Coronavirus COVID-19 Thread

NaffNaffBobFace

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COVID Catharsis Corner - reports from around the world from today, 13th of April:

- World: JHU page still not functioning. Google News indicates 136,840,796 confirmed cases and 2,949,096 confirmed deaths.

- Brazil: Concern is highlighted as data indicates over half of all hospitalized serious cases of COVID-19 in the country last month were under the age of 40.

- Sweden: Sees highest level of new infections in the whole of Europe, at 625 new infections per million people.

- Vaccines: Jassen/Johnson and Johnson vaccine rollout paused in Europe by the manufacturer, placed on a precautionary suspension in South Africa and paused in the US "out of an abundance of caution" while investigations continue on six cases of clotting, no causal effect has been located so far, the six were all women between the ages of 18 and 48. 7 million doses of this vaccine have been administered so far.

- Canada: Reports first detected blood clot case in someone given Oxford/AZ vaccine.

- Austria: Top COVID official steps down due to exhaustion.

- UK: London, and mass testing begins in two areas as hotspots of South African variant located. Source tracked back to a single individual who traveled back from Africa in February.

- UK: Deaths over average over the course of the pandemic to this point passes 150,000.

- Dr Fauci: States in an interview with BBC Radio 4 that Herd Immunity is an illusive concept and there is no definitive percentage of vaccinated persons before it surfaces and takes effect.

- Music: Mick Jagger with Dave Ghrol on drums, bass and guitar release song about lockdown:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MN9YLLQl7gE
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Wednesday 14th of April:

- World: JHU page still malfunctioning. Google News indicates 137,209,066 confirmed cases and 2,956,537 confirmed deaths.

- Denmark: Suspends all use of Oxford/AZ vaccine amid concerns of clotting reports. Officials say they may resume use of this vaccine in future, but with the country in its third wave, they have chosen to cease use altogether. AstraZeneca said in a statement: “We recognise and respect the decision taken by Sundhedsstyrelsen (health agency) in Denmark,” [...] “We will continue to collaborate with the regulators and local authorities in order to provide all available data to inform their decisions”

- Czech Republic: Offers to buy Denmarks 2.4 million Oxford/AZ doses.

- Brazil: New analysis of deaths data from Brazil indicates since the beginning of the crisis 1,300 babies under the age of one year old have died from COVID-19.

- Brazil: Supreme Court gives go ahead for Senate to install a committee to investigate the countries Pandemic response and the hypercritical crisis which spawned as a result.

- Brazil: Sao Paulo, Brazils most populated and richest state, warns it is running out of supplies such as key medicines to treat COVID-19 patients.“The supply situation regarding drugs, mainly neuromuscular blockers and sedatives, is very serious, [...] Collapse is imminent,”

- China: Urges the population to help it accelerate vaccination but advises it is still voluntary.

- UK: Extends Vaccine mixing trial, currently there are 800 participants but organizers hope to recruit 1050 additional people who have already had at only one dose of any vaccine in the last 12 weeks.

- UK: Mass testing starts in 2 more areas of London taking the total to 4 to counter the spreading South African variant, and in one area in the West Midlands as South African variant detected there too.

- UK: Government defends the spending of public funds on a documentary about the countries COVID-19 vaccine rollout that the makers described in a tweet as "Extraordinary. Unexpected. Fantastic.". Critics point out this has been made before the rollout is finished, and that with the South African variant to emerging this may have been a bit premature and may have been a misuse of tax payers fund to promote the incumbent political party rather than record any successes for prosperity. Number 10 (UK version of the White House) states and "this was produced entirely in-house by No 10 staff as part of their work" however more critics ask if this is what staff were doing rather than doing things like publishing the details of COVID-19 contracts within the legal 30 day requirements.

- Israel: World views the country with interest as number of vaccinated persons nears the 65% to 70% it is theorized is required for functional herd immunity.

