Covid-19 Updates & Info

[JazzNU]

AZ seems to have higher risks but efficacy is 76% (100% vs severe disease) while J&J is 66% (85% against severe disease). I think there are different results in different regions and age groups but these are the main overall stats

You should post what you are reading. I haven't read anything that actually references the trial data where J&J isn't 100% against hospitalizations and death. Severe disease is this context doesn't include being hospitalized with the virus. And unlike the other approved vaccines, it ran trials where the most concerning variants are and while those variants were dominant and that was still the case. And they had hospitalizations and death in the placebo group.

Also, the AZ vaccine had concerning results against the South African variant to the point that the trial was suspended there and use of the vaccine were halted as they study that variant more.

If you're seeing something else legitimate, you should post it.


https://www.uth.edu/news/story.htm?id=b ... 0c4826e48
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/sout ... -n1256981
https://www.statnews.com/2021/03/22/ast ... -s-trial/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhas ... f9e0436526

[JazzNU]

National mission: Chile hits 1 million COVID cases, slams doors

SANTIAGO (Reuters) -Chile closed its borders and tightened an already strict lockdown further on Thursday to slow the spread of the coronavirus and stop the influx of contagious new variants as cases climbed past 1 million despite one of the world’s fastest vaccination rates.

The dramatic move came as hospitals warned they were close to saturation with middle-aged and younger victims of the disease as cases have spiked in recent weeks following the Southern Hemisphere summer holidays.

Chile struck early deals with vaccine makers Pfizer and Sinovac, and has already vaccinated more than 35% of its population, ranking it third in the world for inoculations per capita, according to a Reuters tally.

But a second wave hit before the country could reach a goal of herd immunity by July.

On Thursday, the country reported 7,830 cases of the virus, its highest single-day tally, adding up to a total of 1,003,406 infections, since the pandemic began in March 2020.

The caseload has prompted Chile to delay elections due on April 11 and resulted in accusations by health experts that the government allowed the triumph of its vaccination program to muddy its message, resulting in citizens dropping their guard - a claim angrily rejected by Health Minister Enrique Paris.

Movement restrictions have been swiftly ramped up, with more than 80% of the country of 19 million people now in lockdown to ease pressure on near-saturated urgent care wards.

On Thursday, Officials said they would close the South American country’s border for a month beginning on Monday to both Chileans and foreign residents, with exceptions only in emergencies. No foreign tourists will be allowed to enter - the first time it has taken the extreme measure since the early days of the pandemic in March 2020.

Authorities also ratcheted up restrictions on movement inside Chile, banning purchase or delivery of non-essential goods like toys, clothes or electronics, including from supermarkets, limiting circulation permits to a small group of essential workers - primarily supermarket and medical staff - and restricting authorizations for people to leave their homes.

Previous measures which granted a large number of companies “essential work” status and their staff permission to move around, and permits allowing citizens to take a trip during the summer holidays, have been blamed by medical experts for contributing to the spike in cases.

Locals also trade anecdotes and the media carries stories about people misusing permits to variously attend parties, go to beach houses and on fishing trips.

Government spokesman Jaime Bellolio implored all Chileans to take the rules seriously.

“It is now when we can save lives, when we need to take extreme care,” he said. “This is a national mission, each of us has a duty within our family group and those close to us to stress the urgency of being responsible now, today. Tomorrow may be too late.”

The vaccination program has resulted in a tailing off of hospital admissions among people in their 60s and 70s, but they have been replaced by a growing number of people in their 40s and 50s, health ministry figures show.

To date, just over 100 of the more contagious variants of the virus such as P1, which originated in Brazil, have been detected in Chile, but intensive care unit doctors say they could be behind the changing face of their patients.

Carlos Romero, head of the intensive care unit at the University of Chile’s clinical hospital in Santiago, told Reuters he was seeing patients in their 30s without pre-existing conditions die of COVID-19.

He said restricting movement was critical until more was known about the variants and the power of vaccines to quell them.

“If young people are more active, they are also more exposed,” he said.


Reporting by Dave Sherwood and Aislinn Laing; Editing by Franklin Paul and Jonathan Oatis

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-heal ... SKBN2BO630

[Togtdyalttai]

Thank you all for your concern. I'm back to normal today, which seems to be pretty much in line with other people who have had reactions like I did.

[Deuce]

Maybe one can combine. Start with JJ and then give Pfizer or Moderna as a booster 4 weeks later.

This might end up being like a influenza vaccination regime. Once a year, you need your shot. There still is no evidence of for how long will this protect you. So maybe yes, start with J&J, then a boost, then regular vaccinations for a few years until we can drive the virus away. If that is possible at all.

I would strongly advise against getting doses of 2 different vaccines at this time. Not until it has been proven to be both safe and effective to do so.

[JazzNU]

Thank you all for your concern. I'm back to normal today, which seems to be pretty much in line with other people who have had reactions like I did.

That's awesome @Tog. So glad you're feeling better. I hope your mom is doing good as well.

[atlpam]

Getting my second Pfizer dose on Tuesday. Prepared to feel lousy on Wed.

[ponchi101]

But you will be fine AND PROTECTED on Thursday Keep us posted.

[ti-amie]

Demonstrators take part in a protest against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his handling of the coronavirus outbreak in Brasilia on Tuesday. (Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

Opinion: Which world leader has the worst pandemic record? The competition is fierce.
Opinion by
Frida Ghitis
Contributing columnist
March 30, 2021 at 2:57 p.m. EDT

A catastrophic pandemic and a calamitous presidency combined to give the United States the world’s worst pandemic death toll. That was essentially confirmed by Deborah Birx, President Donald Trump’s coronavirus task force coordinator, who told CNN that most deaths in the United States could have been prevented.

