COVID-19 News and Discussions

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caltrek
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^^^I think you all understand that Sanders winning the presidency in and of itself would not have made that much difference unless the Senate had also more solidly been won by progressive Democrats.

What I came here to post:

Pfizer Agrees to Share Recipe for COVID-19 Pill
by Bob Herman
November 16, 2021

https://www.axios.com/pfizer-antiviral- ... f5383.html
(Axios) Pfizer has agreed to a licensing deal with the UN's Medicines Patent Pool for its COVID-19 pill — roughly a month after Merck said it licensed its COVID pill with the MPP.

Why it matters: These antiviral pills have showed promising results in reducing the severity of infection and preventing death among the unvaccinated, and Pfizer's licensing agreement, combined with Merck's, will allow generic drug companies to cheaply produce the pills for more than 100 low- and middle-income countries.

Details: Pfizer's agreement will cover 95 countries, compared with Merck's agreement that covered 105.
  • "Pfizer will not receive royalties on sales in low-income countries and will further waive royalties on sales in all countries covered by the agreement" until the World Health Organization no longer classifies the pandemic as a "public health emergency," Pfizer said in a press release.
  • The countries included in Pfizer's licensing agreement, but not Merck's, are Armenia, Georgia, Jordan, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Ukraine and West Bank and Gaza, according to the nonprofit Knowledge Ecology International. Pfizer's agreement excludes several island nations.
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weatheriscool
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New York City tells health providers to give booster shots to all adults who want them.
Source: New York Times
New York City health officials on Monday encouraged all adults who want to receive coronavirus vaccine boosters to seek them out, and asked health providers not to turn them away, a move that comes as federal regulators consider expanding the eligibility pool for Pfizer-BioNTech’s booster.

Anyone who is 18 or older and seeking a booster shot in New York City should not be turned away, said Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, provided it has been at least six months since their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or at least two months since they received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot.

“Clinicians should allow adult patients to determine their own risk of exposure based on their individual circumstances,” said Dr. Chokshi.

Federal regulators currently allow booster shots for people who are 65 and older, as well as adults who live in long-term care settings, have underlying medical conditions, or work or live in high-risk settings. Last week, Pfizer and BioNTech requested that the Food and Drug Administration expand eligibility of their booster to all adults.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/nyre ... dults.html
weatheriscool
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As virus surges in Eastern Europe, leaders slow to act
Source: Associated Press
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — At the main hospital in Romania’s capital, the morgue ran out of space for the dead in recent days, and doctors in Bulgaria have suspended routine surgeries so they can tend to a surge in COVID-19 patients. In the Serbian capital, the graveyard now operates an extra day during the week in order to bury all the bodies arriving.

For two months now, a stubborn wave of virus infections has ripped mercilessly through several countries in Central and Eastern Europe, where vaccination rates are much lower than elsewhere on the continent. While medical workers pleaded for tough restrictions or even lockdowns, leaders let the virus rage unimpeded for weeks.

“I don’t believe in measures. I don’t believe in the same measures that existed before the vaccines,” Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said last month as the Balkan nation sustained some of its worst daily death tolls of the pandemic. “Why do we have vaccines then?”

A World Health Organization official declared earlier this month that Europe is again at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic. While several Western European countries are seeing spikes in infections, it is nations to the East that are driving fatalities. Romania, Bulgaria and the Balkan states recorded some of the highest per-capita death rates in the world in the first week of November, according to the WHO.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus- ... 757f200fde
weatheriscool
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Austria locks down unvaccinated amid COVID resurgence
Source: newsnationnow.com


BERLIN (AP) — Austria took what its leader called the “dramatic” step Monday of implementing a nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated people who haven’t recently had COVID-19, perhaps the most drastic of a string of measures being taken by European governments to get a massive regional resurgence of the coronavirus under control.

The move, which took effect at midnight, prohibits people 12 years old and older who haven’t been vaccinated or recently recovered from leaving their homes except for basic activities such as working, grocery shopping, going for a walk — or getting vaccinated.
Austria orders nationwide lockdown for unvaccinated

The lockdown is initially being imposed until Nov. 24 in the Alpine country of 8.9 million. It doesn’t apply to children under 12 because they cannot yet officially get vaccinated — though the capital, Vienna, on Monday opened up vaccinations for under-12s as part of a pilot project, and reported high demand......................................
Read more: https://www.newsnationnow.com/health/co ... esurgence/
weatheriscool
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The F.D.A. plans to authorize Pfizer-BioNTech boosters as soon as Thursday.
Source: New York Times
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is aiming to authorize booster doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for all adults as early as Thursday, a move that would expand the number of Americans eligible for additional shots by tens of millions, according to people familiar with the agency’s plans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent committee of vaccine experts has scheduled a meeting for Friday to discuss data on the booster dose’s efficacy and safety.

If both the F.D.A. and the C.D.C. sign off this week, they will have acted strikingly quickly — a little more than a week after Pfizer asked for authorization of boosters for everyone 18 and older. Under that scenario, any adult who received a second dose of the vaccine at least six months earlier would be officially eligible to get a booster as soon as this weekend. The F.D.A. is expected to rule without consulting its own expert panel, which has met frequently during the pandemic to review vaccine data and make a recommendation ahead of a regulatory decision.

Moderna is expected to soon submit its own request for the F.D.A. to broaden eligibility for its booster. But for now, every adult could get the Pfizer booster, according to people familiar with the planning.The broad booster authorization has been viewed as something of a fait accompli for weeks. Some state and local officials have begun rolling out similar policies ahead of F.D.A. action — responding to persistent virus case counts and the eagerness of many Americans to seek additional protection ahead of holiday gatherings. New York City health officials on Monday encouraged all adults who want boosters to seek them out. Arkansas, California, Colorado and New Mexico have already moved to expand access.

Many Americans, regardless of where they live, have taken the matter into their own hands and sought out extra doses even if they do not officially qualify yet.The F.D.A. in September downsized Pfizer-BioNTech’s request to fully approve booster doses for all adults, instead signing off on a more limited population, including those 65 and older, as well as adults with underlying medical conditions or those at risk because of their jobs. At least 30 to 40 percent of vaccinated adults are still excluded from booster eligibility, according to some estimates
.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/p ... dults.html
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Germany in big trouble... 60K cases yesterday!

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavir ... y/germany/
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caltrek
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On Sunday November 14, 2021 10:12 am WJ Fox posted a Tweet concerning Trump's mismanagement of the Covid19 crisis. Below is a link to an article following up on that theme. Of particular note is the estimate of the number of lives that may have been lost due to that mismanagement. A truly stunning though no doubt controversial number.

New Revelations Emerge on How Donald Trump Killed 400,000 (or More) Americans
by David Corn
November 17, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... -pandemic/

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) As researchers from UCLA noted in March 2021, the United States could have avoided 400,000 COVID deaths if the Trump administration had implemented a more effective health strategy that included mask mandates, social distancing, and robust testing guidelines. (Dr. Deborah) Birx made a similar statement at that time.
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wjfox
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Austria to go into full lockdown as Covid surges

37 minutes ago

Days after Austria imposed a lockdown on the unvaccinated, it has announced a full national Covid-19 lockdown starting on Monday.

Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said it would last a maximum of 20 days and there would be a legal requirement to get vaccinated from 1 February 2022.

He was responding to record case numbers and one of the lowest vaccination levels in Western Europe.

Many other European countries are imposing restrictions as cases rise.

"We don't want a fifth wave," said Mr Schallenberg after meeting the governors of Austria's nine provinces at a resort in west of the country.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-59343650


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