COVID-19 News and Discussions

[Yuli Ban]

[wjfox]

[Xyls]

I did read something today that only like 59% of current US cases are Omicron. It may actually still be Delta driving the main part of the hospitalizations here...

https://www.ft.com/content/0a03ef52-6df ... 87ea0c6bf6

[Yuli Ban]

[Ken_J]

saw a faux news article proclaiming Bidens is reaping the consequences of cutting medical workers who are unvaccinated.

Nope, the problem isn't a policy to remove those with a higher chance to catch and spread a disease from chronic exposure to catching and spreading it in a population of the most vulnerable and at risk from deadly consequences.

Seriously what is wrong with these people? You can't be that good of a healthcare professinal if you do not support the appropriate health response to this pandemic. Literally, vaccinate, clean regularly, wear a mask, don't touch your face and then everything around you multiple times a day, and minimize contact with others who may be infected and if you've been around somebody who is possibly infected avoid the vulnerable to prevent spreading to them.

[erowind]

.

[wjfox]

Kidney damage can result from coronavirus infection

December 27, 2021

The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infects the kidneys and contributes to tissue scarring, as shown by researchers from the RWTH Uniklinik Aachen, Germany, and Radboudumc, The Netherlands. The developed scar tissue in the infected kidneys may suggest a possible impact on kidney outcomes in the long term.

The fact that the coronavirus can result in severe damage in the human body is known, and also that kidneys can get infected. But what exactly happens in the kidney as a result of the infection remains elusive until now. In this study, published in Cell Stem Cell, researchers investigated the kidney tissue of COVID-19 patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. They found scarring of the tissue as compared to ICU patients with a non-COVID-19 lung infection and a control group.

Next, the researchers questioned what exactly the cause was of the kidney damage. Could this be a direct effect of the virus, independent of systemic inflammation? To investigate this, the researchers cultured mini kidneys, called organoids, in the lab. The kidney organoids are developed from stem cells and contain many different kidney cells, except for immune cells. The kidney organoids were infected with SARS-CoV-2 and the researchers investigated the direct effect of the virus on the kidney cells, independent of potential secondary effects caused by immune cells or other systemic effects. The researchers found, in line with the COVID-19 patient tissues, scarring of the kidney organoids and accompanied signals that contribute to the scarring process.

The results of this study indicate that the recent finding of another USA based large cohort study that reported kidney functional decline in over 90,000 COVID-19 survivors (Bowe et al, JASN) might be due to direct effects of the SARS-CoV2 virus on the kidney causing scar formation.

Researcher Jitske Jansen (Radboudumc) said, "In our study, we thoroughly investigated the causal damaging effects of the coronavirus in the kidneys. The infected kidney organoids show that the virus directly causes cell damage, independent of the immune system. With this work, we found a piece of the puzzle showing the deleterious effects the virus can have in the body."

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12- ... ction.html



Kidney sections from healthy control (left) and COVID-19 patient (right). Scar tissue is blue. Credit: Jitske Jansen and Bart Smeets, Radboudumc

[weatheriscool]

The US just hit a record average of daily new Covid-19 cases
Source: CNN

The US hit a seven-day average of 254,496 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data -- blowing past the country's previous record of about 251,989 daily cases, reported on January 11.

The record comes amid a rapid acceleration of infections that the US -- and the rest of the world -- has seen since last month. Tuesday's seven-day average is still in progress and may rise when the day ends.

And experts predict that the Omicron variant -- the most contagious strain of coronavirus yet -- is going to make the start of 2022 very difficult.

"January is going to be a really, really hard month. And people should just brace themselves for a month where lots of people are going to get infected," said Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner told CNN on Sunday he believes the US could "see half a million cases a day -- easy -- sometime over the next week to 10 days."


"A lot of people who have not gotten a vaccine are going to end up getting pretty sick, and it's going to be pretty disruptive," Jha said. "My hope is as we get into February and certainly by the time we get into March, infection numbers will come way down, and it'll also start getting (into) spring, and the weather will start getting better. And that will also help."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/28/us/us-co ... index.html

[wjfox]

France reports over 200,000 daily cases, highest of pandemic so far

2h ago 14:31

France is seeing a record rise in Covid infections, with 208,000 new cases reported over the past 24 hours, a national and European record, the health minister, Olivier Véran, told lawmakers on Wednesday.

France has been breaking Covid records repeatedly over the past few days, with Tuesday’s 180,000 cases already the highest for a country in Europe, according to data on Covidtracker.fr.

Every second, two people in France are testing positive for Covid, Véran said, adding that the situation in hospitals was worrying because of the Delta variant, with Omicron yet to have an impact. The flu will further complicate things for hospitals, he said.

Earlier we reported that, amid the record surge in infections, the French government was accelerating introduction of the so-called vaccine pass to increase pressure on the unvaccinated to get the jab.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/ ... d6158b67d5

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

Functional Society!

[Yuli Ban]

But we have to keep the stock market high! #OpenItUp

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

But we have to keep the stock market high! #OpenItUp

Humans haven't changed in 5,000 years. We just have shinier, more godlike tools with which we communicate our unchanged nature.

[Yuli Ban]

I mean at this juncture, it can't be denied that they had overwhelming success in combatting the pandemic. There was some fuckery early on, yes, but no one with a functioning brain could possibly think that they're still losing a thousand a day like we are. It's tragic to say, but China's overcome us.

[Yuli Ban]

And then there's Long COVID.
Whether the pandemic ends after Omicron or Omega, the cold fact is that we have a much more insidious silent crisis on our hands

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

[andmar74]

I mean at this juncture, it can't be denied that they had overwhelming success in combatting the pandemic. There was some fuckery early on, yes, but no one with a functioning brain could possibly think that they're still losing a thousand a day like we are. It's tragic to say, but China's overcome us.

Early on China tried to hide the fact that Covid-19 existed, but when the cat was out of the bag, they did provide a lot of data, and started their tactic of hitting the virus very hard. One shouldn't forget that we in the west got extra time because of this, but we did nothing.

The question is, do we want this in the west? Hard lockdowns. I have read stories of people in China starving because they are denied to go out shopping.

[andmar74]

On Twitter, a lot of experts are going crazy, some are hysterical.

If you look at the data, omicron doesn't seem that dangerous. If you have 3 shots you should be fairly safe, although if you are old ( above 80), that could be trouble. That would also be the case if you are hit by the flu in that age.

Of course, the hospital staff are worn down, the beds are slowly filling up. The major problem is if the hospitals are overwhelmed. Individuals without vaccines should know better by now.

The uncertainty is great at this point, therefore if an expert is very certain, you should be sceptical.