Re: New SARS type virus spreading in China
2951.
Last edited by lurker on Mon Nov 01, 2021 12:02 am, edited 1 time in total.
i'm retired. what's your excuse?
So sorry to hear that Wino, hope they both recover soon. The vaccines boost our immune systems but sadly they don't give us an immune system of a 20 year old. Do they have family or friends that can help them since they're both sick?Wino wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 10:53 amEmail from brother - Wife is positive for CV19.Wino wrote: Sat Jul 31, 2021 9:14 am Just got call from brother in Waco - he has CV-19. His wife just got out of hospital with unrelated problems, but not yet tested for Covid, but bro suspects she's got it, too. Brother is 83, wife is 85. Both had Pfizer in late Feb. 2021. He was tested in clinic yesterday as was feeling bad and got the positive results this morning. Not in hospital, but says he feels like crap and was hoarse, coughing and sniffling. They, like me, have continued masking when out and about.
My bile and hatred toward anti vax and wingers has just taken a quantum leap. Stupid MF'ers all !!
Yes on family - their children/wives and grand-children all live in the Austin/Waco IH35 corridor, so good shape there, but like many families, some more trouble than help, sadly. Plenty of friends in area - he was a Baylor Prof. He was out walking dog when he called me to tell me he was sick - he sounded like he belonged in a hospital. He just got over a bout of pneumonia early July and she still hasn't been diagnosed for what has been causing sever chest pains. Just seems one thing after another these days. I know, TMI, but thanks for asking.highdesert wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:18 amSo sorry to hear that Wino, hope they both recover soon. The vaccines boost our immune systems but sadly they don't give us an immune system of a 20 year old. Do they have family or friends that can help them since they're both sick?Wino wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 10:53 amEmail from brother - Wife is positive for CV19.Wino wrote: Sat Jul 31, 2021 9:14 am Just got call from brother in Waco - he has CV-19. His wife just got out of hospital with unrelated problems, but not yet tested for Covid, but bro suspects she's got it, too. Brother is 83, wife is 85. Both had Pfizer in late Feb. 2021. He was tested in clinic yesterday as was feeling bad and got the positive results this morning. Not in hospital, but says he feels like crap and was hoarse, coughing and sniffling. They, like me, have continued masking when out and about.
My bile and hatred toward anti vax and wingers has just taken a quantum leap. Stupid MF'ers all !!
Wino wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 2:39 pmYes on family - their children/wives and grand-children all live in the Austin/Waco IH35 corridor, so good shape there, but like many families, some more trouble than help, sadly. Plenty of friends in area - he was a Baylor Prof. He was out walking dog when he called me to tell me he was sick - he sounded like he belonged in a hospital. He just got over a bout of pneumonia early July and she still hasn't been diagnosed for what has been causing sever chest pains. Just seems one thing after another these days. I know, TMI, but thanks for asking.highdesert wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:18 amSo sorry to hear that Wino, hope they both recover soon. The vaccines boost our immune systems but sadly they don't give us an immune system of a 20 year old. Do they have family or friends that can help them since they're both sick?Wino wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 10:53 amEmail from brother - Wife is positive for CV19.Wino wrote: Sat Jul 31, 2021 9:14 am Just got call from brother in Waco - he has CV-19. His wife just got out of hospital with unrelated problems, but not yet tested for Covid, but bro suspects she's got it, too. Brother is 83, wife is 85. Both had Pfizer in late Feb. 2021. He was tested in clinic yesterday as was feeling bad and got the positive results this morning. Not in hospital, but says he feels like crap and was hoarse, coughing and sniffling. They, like me, have continued masking when out and about.
My bile and hatred toward anti vax and wingers has just taken a quantum leap. Stupid MF'ers all !!
Just got email from brother - said like a really bad cold or flu. Ten days quarantine at home.highdesert wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 5:50 pmWino wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 2:39 pmYes on family - their children/wives and grand-children all live in the Austin/Waco IH35 corridor, so good shape there, but like many families, some more trouble than help, sadly. Plenty of friends in area - he was a Baylor Prof. He was out walking dog when he called me to tell me he was sick - he sounded like he belonged in a hospital. He just got over a bout of pneumonia early July and she still hasn't been diagnosed for what has been causing sever chest pains. Just seems one thing after another these days. I know, TMI, but thanks for asking.highdesert wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 11:18 amSo sorry to hear that Wino, hope they both recover soon. The vaccines boost our immune systems but sadly they don't give us an immune system of a 20 year old. Do they have family or friends that can help them since they're both sick?
