Covid-19 Updates & Info

[ponchi101]

I am still interested in knowing where it came from, and how.
Because the Chinese will never cooperate, we won't know if any of the possibilities, from the most farfetched (it was an attempt to genetically manipulate a virus that went terribly wrong) to a more normal one (the virus was discovered and was being studied, and was accidentally released) is the one. But, if we were to know the truth, protocols and procedures could perhaps be revised and improved. If it was the second case I pose, protocols to ensure that when the next such virus is discovered, it will be handled properly, could be in place.

About parents lying. Heck, there is a reason I never had kids. Can't imagine being locked in a house with a hyperactive 9 yo. Who knows in what level of despair these moms were in.

[ti-amie]

I agree with Ponchi on both of the points he's making and want to add that I think the mental health aspects really need to be studied and disseminated.

As for covid idiocy Savannah Guthrie of NBC has tested positive for Covid three times and when Al Roker, who is severely immunocompromised tried to get out of being in a photograph with her he's the one the idiots went after.

[dryrunguy]

Just to clarify, I would LIKE to know the origins of COVID for the same reasons you cite, ponchi. But I'm confident we'll NEVER really know because the answer is unknowable.

[ponchi101]

Only thing I would add, then, is that NEVER is a very long time.
We may get lucky. I doubt it, but we may.

[Deuce]

"DISHONESTY AMONG PARENTS In a survey including 580 parents of children younger than 18 years living with them, 26% reported "misrepresentation of and nonadherence to COVID-19 recommendations...""
^ If 26% admitted to it, you can bet that the real number of parents who lied is closer to about 60% (or more).

[Deuce]

Today is the 3rd anniversary of the COVID-19 virus being declared a pandemic.
It is reported that approximately 7 Million people have died from the virus.

I agree it's true that the majority have stopped believing the science in favour of believing in a comfortable and convenient (and selfish) illusion...

Read This...

.

[dryrunguy]

Here is the latest Situation Report. A question: What do they mean by cosmopolitan Singapore? I've never seen that term before.

::

WHO calls COVID-19 origin investigations scientific, moral imperative; US Congress passes bill calling for declassification of intelligence information

Understanding the origin of COVID-19 by exploring all hypotheses constitutes both a scientific and moral imperative, to help prevent future outbreaks and “for the sake of the millions of people who died and those who live with long COVID,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said March 11 on Twitter, reiterating that the UN health agency remains committed to finding out how SARS-CoV-2 arose.

The day before, the US House voted unanimously to declassify all US intelligence information on the origins of the coronavirus, as part of US congressional efforts to investigate the pandemic’s origin. The US Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent on March 1. If signed into law by US President Joe Biden, the measure would require the declassification within 90 days of “any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of the Coronavirus Disease,” including information regarding research and other activities at the lab, such as whether any researchers fell ill. Biden has not indicated whether he will sign the legislation. If he does not, it will mark his first veto as president. In addition to Congress, 8 US government agencies are investigating the origin of COVID-19, but their findings remain divided and uncertain. Evidence from the scientific community largely supports the theory that SARS-CoV-2 arose from zoonotic transmission from an infected animal to a human.

COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated health workforce shortages, WHO says, calls for health worker migration agreements

At least 55 countries are facing serious healthcare worker (HCW) shortages, an existing situation exacerbated by workers leaving their home nations to seek better paid opportunities in wealthier nations amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO said this week. The WHO health workforce support and safeguards list 2023 includes 8 additional countries since it was last published in 2020. African nations are the worst-hit, with 37 countries on the continent facing shortages of HCWs, threatening their chances of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of universal health care by 2030. The WHO list notes that the 55 countries have: 1) a density of doctors, nurses, and midwives below the global median (ie, 49 per 10 000 population), and 2) a universal health coverage service coverage index below a certain threshold. Though the list does not prohibit international HCW recruitment, it does recommend governments establish health worker migration agreements and implement the WHO Global code of practice on the international recruitment of health personnel (WHO Global Code) to ensure the international movement of health workers is ethically managed, supports those workers’ rights and welfare, and maintains health service delivery objectives.

