COVID-19 News and Discussions

[Yuli Ban]

Sure is weird all these companies are starting to roll out new rules when I've been repeatedly assured that Omicron is mild and therefore nothing to worry about

[Yuli Ban]

Trump stopped evictions, stopped student loan payments, and sent out checks. I want his COVID policies back too.

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

Mildly vertical graph

[caltrek]

Former World Health Organization Director: Those Upholding Vaccine Apartheid Should Be Tried for 'Crimes Against Humanity'
by Jake Johnson
December 14, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... es-against

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) A former World Health Organization director argued Tuesday that rich countries should face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for creating and perpetuating a system of vaccine apartheid, which has left billions of people around the world at risk as the deadly coronavirus pandemic continues to rage.

Anthony Costello, a professor of global health at University College London and former director of the WHO's maternal, child, and adolescent health program, wrote in The Guardian that wealthy countries' hoarding of doses and refusal share vaccine technology could constitute "crimes against humanity" and that international lawyers should consider pursuing charges.

"The U.K., Canada, Germany, and other E.U. states have supported a deliberate policy to withhold vaccines from the poorest countries in the world, and defended an immoral and unethical economic system which places Big Pharma patents ahead of millions of lives," Costello wrote, referring to rich countries' ongoing obstruction of a proposed waiver of global intellectual property protections, a measure advocates say is necessary to ramp up lagging vaccine production.

"In this context," he continued, "is the only option left to ask whether the states facilitating this might be prosecuted in the international criminal court, on the grounds of a crime against humanity?"

Costello answered his own question in the affirmative, arguing that other potential solutions—such as appealing "to the moral and ethical values of the big pharma board members and investors"—are doomed to fail.

[Yuli Ban]

[Xyls]

So the Omicron theory, of less bad for older adult more bad for young children now seems to be playing out in the UK...

[Xyls]

Speaking of Omicron:

[wjfox]

Covid-19: US surpasses 800,000 pandemic deaths

Published
7 hours ago

More than 800,000 Americans have now died from the coronavirus, the highest recorded national death toll from the global pandemic.

It comes as the US reached 50 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Monday.

Most deaths have been recorded among the unvaccinated and the elderly, and more Americans died in 2021 than in 2020.

The US is again seeing deaths rising at an alarming rate.

The last 100,000 deaths came in just the past 11 weeks, a quicker pace than any at other point aside from last winter's surge.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59645307

[wjfox]

Interesting thread.

[R8Z]

Omicron might be the best news since the start of the pandemic. I am optimistic about it, I am not sure why so many here are so pessimistic, just compare the two charts above... Most sources are now optimistic on how mild it is and one has to dig to find something about it in a bad light.

Death is a lagging statistical indicator.

You're correct. I was observing both graphs in Google (Cases vs Deaths) and judging by the last 3 waves it was sort about 20 days until the death wave matched the cases (judging by their peaks).

We should soon see if the worries posted in the thread are applicable as the cases started rapidly climbing around Nov 24th.

[andmar74]

From the thread above: It's going to rip through society. I get my booster shot on Friday, maybe too late.

[Xyls]

Ding, ding ding... UK finally realizing they are in a syndemic situation...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/li ... st-updates

How many babies and toddlers are we going to kill?

[wjfox]

[Yuli Ban]

The Omicron Covid variant has been found to multiply about 70 times quicker than the original and Delta versions of coronavirus in tissue samples taken from the bronchus, the main tubes from the windpipe to the lungs, in laboratory experiments that could help explain its rapid transmission.

The study, by a team from the University of Hong Kong, also found that the new variant grew 10 times slower in lung tissue, which the authors said could be an indicator of lower disease severity.

Michael Chan Chi-wai, who led the work, said the result needed to be interpreted with caution because severe disease is determined not only by how quickly the virus replicates but also by a person’s immune response and, in particular, whether the immune system goes into overdrive, causing a so-called cytokine storm.

“It is also noted that by infecting many more people, a very infectious virus may cause more severe disease and death even though the virus itself may be less pathogenic,” he said. “Therefore, taken together with our recent studies showing that the Omicron variant can partially escape immunity from vaccines and past infection, the overall threat from the Omicron variant is likely to be very significant.”

[wjfox]

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]