Glad they have social support in their area. Breakthrough infections are generally mild, but it always depends on preexisting conditions. That he was out getting some exercise is a good sign. Keep us updated.
The stooge made a political decision not a science based one. I’d hope there was a way to find it illegal on some level. It goes counter to public safety and removes any ability from local counties and cities to respond. He has in one decision become a dictator. I can’t see how it is even legal.TrueTexan wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 6:18 pm DFW has had an increase in COVD 19 hospitalized patients. Compared to one month ago they increased 292% .
https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/covid-1 ... deling.pdf
But Texas Gov. Moe Abbott says we don’t need to wear mask and schools can’t mandate staff or students to wear them.
Driving too fast in the fog, running off the road, hitting a tree and insisting it's the other guy's fault.sikacz wrote: Thu Aug 05, 2021 5:04 amThe stooge made a political decision not a science based one. I’d hope there was a way to find it illegal on some level. It goes counter to public safety and removes any ability from local counties and cities to respond. He has in one decision become a dictator. I can’t see how it is even legal.TrueTexan wrote: Wed Aug 04, 2021 6:18 pm DFW has had an increase in COVD 19 hospitalized patients. Compared to one month ago they increased 292% .
https://www.utsouthwestern.edu/covid-1 ... deling.pdf
But Texas Gov. Moe Abbott says we don’t need to wear mask and schools can’t mandate staff or students to wear them.
“Just when we thought we were free of this, a new variant, a mutation, grabs us by the legs and, apparently, wants to shake us hard,” said Greg Bell, president of the Utah Hospital Association. “Our summer season is very, very busy. We’re stacked. … We can’t handle it.”
Dunn said hospital capacity is now more fixed than it was during previous spikes because so many employees experienced burnout during the pandemic and have left open positions that hospitals have been unable to fill. That means “surge” capacity, which allowed Utah’s hospitals to keep admitting patients as hospitalizations peaked in the winter, is no longer there, Dunn said.
“We’re preserving whatever capacity we have for Utah now,” said Bell, who was Utah’s lieutenant governor from 2009 to ‘13. “We can’t expect help from other places because every state, almost, is having a COVID spike to manage themselves. They’re not going to be in a position to export help, nurses, techs, docs, for our sake.
Bell was equally blunt.
“Your decision to be vaccinated or not may well be one of the most important decisions you ever make,” he said. “The wrong decision could kill you, and you won’t know until it’s too late.”
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/20 ... ull-utahs/Cox [Utah governor] reiterated that he cannot issue a mask mandate for school because the state Legislature has barred public schools from requiring masks — but, he said, the state will provide free KN-95 masks to every child who wants one to wear in the classroom when schools reopen in the fall.
“We’re working on getting those now,” he said. “We will get them distributed as quickly as we possibly can so that we do have an option until kids under the age of 12 can get those vaccines.”
https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2021/08/ ... utType=ampThe Epsilon and Lambda variants of COVID-19 are “variants of interest,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and early studies show they have developed a resistance to vaccines.
Japanese researchers found the Lambda variant, which was initially discovered in Peru and is now spreading throughout South America, is highly transmissible and more resistant to vaccines than the initial COVID-19 strain.
The researchers warned in a paper posted July 28 that has yet to be peer reviewed that Lambda’s label as a “variant of interest” instead of a “variant of concern” might downplay the growing threat of the strain.
Meanwhile, the Epsilon variant that was initially discovered in California in 2020 is spreading in Pakistan and is proving to be resistant to vaccines, according to researchers.
Health authorities issued an alert after they discovered five cases of the Epsilon variant in Lahore, Pakistan. Medical experts there believe the vaccine-resistant strain is putting vaccinated people as well as unvaccinated people at risk, adding that the strain is just as transmissible as the Delta variant.
Despite these early studies, previous studies have shown vaccines, including those available in the United States, work against “variants of concern,” such as the Delta variant. The vaccines also prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death in most breakthrough cases where a fully vaccinated person tests positive for the coronavirus.