4 vaccine doses provide protection against severe COVID-19, restore waning immunity; US FDA authorizes bivalent booster for youngest children but mum on spring boosters for individuals at high-risk

Four vaccine doses, including a primary 2-dose series and 2 booster shots, were the most effective way to protect against critical Omicron BA.5 infection, according to a large population-based study from South Korea published in JAMA Network Open. A 4-dose booster regimen was associated with higher protection against critical BA.5 infection, irrespective of a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to the study, which highlights the importance of booster shots. Notably, subsequent boosters appear to restore waning immunity. In another study, published in Nature Communications, a fourth dose of monovalent mRNA vaccine restored strong protection against severe outcomes for at least 3 months after vaccination.

With these and other supportive findings, many countries, including the US, are looking to the future of vaccine schedules. The UK and Canadian governments plan to offer additional booster shots to people at high risk of severe COVID-19 this spring. In the US, the FDA has remained silent on the issue of spring boosters for those most at risk, creating frustration among a small number of people who do not want to wait until the fall to receive their next dose. Notably, only 16.3% of the total US population has received an updated bivalent booster. This week, the FDA amended the emergency use authorization (EUA) of the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent COVID-19 vaccine to allow for a single booster dose of the vaccine in children aged 6 months through 4 years, to be administered at least 2 months after completion of the primary 3-dose series of the companies’ monovalent vaccine. So far, no US resident has had to pay for a COVID-19 vaccine dose, but that could soon change. Experts are concerned that if people have to pay an expected US$110-$130 per shot, they will forego the jabs that, based on ongoing research, continue to provide significant protection from serious COVID-19 disease.

US maternal mortality climbed significantly during pandemic, with communities of color more dramatically impacted

The rate at which people in the US died of medical conditions caused or aggravated by pregnancy increased from 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020 to 32.9 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2021, with the burden of death disproportionately borne by communities of color, according to a report published today by the US CDC National Center for Health Statistics. In 2021, 1,205 women died of maternal causes in the United States compared with 861 in 2020 and 754 in 2019. These numbers represent an overall 40% increase compared to 2020, which itself had a 60% increase compared with 2019. Racial and ethnic disparities were particularly stark, with Black women experiencing 69.9 maternal deaths out of 100,000 births, compared to 26.6 maternal deaths per 100,000 births among White women. The US maternal mortality rate—the highest among high-income nations—increased for the third year in a row and the increases were significant in all race and Hispanic-origin groups and all age groups.

Though the report does not mention the pandemic, experts highlighted the likely role COVID-19 played in worsening the number of maternal deaths. They said there is a clear need to understand what factors, both social and biological, impacted the health of pregnant women during COVID-19. Additionally, scientists attribute some maternal stressors to the contextual factors of living through a tumultuous worldwide event, such as disrupting income or experiencing grief from deaths. Notably, social determinants of health are already an identified factor in the likelihood of having a preterm birth. Strong and lasting changes are needed to prevent these outcomes in future pandemic and non-pandemic scenarios and must be applied through an equity-focused lens in order to best serve expectant women.

Studies, articles show pandemic’s negative impacts on health and wellbeing of children, adolescents

Several new articles and studies highlight the severe, adverse impacts of the pandemic on the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents in the United States and around the world, as well as associated factors:

• A survey on adolescent mental health and substance use in Iceland documented increased depressive symptoms and worsened mental wellbeing for the first 2 years of the pandemic, as well as a decrease in alcohol intoxication that reversed after the easing of social restrictions. Parental social support and average sleep duration of 8 hours or more were significantly associated with better mental health outcomes and lessened substance use among adolescents.