- EU: Pfizer gives the Bloc good news that 50 million vaccines expected to arrive by the end of the year will be with them by June.

- India: Hundreds of atendees of the Kumbh Mela festival in the city of Haridwar test positive for COVID-19.

- India: Sees record high daily new cases at 184,372

- Turkey: Sees record high daily new cases and deaths.

- Poland: Extends Lockdown to 25th of April as number of new cases and deaths remain high, registering the second highest number of deaths in a single day at 803.

- Isle Of Man: Active cases fall to just 21, public is advised restrictions may begin to be lifted from Monday.
 
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Vavrik

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UK: Mass testing starts in another more area of London taking the total to 3 to counter spreading South African variant, and in one area in the West Midlands as South African variant detected there too. One additional area in London, Barnet, starts mass testing as a brand new variant is discovered there, taking the total of mass testing areas in London to 4.
There is another variant in London or did I read that wrong?
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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There is another variant in London or did I read that wrong?
As far as I was able to work out from the report, I'll try to track it down.

Earlier in the day it was reported yesterdays 2 areas were now 4 because of new detected South Africa version, but in Barnet that was found to be not related, an entirely new variant.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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There is another variant in London or did I read that wrong?
Many thanks for questioning this, I misinterpreted the report on the live log as it was amending that the case was not related to other areas, not that it was a new variant altogether:


It's definitely another case of the South African variant, not a new one. Appreciate your help on that, it would have been bigger news if it was! - I'll edit that on the post. :like:
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today Thursday 15th of April.

- World: JHU page working today, 138,581,232 confirmed cases and 2,977,619 confirmed deaths.

- US/Oxford University: Early findings of research at Oxford University on 81 million electronic US patient records who have suffered COVID-19 show the risk of rare blood clots 8 to 10 times higher than in those who have naturally contracted the virus than in those who received a vaccine.

- India: Sees record high new daily cases and deaths, passing 200k new cases for the first time.

- Brazil: Global medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières warns Brazil is spiraling into a humanitarian catastrophe and its response to the pandemic has been the worst in the world, with the groups international president saying: “I have to be very clear in this: the Brazilian authorities’ negligence is costing lives,” and that the countries government was “a threat to its own population”.

- France: Passes grim milestone of 100,000 deaths.

- UK: Data suggests the less accurate but faster home use Lateral Flow tests being rolled out to all in the country may have a high accuracy rate, as analysis from Public Health England indicates 82% of follow-up PCR tests on positive Lateral Flow tests have returned the same positive result.

- UK: Delays caused by the pandemic cause hospital operation waiting list to climb to 4.7 million people, the highest since records began 14 years ago.

- Vaccines: Report on funding of Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine indicates that contrary to suggestions from some quarters that Profit, greed and capitalism was the driving force behind the success of science swinging into action and providing the successful treatment, 97% of the funding over the course of this treatments development since the year 2000, which caused this vaccine to be in the position to be created, was from public funding (governments) and charitable donations.

- Turkey: Sees record high new daily deaths.

- Thailand: Sees record high new daily cases.

- Germany: Disease control agency calls for harsh measures in the face of the latest wave which has caused some areas Intensive Care wards to fill to capacity.

- Mozambique: Crime ring producing certificates claiming a COVID negative status uncovered and smashed by authorities.

- Ukraine: Starts to vaccinate athletes ahead of 2021 Japan Olympics.

- Japan: Official indicates cancelling 2021 Olympics is still an option if the pandemic in the country worsens.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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COVID Catharsis Corner - reports from around the world from today, Friday 16th of April:

- World: JHU page once again inoperative, Google News says 139,274,615 confirmed cases and 2,989,590 confirmed deaths.

- UK: Green light given to include pregnant women in vaccine eligibility list.

- UK: Small number of cases of South African variant found in Birmingham leading to mass testing in some areas.

- UK: 73 cases of Indian variant discovered in the UK - Prime Minister shortens, but does not cancel, trip to India later this month as India itself sees new daily cases breach 200k for the last two days in a row.