For example, a U.K. study published in May showed two doses of the Pfizer vaccine were 88% effective at preventing against symptomatic infection of the Delta variant and 96% effective against preventing hospitalization.
https://www.axios.com/fauci-delta-varia ... deaba.htmlIf America's current COVID-19 surge continues unabated into the fall and winter, the country will likely face an even more deadly strain of the virus that could evade the current coronavirus vaccines, NIAID director Anthony Fauci told McClatchy Wednesday.
Why it matters: Fauci's comments underscore the importance of acting quickly to vaccinate the tens of millions of Americans who have not been inoculated against the virus.
The current surge in coronavirus cases nationwide is being driven by the Delta variant, which is already more contagious than the original strain of the virus.
The big picture: As the virus continues to spread due to insufficient vaccination rates, it is being given "ample" time to mutate into a more dangerous new variant in the fall and winter, Fauci said.
"[Q]uite frankly, we’re very lucky that the vaccines that we have now do very well against the variants — particularly against severe illness," Fauci said, emphasizing that this might not be the case with a new variant.
“If another one comes along that has an equally high capability of transmitting but also is much more severe, then we could really be in trouble,” he said.
“People who are not getting vaccinated mistakenly think it’s only about them. But it isn’t. It’s about everybody else, also.”
State of play: Other variants are already cropping up.
On Tuesday South Korea announced that it had detected two cases of the Delta Plus variant, one in a man who had recently returned from the U.S., Reuters reports. Some experts believe the Delta Plus variant could be more contagious than the Delta variant.
The Lambda variant, which originated from Peru last year, has already been detected in the U.S.
Recent studies indicated that Lambda could be more resistant to the current COVID-19 vaccines, according to Reuters.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/05 ... nt-vaccineThe powerful protection offered by Moderna’s Covid vaccine does not wane in the first six months after the second dose, according to a statement released by the company on Thursday morning in advance of its earnings call.
But in slides prepared for the call, the company said it anticipated that boosters would be necessary this fall to contend with the Delta variant, which became common in the United States after the results were collected. “We believe a dose three of a booster will likely be necessary to keep us as safe as possible through the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere,” Dr. Stephen Hoge, president of Moderna, said during the earnings call.
Germany, Israel and France have all decided to administer boosters to potentially vulnerable populations — such as older people or people with compromised immune systems or both — to bolster their immunity in the face of a Delta-driven surge in cases. The Biden administration is considering a similar strategy.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization called for a three-month moratorium on boosters. The group urged health leaders to focus instead on vaccinating 10 percent of people in all countries.
Moderna’s data came from a new analysis of its clinical trial, which started in late July 2020 and recruited a total of 30,000 volunteers in the United States. In November, the company announced that the vaccine had an impressive efficacy of 94.1 percent. That number didn’t change much after six months, the company reported.
“We are pleased that our Covid-19 vaccine is showing durable efficacy of 93 percent through six months, but recognize that the Delta variant is a significant new threat so we must remain vigilant,” Stéphane Bancel, the chief executive officer of Moderna, said in the statement.
The trial found that the vaccine’s efficacy against severe Covid-19 was 98.2 percent. While three of the volunteers who received a placebo died of Covid-19, none of the vaccinated volunteers did.
“The conclusion we take from these data, is that our efficacy has remained consistently high and durable throughout the period of follow-up,” Dr. Jaqueline Miller, a senior vice president at Moderna, said during in the earnings call.
Last week, Pfizer and BioNTech released a detailed report of their own mRNA vaccine’s durability after six months. The companies estimated that the vaccine’s efficacy started off at 96.2 percent for the first two months after the second dose. It then declined after that, to 83.7 percent by six months.
But experts cautioned that the calculated decline in the Pfizer-BioNTech study could have been a statistical artifact. Chance alone could lead to a different efficacy estimate at different times. “I would not assume waning immunity based on this study alone,” said Maria Deloria Knoll, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The F.D.A. is expected to give full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine next month. Moderna filed for final approval of its vaccine on June 1, and expects to complete its submission in August.
To estimate the efficacy of their vaccine, Moderna researchers looked at data from the trial up until late March. The Delta variant did not become common in the United States until weeks later. As a result, they cannot determine how well the vaccine protects people against Delta based on the clinical trial.
In June, Moderna released details on an experiment in which its researchers tested antibodies from people who received their vaccine against the Delta variant. They found that the antibodies were moderately less effective at blocking the variant from infecting cells.
