Coronavirus - International stories and thoughts

What a great day for this family.

Baby leaves hospital after ten weeks of Covid treatment

 

Crossed 2 million deaths today.

 

Bad news. It looks like one round of vaccinations (two shots) may not be enough for coronavirus. It is possible that the current vaccine does not provide immunity to the newer variants (England and South African) of coronavirus. If true, it may take another year to make a vaccine for these variants, and deliver it to the people. That would mean that we would be done with this coronavirus in mid-2022 instead of the middle of this year. And that assumes that more variants do not crop up in the meantime.

Emerging evidence suggests new coronavirus variant could be problematic for vaccines - CNN

 

Holy shit that is unacceptable. I hate this piece of crap virus.

 

Well that sucks if true.

 

And this happened on Bidens watch

 

Makes sense if the variant is to the spike protein. It will be interesting to see if the more traditional vaccines handle the variants. Those work differently. Also, they need to test if this also happens in people instead of the lab. The studies references test the Variants against anti bodies already made by the body. But inside a person, the body produces specific antibodies. Of course, the body does that in response to an infection. @dingyibvs? Can you weigh in on this more?

 

I agree that testing on people is more important. I think the specter of the South African variant eluding vaccines was raised a month or so ago, and we're seeing more confirmation of it. The truly important thing though, IMO, is whether vaccines can prevent severe disease. Without the severe disease, COVID would not be a very scary disease. We know from the flu vaccines that even when they don't work, which is pretty often, they still significantly reduce disease severity and that's good enough. We won't really know if that's the case until tests are done in people, however.

 

If you want different news on the virus, just wait a few days. Moderna says its vaccine can handle the British variant with no problem, and it mostly handles the South African variant.

COVID SCIENCE-Moderna shot protects against new virus variants; higher blood thinner dose keeps patients off ventilators

 

On second thought, the news from Moderna is not so good. The CEO believes that Covid will be with humanity forever.

Moderna CEO offers a bleak assessment of COVID-19: Virus to stay with the world 'forever'

Bad for us, but good for the business of making vaccines.

 

I knew it. I knew it.

Covid is a plan to eliminate us older people and save SS and Medicare.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

 

You laugh but I have heard something similar from a legislative aid in a state that has overwhelming pension obligations. They actually reworked their projections

 

The actuaries must be using more processing power than the Bitcoin miners. I half joking said in another thread that Covid spending is the Trojan Horse for entitlement reforms.

 

There ya go.

 

Worth mentioning again . . . Taiwan still has fewer than 1000 total cases and sits at seven deaths. SEVEN! They must have had a weaker strain of the virus, but to have such a low number is remarkable. There are probably seven people dying every minute in the U.S. while Taiwan has had seven people die in a year.
Taiwan Coronavirus: 890 Cases and 7 Deaths - Worldometer

 

But if you adjusted for population differences that would be more like 100 deaths. Not nearly as impressive now, is it? /s

 

The entire nation of Taiwan is currently in a panic because one hospital around Taoyuan (the big international airport) had an outbreak of Covid in the last few weeks.

I don't think they have a weaker strain of the virus. Most of the people in southeast Asia have experience with (and probably exposure to) multiple SARS viruses over the last 20 years and probably already have some partial immunity to Covid-19.

 

England's Covid patients have figured it out: your chances of surviving Covid are much higher if you don't have to go on a ventilator. Ergo, the ventilator is what causes death, not Covid. Therefore, when the doctor tells you that you need to go on a ventilator, simply refuse. What could go wrong?

Exclusive: Covid patients dying unnecessarily because they refuse to go on ventilators, medics warn

Where is Monty Python when you need them? Maybe the model of ventilator they are using should change its name from "The Grim Reaper" to something a little more friendly-sounding, like "The Breathe Deeper" or "The Slim Beeper".

 

One in eight 'recovered' Covid patients 'die within 140 days'

 

This is the kind of shit I have to deal with getting from my parents. I haven't been able to find anything at all about this video. This is from a Qanon site.

**WARNING: DEAD BODIES**

https://www.americastribune.com/pos...vest-valuable-organs-sold-on-the-black-market

I don't even know if those are real people in the video or if it is from a horror movie.

EDIT: mods if this is breaking some kind of rule just delete it @tilly . I just wanted to illustrate some of the nonsense that is being passed around behind doors in the conspiracy theory crowd. My mother found this video and this is so completely out of character for her. It is 100% politically motivated by I won't discuss that here.