COVID-19 Coronavirus UPDATES, BANS, CLOSURES, ADVISORY, etc.

[Red Leg]

@Redleg,

The article you posted appears not to be so definitive as related by the editor of the student publication in which it was published. The following is the retraction on the JHU website.

“A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19
By YANNI GU | November 27, 2020

Editor’s Note: After The News-Letter published this article on Nov. 22, it was brought to our attention that our coverage of Genevieve Briand’s presentation “COVID-19 Deaths: A Look at U.S. Data” has been used to support dangerous inaccuracies that minimize the impact of the pandemic.

We decided on Nov. 26 to retract this article to stop the spread of misinformation, as we noted on social media. However, it is our responsibility as journalists to provide a historical record. We have chosen to take down the article from our website, but it is available here as a PDF.

In accordance with our standards for transparency, we are sharing with our readers how we came to this decision. The News-Letter is an editorially and financially independent, student-run publication. Our articles and content are not endorsed by the University or the School of Medicine, and our decision to retract this article was made independently.

Briand’s study should not be used exclusively in understanding the impact of COVID-19, but should be taken in context with the countless other data published by Hopkins, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

As assistant director for the Master’s in Applied Economics program at Hopkins, Briand is neither a medical professional nor a disease researcher. At her talk, she herself stated that more research and data are needed to understand the effects of COVID-19 in the U.S.

Briand was quoted in the article as saying, “All of this points to no evidence that COVID-19 created any excess deaths. Total death numbers are not above normal death numbers.” This claim is incorrect and does not take into account the spike in raw death count from all causes compared to previous years. According to the CDC, there have been almost 300,000 excess deaths due to COVID-19. Additionally, Briand presented data of total U.S. deaths in comparison to COVID-19-related deaths as a proportion percentage, which trivializes the repercussions of the pandemic. This evidence does not disprove the severity of COVID-19; an increase in excess deaths is not represented in these proportionalities because they are offered as percentages, not raw numbers.

Briand also claimed in her analysis that deaths due to heart diseases, respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia may be incorrectly categorized as COVID-19-related deaths. However, COVID-19 disproportionately affects those with preexisting conditions, so those with those underlying conditions are statistically more likely to be severely affected and die from the virus.

Because of these inaccuracies and our failure to provide additional information about the effects of COVID-19, The News-Letter decided to retract this article. It is our duty as a publication to combat the spread of misinformation and to enhance our fact-checking process. We apologize to our readers. “

Point taken.

But taken in "context" it is still a meaningful data point that the Covid itself should have been taken in some form of "context" from jump street.

 

[spike.t]

Worth reading whole thing.....

No need for vaccines, COVID pandemic is over, says Former Vice President of Pfizer

The pandemic is effectively over and can easily be handled by a properly functioning NHS. Accordingly, the country should immediately be permitted to get back to normal life, says former VP of Pfizer

www.nationalheraldindia.com

 

[spike.t]

Only the bloody idiotic media could come out and say the city is an example for other places in how to deal with a second wave...unbelievable...
Guess what it will be back....simple you cant control it....

BBC News - Getting 'crushed' on Melbourne's path to coronavirus success

Getting 'crushed' on Melbourne's path to coronavirus success

By one measure the city has just eliminated the virus, but relieved locals also fear a hidden cost.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[cpr0312]

 

[Boyd Brooks]

 

[Clifford Johnson]

Location: The Republic of South Africa



Event: A new variant of the COVID-19 virus, known as 501.V2, is driving infection rates in areas of South Africa. This discovery is gaining increased international attention and currently as many as 15 countries have banned flights and travelers who have spent time in The Republic of South Africa in the last 10 days.

 

[BRICKBURN]

Location: The Republic of South Africa



Event: A new variant of the COVID-19 virus, known as 501.V2, is driving infection rates in areas of South Africa. This discovery is gaining increased international attention and currently as many as 15 countries have banned flights and travelers who have spent time in The Republic of South Africa in the last 10 days.

