast evidence from other perspectives says no, this was a naturally occurring virus. Not to say that it could not have been under study secretly at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and got out of there, we don’t know about that. But the virus itself does not have the earmarks of having been created intentionally by human work."

I've seen questions raised over the origins of the virus because it was so well adjusted to living in humans from the get go. I'm no virologist obviously, but there are a lot of things that raise questions people have yet to be able to answer with 100% confidence. We're over a year out from the beginning of all of this and there is no general consensus of exactly where this virus came from. Animals we ask? Maybe. Escape from a lab? Maybe. They say the virus doesn't have the earmarks of having been created intentionally by human work, does that exclude the possibility it was modified? Maybe they allowed it to mutate in the lab by allowing it to interact with human cells? Are we playing word games?

- China: Criticizes politicisation of Origins inquiry and requests investigation of US Detrick lab involved in popular conspiracy theory which has taken hold in China.

If I was China, I would do everything I could to shift blame elsewhere. From what I understand they haven't been willing to cooperate on an investigation with outside agencies around the world.

Rejecting Covid-19 Inquiry, China Peddles Conspiracy Theories Blaming US - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Just in case you all forgot, as far as our relations with China go, were either very close or in what some would call a cold war with them. Expect no niceties from the CCP.

- US: News reports indicate Military Intelligence report into COVID-19 origins called for by the President is inconclusive.

So they tell the public. Think about all the possibilities where actually having that intelligence puts you at a strategic advantage or disadvantage. Think about if they did know where it came from and still came out and said what they had was inconclusive. Why would they say that if they do know? What would bring you to do that if you were military intel?

Or the findings really are inconclusive. That's not as interesting though.

- Brazil: To provide those over 80 years old a Pfizer booster shot as the company gains lawsuit protection.

While it might just be to keep people from blaming all of their medical problems on phizer, hearing that they are seeking lawsuit protection is what spooks the layman.

We call upon Reddit to take action against the rampant Coronavirus misinformation on their website.
by in vaxxhappened

View: https://www.reddit.com/r/vaxxhappened/comments/pbe8nj/we_call_upon_reddit_to_take_action_against_the/


Went to r/Vancouver awhile ago and saw this was a thing. I mean, I've seen soooo much pure stupidity on there from ultra lefty pot smokin hippies who have always been antivaxxers, to the straight up idiots who sit there and say "this is just the flu", or "the vaccine will make you gay", I'm not surprised at all.

I wonder if anything will come of it.

Just more censorship. I've said this previously, you could put people in an information bubble and only feed them the facts and you won't change anyone's mind. It's like telling a child whos afraid of needles "it's going to be okay, the shot's good for you". The kid couldn't care less, in his head he's fully locked on to the idea that getting that shot is going to be violent. People are locked on to the idea that the vaccine will give them cancer 10 years from now, and you cant convince them otherwise because the vaccine is only a year old. If the vaccine is only a year old how could scientists possibly know whats going to happen over the course of 10 years they think. I know that due to their great understanding of human physiology the scientists probably can tell you whats going to happen in 10 years, but youre not going to convince people of that who don't already believe it.

 

[August]

Meanwhile we’re all still in lockdown. Cannot wait for enough Pfizer to be available to get vaccination numbers up.

 

[CitizenDad]

My nurse aunt's hospital:

View: https://youtu.be/kQ4xQNkl024


And we all knew this could happen. It's going to get real bad, for a lot of people, real soon.

View: https://youtu.be/xDh_Kpldxp8

 

[Bambooza]

While it might just be to keep people from blaming all of their medical problems on phizer, hearing that they are seeking lawsuit protection is what spooks the layman.

