COVID-19 News and Discussions

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wjfox
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raklian
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wjfox wrote: Tue Apr 12, 2022 12:27 pm
So, it's going to be vastly more transmissible than the measles-like BA.2 and will be at least as severe as the Delta variant.

Just great. Just great.
To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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:? :? :?

To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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Some Experts Argue That Rich Nations, and Big Pharma are Still Blocking 'Early Exit' From Pandemic
by Jake Johnson
April 13, 2022

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/ ... ic-experts

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) In a scathing letter on Wednesday, more than 300 public health experts, academics, labor leaders, and activists accused rich countries of denying the world an "early exit" from the coronavirus pandemic by continuing to stonewall efforts to expand vaccine production and distribution in low-income nations.

Addressed to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the new letter calls on the two leaders to reject a recently leaked compromise proposal that departs dramatically from South Africa and India's popular original plan to waive coronavirus-related patents for the duration of the pandemic.

That plan, first unveiled at the World Trade Organization in October 2020 in an attempt to ensure equitable global access to vaccines and therapeutics, has been blocked by the European Union and other rich countries. The pharmaceutical industry, which has reaped huge profits from its monopoly control over vaccine production, lobbied aggressively against South Africa and India's proposal.

"We know that the blame for this inadequate text does not lie with your governments, who have worked tirelessly to deliver a TRIPS waiver," reads the new letter from experts and campaigners. "The European Union and other rich countries have chosen to block the path to an early exit from this pandemic. They have put the lives of millions of people at risk by perpetuating vaccine inequality, creating the perfect breeding ground for new and potentially more dangerous or vaccine-resistant variants."

"They have looked the other way," the letter continues, "while millions have died needlessly because developing countries were not given the rights and the technology to make or import Covid-19 vaccines, tests, and treatments."
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Biden administration extends transportation mask mandate for 15 more days
Source: CNBC
The Biden administration is extending a mask mandate for airplanes and transit for 15 days, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday.

The mandate was set to expire after April 18, following a one-month extension announced in March. Airlines have required masks on planes since early in the pandemic in 2020, but the Biden administration made them mandatory in early 2021.

The CDC said it is monitoring the spread of omicron, including the BA.2 subvariant.

“Since early April, there have been increases in the 7-day moving average of cases in the U.S. In order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity, the CDC Order will remain in place at this time,” the CDC said in a statement.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/13/us-exte ... -days.html
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Axios-Ipsos poll: Most Americans say COVID is no longer a crisis
Source: Axios
Less than one in 10 Americans now describe COVID-19 as a crisis — with about three in four calling it a manageable problem and one in six saying it's no problem at all — according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.

Why it matters: These sentiments — and the public's growing desire to be done with mask mandates and other restrictions — raise significant challenges for public health officials in managing new surges, and could create real political headwinds ahead of the midterms.

Between the lines: Democrats were five times as likely as Republicans to say COVID-19 is a crisis (16% to 3%). Meanwhile, Republicans were 10 times as likely as Democrats to say COVID-19 is not a problem (31% to 3%).

Here's another way to look at the overall numbers: About twice as large a share of Americans said COVID-19 is "not a problem at all" (17%) than said it is "a serious crisis" (9%).

Read more: https://www.axios.com/axios-ipsos-poll- ... 25159.html
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New Drug Slashed Deaths Among Patients With Severe Covid, Maker Claims
Source: New York Times
An experimental drug halved the death rate among critically ill Covid patients who were receiving supplemental oxygen and were at high risk for serious lung disease and death, the drug’s developer announced on Monday.

There is a pressing need for new treatments for critically ill patients. Drugs like Paxlovid, made by Pfizer, are aimed primarily at patients who have mild or moderate disease. Other treatments administered to hospitalized patients in serious condition have shown limited effectiveness.

The new drug, sabizabulin, reduced deaths among hospitalized Covid-19 patients so drastically in a clinical trial that independent safety monitors recommended stopping it early, officials at Veru Inc., the drug’s maker, said. The trial was halted on Friday.

The results of that trial have not been reviewed by outside experts or published in a medical journal. Veru announced the findings at an early-morning news conference. The company’s stock soared in trading Monday following the announcement.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/heal ... =url-share
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World surpasses half a billion confirmed COVID cases

9 hours ago - Health

Confirmed COVID-19 cases have now surpassed 500 million worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

State of play: The actual number of cases among the world's population of 7.9 billion is believed to be much higher, but many are going unreported — and experts are concerned this will worsen as testing is scaled down in some countries, including the U.S., the New York Times reports.

There's been an issue throughout the pandemic with lower-income countries having limited public health resources and a lack of coronavirus vaccine access — particularly in Africa, where 21 countries had vaccinated less than 10% of their populations as of February, according to the World Health Organization.

Why it matters: WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has stressed that the world is still in the grip of the virus' acute phase. But this could end by the middle of 2022 if 70% of the world is vaccinated, he said.

https://www.axios.com/world-covid-cases ... 6dd57.html
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Valneva approved to be UK’s sixth Covid vaccine

Thu 14 Apr 2022 07.38 BST

A Covid-19 vaccine developed by the French pharmaceutical company Valneva has been given regulatory approval by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, bringing the total number of jabs approved for use in the UK to six.

As the Covid pandemic swept the world, scientists began developing vaccines against it, with the Pfizer/BioNTech jab being the first in the UK to be authorised for emergency use by the MHRA in 2020. Since then the MHRA has approved the Moderna, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Janssen and Novavax vaccines, although, according to NHS England, Janssen and Novavax are not currently available.

The UK’s independent medicines regulator was the first in the world to approve the Valneva product, the MHRA said. Unlike the other approved Covid jabs, the Valneva vaccine is an inactivated whole-virus vaccine, which means the live virus was grown in a laboratory, rendered unable to infect cells, then administered to people to trigger an immune response.

The MHRA said this approach was already being used for flu and polio vaccines and experts have previously suggested that Covid jabs based on the whole virus may result in a broader immune response than those that involve only the spike protein, and may work better against new variants.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... id-vaccine
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