- UK: Man jailed for 10 weeks for spitting at, and infecting, policeman with COVID-19.

- China: Economy bounces back, growing 18.3% in Q1 2021 compared to the same time last year Q1 2020 when the country was in lockdown.

- China: Coronavac vaccine found to be 67% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID infection and 80% effective at preventing death.

- Vaccines: Moderna says it is having issues supplying the promised number of vaccines due to supply chain issues hitting it's European factory.

- Latvia: Opens up Oxford/AZ vaccinations to all on a first-come-first-served walk-in basis to clear backlog as many of the elderly being vaccinated first in the official program refuse the jab for fear of rare blood clots.

- Malawi: Vaccine hesitancy in the country leads to 16,000 doses of Oxford/AZ vaccine to be destroyed as it nears/passes its expiry date.

- Australia: Records its first death from blood clots which formed after the Oxford/AZ vaccine having been administered.

- Germany: Leader of the country Angela Merkel receives first dose of Oxford/AZ vaccine.

- Italy: Funeral Home staff stage a protest in Rome as it emerges that a queue in cremations has lead to 2000+ coffins waiting weeks and in some cases months to be dealt with.

- Kyrgyzstan: Official advises the country is to start treating COVID-19 with a solution from the roots of the aconitum soongaricum plant, however one commenter called it “the most poisonous plant in Kyrgyzstan” and "Even the smallest doses of its extract have strong negative effect on the body and the person might quickly die. We are falling back into the Middle Ages.”

- Isle Of Man: Number of active cases falls to 11, plans are in place to lift lockdown on Monday, however Chief Minister warns: "There is every likelihood that Covid will return to our island and it will spread in our community. That is inevitable and I need you to be ready for that. Thanks to the vaccines, our response when this happens is increasingly going to be very different to what you have seen over the past 14 months."
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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Apologies for no Catharsis Corner yesterday, one of the rare days I actually had too much to do to be able to get to it.

Salient points from yesterday 17th of April that I can still find:

- World: Passes 3 million confirmed deaths.

- UK: South African pockets of infection detected and Indian variant causes further concerns that it could scupper progress made by vaccine program to this point.

- Tunisia: Closes all schools until the end of the month.
 
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Vavrik

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UK: South African pockets of infection detected and Indian variant causes further concerns that it could scupper progress made by vaccine program to this point
This is un-good, and why I was rooting for the mRNA vaccines to work. They can be altered for new variants without a lot of fuss, and given as booster shots. But we need to get the world vaccinated, not just G20 countries.
And I hope nobody in the UK minds too much, but the testing program that's being done there is a model for what we need to be doing globally.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Sunday 18th of April:

- World: JHU pandemic info page down again, Google News reports 140,849,925 confirmed cases and 3,013,217 confirmed deaths.

- Scotland: First Minister admits releasing COVID patents back into elderly care homes was a mistake. Previously Prime Minister Johnson admitted an early mistake in the UK pandemic response was to not take into account the possibility of asymptomatic spread. Scottish First Minister calls for an inquiry into the UK's pandemic response to begin before the end of the year.

- UK: The Queen sits alone at her husbands funeral due to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions.

- Kenya: Police block roads in Capital Nairobi to enforce night time ban on movement, thousands are trapped in subsequent gridlock traffic jams.

- Turkey: Sees record high new daily deaths.

- Gaza: Sees record high new daily deaths.

- India: Government announces it will free up more hospital beds as some states make urgent pleas for oxygen supplies and medicines.

- US: Dr Fauci indicates he expects Johnson and Johnson vaccine to resume soon.

- Vaccines: AstraZeneca could release modified vaccine to counter the South African variant by the end of the year.

- EU: Hints it may not place any further orders for AstraZeneca vaccines following supply issues during the original contract.

