Coronavirus COVID-19 Thread

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Corner - Some reports from some news outlets from today, Wednesday 15th of December:

- World: Global Confirmed 271,699,321 Global Deaths 5,325,637

- US: Deaths 800,945

- World: Omicron spreading at unprecedented rate - WHO

- UK: UK sees highest daily cases since pandemic began (78,610)

- UK: UK Omicron infections ‘could reach 1m a day by end of December’

- UK: Hotel quarantine guests told they can leave

- UK: Woman, 91, waits eight months for booster jab

- Germany: German raids on Covid extremists over death plot

- Poland: Poland reported 660 deaths in a day, the highest since April

- US: Google tells US staff to get vaccinated or face losing jobs

- Italy: Italy imposes mandatory testing for all EU arrivals

- EU: Omicron could be dominant in Europe by mid-January, warns von der Leyen

- Vaccines: WHO says Covid vaccines may be less effective against Omicron

- US/UK: Journalist accompanying US secretary of state on trip to UK and south-east Asia tests positive for Covid

 

[Bambooza]

- US: Google tells US staff to get vaccinated or face losing jobs

Ah sensationalized journalism. Google was following the US Executive order that requires all US employees who work on or in connection with a federal contract must be fully vaccinated. Google is offering their employees who are not vaccinated to have several options, get vaccinated, apply for a medical/religious accommodations, or find a new role if one is available that is not in violation of the executive order.

All of this is has been placed on hold due to the Federal district judge who has ruled the order may not be enforced anywhere in the US.

But you would not get any of this information from the Guardian article which makes it seem that google is forcing their workforce to be vaccinated.

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

Ah sensationalized journalism. Google was following the US Executive order that requires all US employees who work on or in connection with a federal contract must be fully vaccinated. Google is offering their employees who are not vaccinated to have several options, get vaccinated, apply for a medical/religious accommodations, or find a new role if one is available that is not in violation of the executive order.

All of this is has been placed on hold due to the Federal district judge who has ruled the order may not be enforced anywhere in the US.

But you would not get any of this information from the Guardian article which makes it seem that google is forcing their workforce to be vaccinated.

The EO was for a federal mandate. Theres nothing that says a private company cannot require its employees to get vaccinated. The judges ruling just means that the federal government cannot be the ones enforcing it.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Late Corner Update:

-Hong Kong: Omicron found to have 70 times faster breed rate in bronchial tubes than Delta but 10 times slower in the lungs:

Omicron found to grow 70 times faster than Delta in bronchial tissue

Study of tubes between windpipe and lungs could help explain Covid variant’s rapid transmission

www.theguardian.com

Looks like this is the Big One in terms of transmission.

 

[Bambooza]

The EO was for a federal mandate. Theres nothing that says a private company cannot require its employees to get vaccinated. The judges ruling just means that the federal government cannot be the ones enforcing it.

Correct but google as far as I am aware is not forcing their employees to be vaccinated outside of the EO.

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

Correct but google as far as I am aware is not forcing their employees to be vaccinated outside of the EO.

Google memo lays out plan to fire employees who don't comply with vaccine mandate: report (fox13news.com)

Google employees who don't comply with COVID-19 vaccine rules will reportedly be fired (yahoo.com)

Google employees to lose pay if don't comply with vaccination policy (cnbc.com)

Some Big Companies Are Adjusting to Omicron With Mandates - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Google tells employees they'll lose pay and will eventually be fired if they don't follow vaccination rules (msn.com)

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Ah sensationalized journalism. Google was following the US Executive order that requires all US employees who work on or in connection with a federal contract must be fully vaccinated. Google is offering their employees who are not vaccinated to have several options, get vaccinated, apply for a medical/religious accommodations, or find a new role if one is available that is not in violation of the executive order.

All of this is has been placed on hold due to the Federal district judge who has ruled the order may not be enforced anywhere in the US.

But you would not get any of this information from the Guardian article which makes it seem that google is forcing their workforce to be vaccinated.

If only they had asked the source so they could provide the full story...

Google declined a request to comment.