It's a shame in this politicized climate that a smart move on Pfizer is so spooky. The reality is that with the millions and soon billions having taken their vaccine there is a very real chance that some of them will have serious side effects which will end up in litigation and cost Pfizer billions in court fees and settlements. While drug companies do make a hefty sum of profit they are also in a high-risk trade where they easily spend millions on new drugs only to have them fail before going to market. When they do go to market they only get a few years to turn a profit on the drug before it's undercut by generics. Then a few years after that the lawsuits start showing up. This is not to say that some of the lawsuits are not justified as some unethical practices have allowed harmful drugs through, just that all drugs carry risks and some of the correlations brought to court are more likely coincidence vs drug caused but still far too risky to try in court. Especially with the current climate that all pharmaceutical manufactures are robber barons. We have to look no further than the current roar over insulin and the half-truths and outright lies over it. People like to compare the cost of Insulin cost in the USA vs other countries and how it's outrageous. But they fail to compare the insulin types against each other. Yes the cost of Insulin in the USA is far higher than in other countries but that's because the USA predominantly uses the far more effective Insulin manufactured from genetically modified bacteria instead of the less effective other methods going all the way down to the cheapest way of simply harvesting insulin from cattle and pigs.

Just more censorship. I've said this previously, you could put people in an information bubble and only feed them the facts and you won't change anyone's mind. It's like telling a child whos afraid of needles "it's going to be okay, the shot's good for you". The kid couldn't care less, in his head he's fully locked on to the idea that getting that shot is going to be violent. People are locked on to the idea that the vaccine will give them cancer 10 years from now, and you cant convince them otherwise because the vaccine is only a year old. If the vaccine is only a year old how could scientists possibly know whats going to happen over the course of 10 years they think. I know that due to their great understanding of human physiology the scientists probably can tell you whats going to happen in 10 years, but youre not going to convince people of that who don't already believe it.

I agree which is why I continue to suggest that we should start to just ignore the vaccine and the distinction between those who have and have not gotten it, especially with the fact that there are still over a billion who want it and still can't get it. I understand the reality that currently the unvaccinated are clogging up the hospitals and ICU's and perhaps we are attempting to deal with this wrong. Perhaps the best course of action would simply be to use the emergency hospital tents that were set up over a year ago to be covid care centers and not worry about attempting to ventilate the very sick and simply provide care in the hopes they recover but be ok with the fact that some will not make it. And no I would not even make a distinction here between the vaccinated and unvaccinated and treat all serious covid hospitalizations the same, basic care with the hope they pull through.

The other hard truth that people seem to so quickly forget is that there were not a lot of ICU beds to start with and Covid is only using up a small percentage of those available beds most of the beds are still being used by other causes. So while it is true that there are very few left in some places, there was always only a few in most hospitals that were not being used prior to covid19 and all the virus has done is used up the few remaining beds.

 

[Montoya]

Another one. So sad, his wife is pregnant and they have 3 kids :(

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Friday 27th of August:

- World: 214,995,764 confirmed cases and 4,479,629 confirmed deaths.

- UK: Research by Oxford University looking at medical records of 29 million people who had received one vaccine injection and 1.8 million people who naturally caught COVID-19 studied adverse reactions within 28 days of injection/infection and reveals being infected with COVID-19 produces the same side effects but many, many times worse:"It found that for every 10 million people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine:

• an extra 107 would be hospitalised or die from thrombocytopenia, which can cause internal bleeding and haemorrhages, but that was nearly nine times lower than the risk of the same condition following an infection
• an extra 66 would be hospitalised or die from blood clots in the veins, but that was nearly 200 times lower than the risk following an infection

For every 10 million people vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, it found:

• 143 extra strokes would be seen, but that was nearly 12 times lower than the risk following an infection"

- UK: Scotland, and new daily cases rocket more than 1,800 in a day to 6,835 which is a record high.

- UK: Government sources reveal the incumbent administration has chosen 1,000 average deaths a week to be the red line on imposing further restrictions with up to 50k a year being tolerable based on a cost-to-benefit analysis which one presumes didn't include any humanitarian considerations. The Government denied this, saying it had not set an "acceptable level".