New COVID-19 variant identified in SA​

Dec 18th, 2020|Minister Mkhize Speaks
New COVID-19 variant identified in SA

Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize on Friday announced that a variant of the SARS-COV-2 Virus (COVID-19) – currently termed the ‘501.V2 Variant’ – has been identified by genomics scientists in South Africa.
Mkhize said a genomics team, led by the Kwazulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform, or KRISP, has sequenced hundreds of samples from across the country since the beginning of the pandemic in March. They noticed that a particular variant has increasingly dominated the findings of the samples collected in the past two months.
In addition, clinicians have been providing anecdotal evidence of a shift in the clinical epidemiological picture- in particular noting that they are seeing a larger proportion of younger patients with no co-morbidities presenting with critical illness. The evidence that has been collated, therefore, strongly suggests that that the current second wave we are experiencing is being driven by this new variant.
Explaining the findings, Professor Salim Abdool Karim said the second wave is showing some early signs that it is spreading faster than the first wave.
“It is still very early but at this stage, the preliminary data suggests that the virus that is now dominating in the second wave is spreading faster than the first wave. It is not clear if the second wave has more or less deaths, in other words, the severity is still very unclear. We would expect it to be a less severe virus, but we do not have clear evidence at this point. We have not seen any red flags looking at our current death information,” he said.
“We had all of these different strains routinely spreading in South Africa during our first wave and subsequently. What became quite different that we did not expect is the rapid way in which this variant has become dominant in South Africa.
This particular virus has three mutations on the receptor-binding domain, which is the actual part of the virus that attaches to the human cell. One of the interpretations of these changes is that it increases the affinity for the ACE2 receptor. The other two mutations possible add some potential antibody escape but the full implications of the combination of the three mutations still need to be understood in more detail.”
Karim said the new variant has increased viral loads in the body.
“When we look at this new variant, the CT score is lower than the other viruses that have been spreading during our first wave. It means that the amount of virus in the swab is higher. A lower score means a higher amount of virus: we refer to that as the viral load. When we do a swab, we are getting a lot more virus in these patients that have the 501.V2 virus,” he said.
“The higher viral load in these swabs may translate to a higher efficiency of transmission. If there’s higher transmissibility, it may translate to a higher R0 (the number of additional people one patient may infect). While the other viruses are still transmitting, this virus is spreading so much faster that when we take swabs it is the dominant variant that we see. This may translate into a second wave that may have many more cases than the first wave.
We do know that it is an unusual variant. It has been reported in other countries, including the UK, Australia and several others. In our country, we are finding between 80 and 90% of the virus is this 501.V2 mutant.”
He said there are still many issues that need to be investigated.
“We don’t know where it came from and we don’t know why it formed. We found the first in Nelson Mandela Bay, but we don’t know if it originated in Nelson Mandela Bay. It is too early to tell if it is more severe.”
Concluding the briefing, Mkhize said that while this mutation is a cause for concern, there is no reason to panic.
“We appeal to all the media and medical and scientific community to focus on the facts and avoid entering into speculation or issue unproven statements and generate panic and disinformation. This research underlines the need for all of us all to loyally adhere to the practice of non-pharmaceutical interventions which work as effectively in any pandemic of this nature including COVID-19 as we have known it and is just as effective to a mutant variant of the same virus,” he said.
“Nothing will beat the rigid implementation of wearing of masks, use of hand sanitizer and washing with soap and distancing. Many countries experienced a second wave that was more severe than first – even where no mutations were reported.
He said there is no evidence to suggest a need to change in clinical treatment and patient management of COVID-19 in the second wave to date and that this discovery does not necessitate additional restrictive measures.
https://sacoronavirus.co.za/2020/12/18/new-covid-19-variant-identified-in-sa/

Before anyone has a panic attack, mutations are expected from every virus.
UK is cooking up their own version currently.

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

WHO says no need for major alarm over new coronavirus strain​

By Reuters

Dec 21, 2020


Emma Farge and Michael Shields
Geneva - The World Health Organization cautioned against major alarm over a new, highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that has emerged in Britain, saying this was a normal part of a pandemic's evolution.

WHO officials even put a positive light on the discovery of the new strains that prompted a slew of alarmed countries to impose travel restrictions on Britain and South Africa, saying new tools to track the virus were working.
"We have to find a balance. It's very important to have transparency, it's very important to tell the public the way it is, but it's also important to get across that this is a normal part of virus evolution," WHO emergencies chief Mike Ryan told an online briefing.
"Being able to track a virus this closely, this carefully, this scientifically in real time is a real positive development for global public health, and the countries doing this type of surveillance should be commended."

Citing data from Britain, WHO officials said they had no evidence that the variant made people sicker or was more deadly than existing strains of Covid-19, although it did seem to spread more easily.
Countries imposing travel curbs were acting out of an abundance of caution while they assess risks, Ryan said, adding: "That is prudent. But it is also important that everyone recognises that this happens, these variants occur."
WHO officials said coronavirus mutations had so far been much slower than with influenza and that even the new UK variant remained much less transmissible than other diseases like mumps.

They said vaccines developed to combat Covid-19 should handle the new variants as well, although checks were under way to ensure this was the case.
"So far, even though we have seen a number of changes, a number of mutations, none has made a significant impact on either the susceptibility of the virus to any of the currently used therapeutics, drugs or the vaccines under development and one hopes that will continue to be the case," WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan told the briefing.
The WHO said it expects to get more detail within days or weeks on the potential impact of the highly transmissible new coronavirus strain.

 

[shootist~]

Welcome to the xxDOH COVID-19 Vaccine Registration System.
Please use this registration system to schedule your COVID-19 Vaccine and Booster

I just preregistered online to get the vaccine - when it becomes available for my age (or employment) group. Apparently this is something everyone will need to do with their respective state health organization. Probably a good idea to get in line...

I'm > 70, btw. Hoping to get mine done by April or May, if not sooner.

Edit: My Texas hunting buddy just texted "No preregistration in Texas at this time".

 

[IvW]

RSA skip level 2 straight back to level 3 adjusted...

 

[IvW]

To be reviewed 15 Jan.....

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

To be reviewed 15 Jan.....

Yes, but no speak of border closing. Its an adjusted Level 3.

 

[IvW]

Yip. But it going the wrong way again....

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

Yip. But it going the wrong way again....

Its just until the 15th of January, which will be the end of all year-end closure for all industries within SA. I think this was a good move. People have zero discipline.

 

[IvW]

Yip lets hope...

 

[Hogpatrol]

 

[Hogpatrol]

 

[Tgood1]

Thats absolutely hilarious

 

[KMG Hunting Safaris]

 

[spike.t]

Big brother is in full swing......

Spain will register citizens who refuse Covid-19 vaccine

Spain will register citizens who refuse Covid-19 vaccine

Spain has said that it will add those who refuse to be vaccinated against coronavirus to an official register, in an apparent warning to antivaxers as the count

www.thetimes.co.uk