Well, that explains that then

 

[Radegast74]

My usual "This is interesting!":

Where I Live, No One Cares About COVID

Outside the world inhabited by the professional classes in a handful of major metropolitan areas, many Americans are leading their lives as if COVID is over.

www.theatlantic.com

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Corner - Some reports from some news outlets from today, Thursday 16th of December:

- World: Global Confirmed 272,412,205 Global Deaths 5,333,423

- UK: UK reports nearly 90,000 daily Covid cases

- UK: We're not locking the country down, says Prime Minister

- UK: Man arrested after vaccination centre vandalism

- UK: First UK patients given take-at-home Covid pill

- UK: Queen cancels pre-Christmas family lunch

- Netherlands: Dutch royals regret holding party amid Covid surge

- Germany: German health minister trying to buy back vaccines as country tries to step up booster drive

- US: experts warn Ontario hospitals could be overwhelmed

- France: France to tighten Covid restrictions on travel from Omicron-hit UK

- Italy: Italy detects highest daily Covid cases since March

- Canada: Canada's Omicron infections could overwhlem Ontario ICUs within weeks, panel warns

- Malawi: Malawi tightens Covid restrictions and announces frontline worker vaccine mandate

- Denmark: Denmark breaks Covid case record for fourth day running as restrictions loom

- EU: EU reaches deal with Moderna for quicker vaccine supply

 

[PeppaPigKilla]

- UK: UK reports nearly 90,000 daily Covid cases

- UK: We're not locking the country down, says Prime Minister

I'd vote peppa pig to run this country better

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I'd vote peppa pig to run this country better

You don't happen to live in North Shropshire do you? ;-)

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Corner - Some reports from some news outlets* from today, Friday 17th of December:
*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 273,157,927 Global Deaths 5,340,907

- Omicron: Booster at least 80% effective against severe Omicron

- Omicron: Risk of reinfection from Omicron more than five times higher than Delta, finds study

- UK: No 10 inquiry chief faces questions over own 'party'

- UK: Omicron now dominant virus variant in Scotland

- UK: Police warn of delays to 101 non-emergency line calls due to Omicron

- UK: Hospitals in England draw up plans for significant Covid staff absences

- South Africa: South Africa says vaccines and natural immunity are limiting Covid

- US: Biden warns of ‘winter of severe illness and death’ for unvaccinated

- Ireland: Pubs and restaurants in Ireland reportedly set to get 8pm curfew under new proposals

- UK: UK breaks Covid record for third consecutive day with 93,045 new cases

- Switzerland: Switzerland announces tighter Covid restrictions

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Corner - Some reports from some news outlets* from today, Saturday 18th of December:
*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 274,009,990 Global Deaths 5,348,943

- Omicron: WHO says Omicron in 89 countries and spreading rapidly

- Netherlands: Dutch to enter tight lockdown over Omicron wave

- US: Covid vaccine mandate for US businesses reinstated

- UK: More than 10,000 new Omicron cases found in UK

- UK: London declares major incident amid Omicron surge

- France: Omicron spreading at lightning speed - French PM

- World: Countries push to ramp up booster shot rollouts as Covid cases spike

- UK: Omicron deaths in England rise to seven

- UK: Thousands join anti-Covid passport protest in London

- UK: Wurzels drummer dies after contracting Covid

 

[Jolly_Green_Giant]

Enhancing Readiness for Omicron (B.1.1.529): Technical Brief and Priority Actions for Member States

Enhancing Readiness for Omicron (B.1.1.529): Technical Brief and Priority Actions for Member States (who.int)