• A survey of adolescents in cosmopolitan Singapore examining resilience during the pandemic noted that approximately half of the participants had normal resilience scores, while about one-third had low scores, according to the Brief Resilience Scale (59.6%/32.7%) and Hardy-Gill Resilience Scale (49.0%/29.0%). Chinese ethnicity, low socioeconomic status, and lower coping abilities related to school life, staying home, sports, and friends were associated with lower resilience scores.

• A Kaiser Health News article highlighted various studies showing how the effects of the pandemic and other recent events have heightened the gun violence crisis affecting children and adolescents. This is further echoed in a JAMA viewpoint published this week describing increases in pediatric all-cause mortality. Between 2019 and 2020, pediatric all-cause mortality increased 10.7% and increased an additional 8.3% between 2020 and 2021, with injuries (particularly from gun violence) and COVID-19 as the major culprits.

• A JAMA Network Open study noted that family financial disruptions were associated with a 205.2% [95% CI, 52.9%-509.0%] increase in perceived stress, 112.1% [95% CI, 22.2%-268.1%] increase in sadness, 32.9% [95% CI, 3.5%-53.4%] decrease in positive affect, and a 73.9 [95% CI, 13.2-134.7] percentage-point increase in COVID-19–related worry among a sample of 6,030 US children in late 2020. There was no association between in-person schooling disruption and mental health.

US FDA briefing document supports Paxlovid use in high-risk COVID-19 patients ahead of expert meeting to discuss full approval

A US FDA briefing document prepared by the Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee and released this week addresses the question of whether or not Paxlovid is associated with COVID-19 rebound, a phenomenon wherein patients test positive or symptoms recur after initial recovery. The briefing document is meant to inform a panel of experts meeting today to determine whether to recommend Paxlovid for full approval for mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults at high risk of hospitalization or death. Since it received emergency use authorization (EUA) in 2021, more than 8 million people in the US have taken Paxlovid, which consists of a 5-day course of nirmatrelvir and ritonavir for COVID-19 treatment that has shown to reduce the chances of hospitalization, death, and experiencing long COVID.

The briefing concluded that Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials conducted by the drug’s manufacturer, Pfizer, support that Paxlovid’s benefits outweigh its risks. The document also acknowledged the COVID-19 rebound phenomena but concluded that rebound is likely a natural course of COVID-19 and likely not significantly associated with Paxlovid treatment. Notably, an ongoing clinical trial may indicate if re-treatment would aid patients who experience COVID-19 rebound, and another ongoing trial is investigating optimal treatment duration in immunocompromised patients. Data indicate that COVID-19 rebound rates range from 10-16% across patients, with no significant difference based on infection with either the Omicron or Delta variant. The FDA’s review of whether or not Paxlovid should receive full approval is expected to be completed in May this year.

[ti-amie]

Thank you dry. I did a search for "cosmopolitan Singapore" and found an article from the FT but it was all about the "dirigiste" government.
https://www.ft.com/content/e1a4b2ff-ec4 ... 50daf6514a

[ponchi101]

The hip crowd in Singapore?

[dryrunguy]

Thank you dry. I did a search for "cosmopolitan Singapore" and found an article from the FT but it was all about the "dirigiste" government.
https://www.ft.com/content/e1a4b2ff-ec4 ... 50daf6514a

That's better than the search results I got. I got property listings.

[patrick]

DeSantis called COVID a "woke" virus


https://www.theledger.com/story/news/po ... 016037007/

[ponchi101]

Let me set my watch for when my friend N will send me the tweet with praise for this.

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

AnthropoceneMan
@Anthro@universeodon.com
The guy who snuck me into the cattle call at our convention center for the first #Covid vaccine came back from a conference last week with…Covid.

That makes son’s friend, several students in wife’s class, and others around me that have fallen prey recently.

There is a wave of Covid that is happening in Oregon that is not showing up in the official stats.

#CovidIsNotOver

Mar 20, 2023, 13:28 · ·
havenkt@artisan.chat
Kristen, digital version
@havenkt@artisan.chat
@Anthro I have a feeling the official stats are not including home testing results, so the numbers we're seeing are artificially low.