Personal question on a previous piece of Catharsis Corner news which I have seen nothing more on: Has anyone seen an update on the Novavax deal with the EU which was being delayed due to the manufacturers concerns on the supply chain and being able to supply the requested number of doses? Would be interested to know if they are still planning to sell to the Union or if vaccine makers without a 100% cast iron supply chain are now wary of selling to the Bloc following the AZ supply issue and following quagmire?
 
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Vavrik

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Personal question on a previous piece of Catharsis Corner news which I have seen nothing more on: Has anyone seen an update on the Novavax deal with the EU which was being delayed due to the manufacturers concerns on the supply chain and being able to supply the requested number of doses? Would be interested to know if they are still planning to sell to the Union or if vaccine makers without a 100% cast iron supply chain are now wary of selling to the Bloc following the AZ supply issue and following quagmire?
I think the EU has made a strategic mistake in the way they've treated AZ (my opinion), so other manufacturers are being very careful. Last I heard they are still negotiating with a delivery target of June, but it seems to be done behind closed doors. There is way too much politics going on in that mess for me to understand.

And I'm not entirely sure that the EU has much of a leg to stand on with AZ. The specific problem they're using to explain the issues with the AZ vaccine is not based in the actual statistics. What I think is they had a knee jerk political reaction, and that isn't going to help the Pharma industry do what is needed.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Monday 19th of April:

- World: 141,544,240 confirmed cases and 3,022,288 confirmed deaths.

- WHO: World Health Organization says the pandemic could be bought under control in the coming months if vaccines are distributed equally. “We have the tools to bring this pandemic under control in a matter of months, if we apply them consistently and equitably,” and points out “It took nine months to reach one million deaths; four months to reach two million, and three months to reach three million,”

- Greta Thunberg: Donates €100,000 to the COVAX vaccine sharing initiative tweeting: "About 1 in 4 people in high-income countries have received a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with just 1 in more than 500 in low-income countries. My foundation will donate €100,000 to support COVAX to ensure a more equitable global COVID-19 vaccine distribution." She later tweeted: "Since some people seem to be upset that my foundation is donating money I would once again like to remind that this money comes from awards and prizes. I don't receive any money for my activism nor do have an interest in philanthropy. Book royalties etc I give to my foundation."

- US: Opens vaccination to anyone over the age of 15 years old.

- US: Drugs Regulator asks a Baltimore plant which was producing the AZ and J&J vaccines to stop making them after it mixed the ingredients of the two vaccines earlier in the month, ruining 15 million doses.

- UK: India variant cases rise to 103. India put on travel ban list, beginning at 4am on Friday... however data reveals more than 100,000 people have traveled between the UK and India since January 1st 2021 leading some critics to suggest the government has not done enough to secure the countries boarders.

- UK: Prime Minister cancels planned visit to India which had previously been shortened.

- India: Capital city Delhi begins week of Lockdown after Curfew fails to curb COVID cases.

- Greece: Suspends rollout of Johnson and Johnson vaccine awaiting results of European Regulator investigation.

- Democratic Republic of Congo: Begins vaccination program with Oxford/AZ vaccine.

- Malawi: Several senior officials fired after allegations of embezzlement of COVID funds.

- Isle Of Man: Lockdown lifted as the island drops to 7 active cases.
 
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NaffNaffBobFace

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COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Tuesday 20th of April:

- World: 142,304,499 confirmed cases and 3,034,321 confirmed deaths.

- Vaccines: Europe medicines regulator indicates there is a 'possible link' between rare blood clots and J&J vaccine but that it is very rare and benefits outweigh risks, rules the treatment should list blood clots as a very rare side effect.

- Netherlands: To restart J&J rollout following regulator ruling.

- India: Pledges to offer all people over the age of 18 a COVID vaccination from May 1st.

- India: Delhi, and hospitals run low on oxygen and intensive care beds hit capacity with only 7 beds with ventilators available at time of writing.