- US: Supreme Court moves to block government efforts to extend eviction ban put in place during the pandemic.

- US: Florida Judge overrules State Governor who had banned mask mandates in schools, saying he had overstepped his authority by issuing an executive order banning the mandates.

- China: Study indicates 50% of people naturally infected with COVID-19 still experienced some symptoms after 6 months.

- Israel: Early data (which has not yet been peer reviewed) suggests scope of Delta variant Pfizer vaccine avoidance, saying people were almost six times more likely to contract Delta and seven-fold more likely to have symptomatic disease than those who had previously recovered from natural infection.

- Spain: Production Partner for the Moderna vaccine investigated and ruled okay to continue after preliminary checks, following Japans suspension of the vaccine after discovering foreign matter contamination.

- New Zealand: Extends lockdown as 70 additional infections discovered.

- Denmark: To lift all COVID restrictions by September 10th saying the virus was under control and "no longer a threat to society".

- France: Librarians in several areas strike over Health Pass restrictions.

 

[Montoya]

- Denmark: To lift all COVID restrictions by September 10th saying the virus was under control and "no longer a threat to society".

Denmark does look ok, they are doing a good job at keeping cases low.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Denmark does look ok, they are doing a good job at keeping cases low.

It will be interesting to watch what happens once the precautions are removed. A lot of countries have taken the gloves off only for Delta to take advantage.

 

[Vavrik]

- UK: Research by Oxford University looking at medical records of 29 million people who had received one vaccine injection and 1.8 million people who naturally caught COVID-19 studied adverse reactions within 28 days of injection/infection and reveals being infected with COVID-19 produces the same side effects but many, many times worse:"It found that for every 10 million people vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine:

• an extra 107 would be hospitalised or die from thrombocytopenia, which can cause internal bleeding and haemorrhages, but that was nearly nine times lower than the risk of the same condition following an infection
• an extra 66 would be hospitalised or die from blood clots in the veins, but that was nearly 200 times lower than the risk following an infection

For every 10 million people vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, it found:

• 143 extra strokes would be seen, but that was nearly 12 times lower than the risk following an infection"

I have a question... Is it a common practice in the UK to aspirate an injection? That is stick the needle in, then before injecting they draw back just enough to see if it draws blood. Reason for asking, this kind of injection is meant to stay in muscle tissue, and not blood...where it can cause this very kind of condition. BTW They don't usually do it in the US either. They just stick the needle in, and pump in the vaccine - to hell with whether or not it hit a vein or artery.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I have a question... Is it a common practice in the UK to aspirate an injection? That is stick the needle in, then before injecting they draw back just enough to see if it draws blood. Reason for asking, this kind of injection is meant to stay in muscle tissue, and not blood...where it can cause this very kind of condition. BTW They don't usually do it in the US either. They just stick the needle in, and pump in the vaccine - to hell with whether or not it hit a vein or artery.

I have no idea unfortunately but it's an interesting thought.

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

It's a shame in this politicized climate that a smart move on Pfizer is so spooky. The reality is that with the millions and soon billions having taken their vaccine there is a very real chance that some of them will have serious side effects which will end up in litigation and cost Pfizer billions in court fees and settlements. While drug companies do make a hefty sum of profit they are also in a high-risk trade where they easily spend millions on new drugs only to have them fail before going to market. When they do go to market they only get a few years to turn a profit on the drug before it's undercut by generics. Then a few years after that the lawsuits start showing up. This is not to say that some of the lawsuits are not justified as some unethical practices have allowed harmful drugs through, just that all drugs carry risks and some of the correlations brought to court are more likely coincidence vs drug caused but still far too risky to try in court. Especially with the current climate that all pharmaceutical manufactures are robber barons. We have to look no further than the current roar over insulin and the half-truths and outright lies over it. People like to compare the cost of Insulin cost in the USA vs other countries and how it's outrageous. But they fail to compare the insulin types against each other. Yes the cost of Insulin in the USA is far higher than in other countries but that's because the USA predominantly uses the far more effective Insulin manufactured from genetically modified bacteria instead of the less effective other methods going all the way down to the cheapest way of simply harvesting insulin from cattle and pigs.