Overview

• On 26 November 2021, WHO designated the variant B.1.1.529 a variant of concern (VOC), on the basis of advice from WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on Virus Evolution. The variant has been given the name Omicron. Omicron variant is a highly divergent variant with a high number of mutations, including 26-32 in the spike protein, some of which are concerning and may be associated with humoral immune escape potential and higher transmissibility.
• As of 16 December 2021, the Omicron variant has been identified in 89 countries across all six WHO regions. Current understanding of the Omicron variant will continue to evolve as more data becomes available.
• The overall threat posed by Omicron largely depends on four key questions, including: (1) how transmissible the variant is; (2) how well vaccines and prior infection protect against infection, transmission, clinical disease and death; (3) how virulent the variant is compared to other variants; and (4) how populations understand these dynamics, perceive risk and follow control measures, including public health and social measures. Public health advice is based on current information and will be tailored as more evidence emerges around those key questions.
• There is consistent evidence that Omicron has a substantial growth advantage over Delta. It is spreading significantly faster than the Delta variant in countries with documented community transmission, with a doubling time between 1.5–3 days. Omicron is spreading rapidly in countries with high levels of population immunity and it remains uncertain to what extent the observed rapid growth rate can be attributed to immune evasion, intrinsic increased transmissibility or a combination of both. However, given current available data, it is likely that Omicron will outpace Delta where community transmission occurs.
• There are still limited data on the clinical severity of Omicron. More data are needed to understand the severity profile and how severity is impacted by vaccination and pre-existing immunity. Hospitalizations in the UK and South Africa continue to rise, and given rapidly increasing case counts, it is possible that many healthcare systems may become quickly overwhelmed.
• Preliminary data suggest that there is a reduction in neutralizing titres against Omicron in those who have received a primary vaccination series or in those who have had prior SARS-CoV-2 infection , which may suggest a level of humoral immune evasion.
• There are still limited available data, and no peer-reviewed evidence, on vaccine efficacy or effectiveness to date for Omicron. Preliminary findings of vaccine effectiveness studies (test-negative design) were obtained from South Africa and England, the United Kingdom. Available preliminary data to be interpreted with caution as the designs may be subject to selection bias and the results are based on relatively small numbers. Results from England indicate a significant reduction in vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease for Omicron compared to Delta after two vaccine doses of either Pfizer BioNTech-Comirnaty or AstraZeneca-Vaxzevria vaccines. There was, however, higher effectiveness two weeks after a Pfizer BioNTech-Comirnaty booster, which was slightly lower or comparable to that against Delta. A non peer-reviewed study by South Africa researchers using private health insurance data reported reductions in vaccine effectiveness of the Pfizer BioNTech-Comirnaty vaccine against infection, and to a lesser degree against hospitalization. Details about the methods or results were not available at the time of writing.
• The diagnostic accuracy of routinely used PCR and antigen-based rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDT) assays does not appear to be impacted by Omicron. Most Omicron variant sequences reported include a deletion in the S gene, which can cause an S gene target failure (SGTF) in some PCR assays. Though a minority of publicly-shared sequences lack this deletion, SGTF can be used as a proxy marker to screen for Omicron. However, confirmation should be obtained by sequencing, as this deletion can also be found in other VOCs (e.g. Alpha and subsets of Gamma and Delta) circulating at low frequencies globally.
• Therapeutic interventions for the management of patients with severe or critical COVID-19 associated with the Omicron variant that target host responses (such as corticosteroids, and interleukin 6 receptor blockers) are expected to remain effective. However, preliminary data from preprint publications suggest that some of the monoclonal antibodies developed against SARS-CoV-2 may have decreased neutralization against Omicron. Monoclonal antibodies will need to be tested individually for their antigen binding and virus neutralization, and these studies should be prioritized

To view previous versions of this technical brief, please see the links below. The current version of all WHO information products and publications is authoritative.

• 
  28 November 2021 (updated 29 November with minor editorial corrections)
  10 December 2021 (updated from the last version published on 28 November 2021)

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

COVID Corner - Some reports from some news outlets* from today, Sunday 19th of December:
*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 274,640,402 Global Deaths 5,353,784

- US: U.S. Deaths 806,375

- US: Christmas travel will spread Omicron, warns Fauci

- Ireland: Omicron now dominant Covid-19 variant in Ireland

- UK: Latest UK daily cases show a 72% jump on the 48,071 new infections recorded last Sunday

- UK: UK PM and staff pictured with wine in Downing St garden in May 2020

- UK: The science case for more Covid restrictions is overwhelming

- UK: Mass rapid tests in Liverpool cut hospital stays by a third

- Poland: Poland confirms 7 total Omicron cases as official warns variant is spreading at 'unprecedented rate'

- Israel: Israeli prime minister: state protection 'not enough' against Omicron

- Spain: Spanish prime minister warns population of omicron threat

 

[PeppaPigKilla]

COVID Corner - Some reports from some news outlets* from today, Sunday 19th of December:
*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 274,640,402 Global Deaths 5,353,784

- US: U.S. Deaths 806,375

- US: Christmas travel will spread Omicron, warns Fauci

- Ireland: Omicron now dominant Covid-19 variant in Ireland

- UK: Latest UK daily cases show a 72% jump on the 48,071 new infections recorded last Sunday

- UK: UK PM and staff pictured with wine in Downing St garden in May 2020

- UK: The science case for more Covid restrictions is overwhelming

- UK: Mass rapid tests in Liverpool cut hospital stays by a third

- Poland: Poland confirms 7 total Omicron cases as official warns variant is spreading at 'unprecedented rate'

- Israel: Israeli prime minister: state protection 'not enough' against Omicron

- Spain: Spanish prime minister warns population of omicron threat

Shits looking more serious as the days go by

 

[Montoya]

- Poland: Poland confirms 7 total Omicron cases as official warns variant is spreading at 'unprecedented rate'

The math gets a little tricky here because it looks inconsequential.