And yet — cold comfort — Trump might not have been the worst leader of the pandemic. Others arguably botched the crisis even worse than Trump did, and the list tells you a lot about the state of global governance.

It’s hard to top the response of Nicaragua’s near-eternal President Daniel Ortega and his wife, who responded to news of a pandemic by calling people into the streets for a festive parade they called “Love in the Time of Covid-19” — a perversely fitting allusion to the work of Gabriel García Márquez, whose novels seamlessly blend fact and hallucination. The reckless move horrified human rights activists and scientists alike.

Hard to top it is, but not impossible. There’s Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil, where the health-care system stands on the verge of collapse, and the unchecked spread of the virus has spawned variants now threatening other struggling countries.

Bolsonaro has echoed Trump’s claims about hydroxychloroquine, squandering emergency pandemic funds on the useless treatment. He has fired health ministers for refusing to go along with his covid-19 denial and claimed that Brazilians might be immune to the “little flu” because they swim in sewage and nothing happens to them. Bolsonaro, who himself became infected, called on Brazilians to protest antivirus measures and joined them in the streets. Few people wore masks, and he gleefully shook hands — sometimes after coughing into his own.

As the pandemic explodes across Brazil, with thousands dying every day, he recently told Brazilians to “stop whining” about it.

Another president who caught the virus while playing it down is Mexico’s Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Early on, he advised Mexicans to “live life as usual.” Even after he became infected, he rejected requests to wear a mask. He says he will wear one when corruption is eradicated in Mexico, a distant prospect. As in the United States, mask-wearing became highly politicized, a development that contributed to the climbing death toll.

This weekend, Mexican authorities quietly released a report showing the real count is 60 percent higher than the official figure, putting Mexico neck and neck with Brazil for the world’s second-highest pandemic death toll, behind the United States.

Coincidence? Populism seems to be a comorbidity in a pandemic, raising its deadly toll.

Then there are the dictators, like Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko, who described the pandemic as nothing more than a “psychosis” and prescribed vodka and saunas to prevent it. Lukashenko, who has faced months of mass protests after a disputed election last summer, has blocked common-sense measures to slow down the virus at almost every turn.

Yet many Belarusians have resisted his negligent approach — just as many have pushed back against his dictatorship. Ignoring his calamitous advice, individuals practiced social distancing, held crowdfunding campaigns to buy supplies for hospitals and, in the end, have probably helped to keep the virus and the death toll in Belarus from spiraling out of control.

In Turkmenistan, another post-Soviet dictatorship, the government has set a new low for denial by banning mask-wearing and any discussion of the pandemic. The use of the word “coronavirus” has reportedly been outlawed in media or health information materials. Turkmenistan still claims it hasn’t had any coronavirus cases, a claim no one believes.

In Cambodia, where Prime Minister Hun Sen has held power since 1985 (making him one of the world’s longest-ruling heads of government), the first move was denial. He welcomed cruise ship passengers shunned by other countries for fear of the pandemic. Gradually, his response turned to repression, banning criticism and arresting those who complained, then using the emergency to tighten the regime’s grip.

In Africa, yet another authoritarian populist, President John Magufuli of Tanzania, also dismissed talk of a global emergency. He told people not to bother with masks or vaccines, claiming that three days of prayer eradicated the virus in Tanzania. To make his point, he claimed to have submitted samples of pawpaw fruit and said they came back positive, ridiculing scientists.

Magufuli died this month. Authorities say he died from heart complications, but members of the opposition say they have it on good authority that he died of covid-19.

It’s impossible to cover all the outrages by populist demagogues and assorted tyrants. (Apologies if I left out one you found particularly offensive.) Every world leader made mistakes, but there’s something uniquely malignant about the manipulations and deceptions of the most outrageous players.

It is sometimes hard to suppress a chuckle when watching the antics of these buffoons. Yet the sense of absurdity is quickly stifled by the realization that their actions have likely contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands around the world — perhaps more.

As for Trump, these other leaders remind us that he wasn’t alone in his mishandling of the pandemic. He has a lot of competition for the title of worst pandemic president. But he’s still a contender.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... is-fierce/

[ti-amie]

I still think the former guy is the worst because if the United States had come from the beginning used every power it has to try and protect its citizens none of these clowns would've been able to pretend this "hoax" was a "psychosis" and tell the citizens of their countries to ignore the virus.

[ponchi101]

Whether other people like it or not, the USA stills sets the pace in many aspect. When the person in charge of the USA says something, a lot of people listen.
So maybe not the worst, but the clearest example.

[Deuce]

But you will be fine AND PROTECTED on Thursday Keep us posted.

We have to remember that it takes 2 or 3 weeks for the vaccine to produce the protection..

[ponchi101]

I did not go to Colorado this year because of COVID. I felt it was not a responsible thing to do.
But, idiot that I am, I just went on-line to check vaccine availability for my GF and me in my little town up there. We are both eligible and we could get an appointment for, for example, tomorrow.
Man, I just want to catch a break lately. Just one.

[atlpam]

But you will be fine AND PROTECTED on Thursday Keep us posted.

We have to remember that it takes 2 or 3 weeks for the vaccine to produce the protection..

Yes, another 2 weeks for full protection, but I already have about 70% protection from the first dose.

[atlpam]

So the hubby had to get a ferry back to the mainland to return to the US after closing out his father’s estate on Vancouver Island. The ferry had to turn back to remove an unruly passenger who refused to wear a mask or stay in his car. Apparently he was going to an anti-mask rally.

[ponchi101]

I hope that person gets charged for time and money wasted due to his behavior.
These people should be given like their own country. See how long it takes for them to descend into savagery.