I agree which is why I continue to suggest that we should start to just ignore the vaccine and the distinction between those who have and have not gotten it, especially with the fact that there are still over a billion who want it and still can't get it. I understand the reality that currently the unvaccinated are clogging up the hospitals and ICU's and perhaps we are attempting to deal with this wrong. Perhaps the best course of action would simply be to use the emergency hospital tents that were set up over a year ago to be covid care centers and not worry about attempting to ventilate the very sick and simply provide care in the hopes they recover but be ok with the fact that some will not make it. And no I would not even make a distinction here between the vaccinated and unvaccinated and treat all serious covid hospitalizations the same, basic care with the hope they pull through.

The other hard truth that people seem to so quickly forget is that there were not a lot of ICU beds to start with and Covid is only using up a small percentage of those available beds most of the beds are still being used by other causes. So while it is true that there are very few left in some places, there was always only a few in most hospitals that were not being used prior to covid19 and all the virus has done is used up the few remaining beds.

I mostly agree with both of your replies. Speaking to your last statement about the ICU bed availability, I can also attest to the number of ICU beds generally being limited even before the outbreak of COVID. Hospitals know how many ICU patients they may get year after year so they know they don't need 100 ICU beds when they only have 10 patients in ICU on your average day. If for some reason they need more ICU beds, they use additional beds throughout the hospital, call up temporary ICU nurses from outside agencies and/or they pull extra nurses from other units.

 

[Radegast74]

Another one. So sad, his wife is pregnant and they have 3 kids :(

View attachment 21227

The hospital is out of options? Do they all know there is a vaccine for that? Oh, right...

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Saturday 28th of August:

- World: 215,794,619 confirmed cases and 4,491,330 confirmed deaths.

- UK: Large scale study reveals Delta variant has double the risk of hospitalisation from serious illness compared to the previous dominant Alpha variant. It was pointed out vaccination is still an excellent counter to Delta, however.

- US: President indicates China is withholding critical data on virus origins.

- India: Administers over 10 million vaccine doses in the last 24 hours.

- Australia: New South Wales sees record high new daily cases.

- New Zealand: Delta outbreak climbs to 429 discovered cases.

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

Australia: New South Wales sees record high new daily cases.

A good recent article from Reuters on the current situation and plans going forward. I just thought they had the military in the streets indefinitely and everyone locked in their homes like we saw in China.

Australia PM says COVID 'groundhog day' to end when more vaccinated | Reuters

 

[Radegast74]

Interesting epidemiolgical "experiment" --> a teacher (one of only 2 unvaccinated teachers in the elementary school) in Marin County, PRC (People's Republic of California) felt sick for two days...still went to work, teaching the *unable to be vaccinated* young children...despite school policy of mask wearing *at all times* he/she removed their mask to read aloud to the kids...guess what, about 5 days later, 12 of the 22 kids tested were positive for the Delta variant of COVID, and 4 of the kids parents were also positive for COVID (3 were vaccinated!). They even found kids sick in the adjacent classroom...sheesh...people need to get vaccinated if they can, and keep wearing masks (because you don't know who has not gotten vaccinated...)

News summary (so-so, paywalled)

How one unvaccinated, unmasked teacher spread coronavirus to students and parents

A Marin County teacher who came to school while visibly sick infected a dozen students with the coronavirus, a report released by the CDC says.

www.latimes.com

Original write-up from MMWR:

Outbreak Associated with SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.2 (Delta)...

COVID-19 outbreak associated with an unvaccinated infected teacher in an elementary school from May–June 2021 in Marin County, California.

www.cdc.gov

Interesting graphic showing which kids tested positive...indicates that proximity to the teacher was a big factor