Poland is saying one person had it, now its seven.. big deal. The thing is Poland is looking at the rates from other countries, and states.

In Washington state, Omicron went from pretty much nothing to 50% dominant strain in two weeks.

Even if Omicron is far less deadly, but a lot more contagious, that just means that there will be less people getting critically ill in the early wave, but as the spread kicks into big numbers, the 0.1% critical of 10,000 cases becomes 0.1% of 100,000 cases, which is a massive number!

 

[Vavrik]

The math gets a little tricky here because it looks inconsequential.

Poland is saying one person had it, now its seven.. big deal. The thing is Poland is looking at the rates from other countries, and states.

In Washington state, Omicron went from pretty much nothing to 50% dominant strain in two weeks.

Even if Omicron is far less deadly, but a lot more contagious, that just means that there will be less people getting critically ill in the early wave, but as the spread kicks into big numbers, the 0.1% critical of 10,000 cases becomes 0.1% of 100,000 cases, which is a massive number!

Somebody gets it. It's the overwhelming of hospitals that's going to be the problem, not the total numbers.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

Yep, and there is a double-whammy too: to explain with imaginary numbers and Variants for anyone still not quite seeing how hospitals are going to get hit twice by Omicron:

Hospitals capacity for the nation 'Zed' is, for the sake of the example, 10.

Imaginary 'Pie' variant has a serious illness factor of 5 in every 100 infected but because of it's relatively lower transmission rate it only causes 150 infections at any one time = 7.5 people in hospital at any one time, so within capacity and the hospitals copes.

Imaginary 'Dessert' variant has a serious illness factor of 1 in every 100 infected but due to its higher transmission rate causes 1,200 infections at any one time = 12 people in hospital at any one time, exceeding capacity and hospitals fail to cope.

But here is the serous part:

The capacity of the hospital is dependent on staff to tend to the sick, staff who are vulnerable to sickness themselves. If the staff are put out of action by 'Pie' variant capacity may have been lowered from 10 to only 8, still coping... but barely with no play in the system for any other issues, and we have seen this IRL with operations etc being cancelled. But 'Dessert' variant by being more infectious would effect the staff even harder, either by short term illness or long term or permanent serous illness so not only does the number of incoming sick exceed the original capacity, it bringing the capacity of the hospitals down even further from its original 10 to just 5. So technically 'Dessert' exceeds capacity by 20%, but in reality it exceeds capacity by over 50% because it hits capacity too. The Nation of Zed is in a real crisis at this point and they might not even know it yet.

So thinking about 'Pie' and 'Dessert' not only does Omicron have the potential to bring in a higher net value of seriously ill individuals due to an exponentially higher number of infections all in one go, it will be doing it at the same time that the capacity of the hospitals themselves will be severely reduced due to the staff themselves being infected. The staff we need to tend to the sick are in the perfect place to be exposed to it and become sick themselves.



All a nation can do at this point is stall the spread with lockdowns etc which buys the hospitals time for their staff to be infected, loose capacity and then recover capacity as the they get better and come back online hopefully without too many lost long term/permanently to serious illness. The lower the infections now, the more capacity can be bought back into the hospitals as staff recover. The kicker: I know someone working for the health service who caught the original variant in March 2020 who is still getting Long COVID symptoms. Even when staff are back, they are not guaranteed to be at 100% capacity even long term.

The hospital capacity cannot be increased without more staff, beds and ventilators which is very hard to do. New tearments ma come along which might ease death rates but especially with staff and training which takes years, it's hard to get more of them to tend to the sick... so protecting the capacity you have is the first step in avoiding being overwhelmed but this far into the pandemic it may be a war of attrition.

 

[Vavrik]

@NaffNaffBobFace, only you could simultaneously describe what the pandemic has done to hospital capacity and make me hungry at the same time.