- US: State Department to advise Americans against travel to 80% of the worlds countries saying the pandemic continued to "pose unprecedented risks to travelers".

- UK: Announces a search for new antiviral treatments with ambitious plans for a two-pill treat at home course to be available by Autumn. Commenters point out that this is a goal, not a guarantee.

- UK: Research finds suicide rate did not increase during first lockdown but "our conclusions at this stage need to be cautious as these early findings may change".

- Spain: Proposes widening gap between first and second vaccine doses to stretch supplies and get more people a first dose.

- Egypt: Strikes deal for 20 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine.

- Yemen: Starts vaccination program.
 

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- UK: Research finds suicide rate did not increase during first lockdown but "our conclusions at this stage need to be cautious as these early findings may change".
Thats actually something i heard a lot more recently. That lockdowns cause more death through suicide, isolation and socio-economic factors
 

NaffNaffBobFace

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Thats actually something i heard a lot more recently. That lockdowns cause more death through suicide, isolation and socio-economic factors
I have read that in Japan more women were laid off because of the pandemic than men which caused a disproportionate rise in self inflected death in females there.

Further details on the UK research on this news page buried in adverts:

 
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COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Wednesday 21st of April:

- World: 143,151,998 confirmed cases and 3,048,296 confirmed deaths.

- Turkey: Sees record high new daily deaths.

- India: Oxygen leak in a hospital leaves ventilators on COVID ward without the gas for 30 minutes, and 22 dead.

- India: Pandemic rages with 200k+ new daily cases for 7 days in a row. Reports include statements of: “Now it is people in their 20s and 30s who are coming in with very severe symptoms and there is a lot of mortality among young people,” and “There is a shortage of beds, shortage of oxygen, shortage of drugs, shortage of vaccines, shorting of testing,”

- India: The domestically produced Covaxin vaccine found to be 78% effective in second round of clinical trials.

- Sweden: Intensive Care wards in some areas hit capacity, prompting the government to warn of more severe restrictions if people continue to ignore the current measures.

- US/Canada: Canadian truckers who frequently cross the boarder are now entitles to vaccines in North Dakota.

- Germany: Sees anti-lockdown protests as the government plans move to centralize and impose lockdown on areas with high COVID cases to curb third wave.

- Russia: President Putin addresses the nation and encourages citizens to get vaccinated, advising that the country aims for a herd immunity by Autumn.

- UK: Beautician who had placed a passage from the Magna Carta in the window of her shop saying it allowed her to "not consent" to pandemic restrictions and continued to trade through the pandemic, who had originally been reported in this thread earlier in the year now faces debts of £17,000 having refused to begin paying off the fine, and a court date is set upon which if found guilty will be subject to an unlimited fine.

- UK: Mass testing begins in Birmingham after a case of South African variant discovered.

- Isle Of Man: Two unexplained-transmission cases detected following lifting of restrictions takes active infections back up to 10.

- Netflix: Subscriptions contract fueling concern the Pandemic boom for the company is over. The blip was explained as their production ability was hampered by the pandemic and hopes new shows coming soon will revive interest.
 
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Aramsolari

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COVID Catharsis Corner - Reports from around the world from today, Wednesday 21st of April:
- Netflix: Subscriptions contract fueling concern the Pandemic boom for the company is over. The blip was explained as their production ability was hampered by the pandemic and hopes new shows coming soon will revive interest.
I'm working on a Netflix production right now and I can tell you first hand COVID has increased the production costs of shows by quite a bit. Between subscriptions contracting and costs going up, it's not going to look pretty for Netflix in the near future.
 

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I'm working on a Netflix production right now and I can tell you first hand COVID has increased the production costs of shows by quite a bit. Between subscriptions contracting and costs going up, it's not going to look pretty for Netflix in the near future.
No, I imagine not, but they have to make new content or die due to more publishing companies bringing online their own streaming service. Of course if they continue to be like CBS/Paramount then they really have nothing to worry about.
 
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