In the earnings call on Thursday, the company presented details from additional studies. They found that the strength of the antibodies against variants waned substantially by six months after the second dose.
Moderna has been developing a range of boosters and testing them in clinical trials. On Thursday the company reported that a booster containing half a dose of the original formulation strengthened the antibodies against the Delta variant substantially above the levels seen shortly after volunteers received their two original doses.
In an earnings call last week, Pfizer also said that its booster raised antibodies above their original level. Both studies have yet to be published in a scientific journal.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/louisian ... 8b31de0405Louisiana A.G. Encourages Employees To Undermine COVID Restrictions
Louisiana has the country’s highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita and one of the lowest vaccination rates right now. And the situation for hospitals and health care workers has never been worse.
State Attorney General Jeff Landry (R) is doing his part to keep it that way.
On Monday, as the state’s coronavirus death toll topped 11,000, Landry sent an email to state Department of Justice employees informing them how to avoid complying with school mask mandates for children. He also advised how to circumvent K-12 vaccine requirements, though the state doesn’t have any.
“Louisiana law offers broad and robust protections for students’ and parents’ religious and philosophical objections to certain state public health policies,” Landry wrote in the email, a copy of which was obtained by the Louisiana Illuminator. “I support your religious liberties and right to conscientiously object.”
Landry attached two form letters that parents could use to request either a philosophical or religious exemption to the policies, which are intended to limit the spread of the pandemic.
The attorney general’s office also made both letters available for download on social media, cautioning that they don’t actually represent legal advice.
“I do not consent to forcing a face covering on my child, who is created in the image of God,” the letter requesting a religious exemption states. “Masks lead to anti-social behaviors, interfere with religious commands to share God’s love with others, and interfere with relationships in contravention of the Bible.”
“I believe that Christians are called to communicate God’s words and message of love to the world. See Luke 9:2,” the letter adds in an introductory section that quotes exclusively Christian scripture.
The letter requesting a philosophical exemption, meanwhile, asserts parents have legal cover under a federal law that requires school districts to accommodate students with learning disabilities.
Landry doesn’t explain how that law is relevant to face masks. Nevertheless, he encourages parents to invoke it while claiming mask mandates threaten their child’s “mental and emotional health by hindering his verbal and nonverbal communication with classmates.”
The memo was sent just hours before Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) restored a statewide indoor mask mandate as the coronavirus delta variant tightens its grip.
“Nobody should be laboring under the misapprehension that this is just another surge,” Edwards said in announcing the mask rule restoration. “This is the worst one we’ve had.”
Landry has been mentioned as a potential GOP contender in the 2023 gubernatorial election. Edwards can’t run again because of term limits.
Landry spokesperson Millard Mule didn’t respond to an email from HuffPost about Landry’s memo or his vaccination status.
https://www.rawstory.com/19-missouri/Missouri taxi company refuses to take masked passengers -- and its owner says he's 'proud' of state's low vax rate
On Thursday, KMOV reported that a taxi company in St. Louis, Missouri has instituted a policy prohibiting any masked or vaccinated people from riding in their cars.
"Charlie Bullington owns Yo Transportation services, a business he started 16 years ago," reported Emma Hogg. "Recently, he has made it a requirement that he will only transport passengers who aren't wearing masks and have not gotten the vaccine. Bullington said he verifies his passengers have not been vaccinated and won't be wearing a mask before he even picks them up. One man took to Facebook saying he was denied a ride because of his vaccination status."
Bullington claims that the vaccine is dangerous and that masks "trap" the virus that can then shed more efficaciously — neither of which has any scientific basis. He has also said he is "proud of all the Missouri people for standing against" COVID-19 public health efforts.
Missouri has among the lowest vaccination rates in the United States. In the month of July, it ranked worst in hospitalizations nationwide, and is one of three states, along with Texas and Florida, responsible for the most new cases.
Well it should be a concern if your over 50 and have any respiratory problems, maybe over weight people.Bisbee wrote: Thu Aug 05, 2021 3:55 pm Yet us wealthy old farts are worrying about booster shots to avoid getting a little sick by coronavirus variants. (Vaccinated folks might feel ill with the DeltaV but have little concern for being hospitalized or dying.)
https://news.yahoo.com/vaccinated-peopl ... 13911.htmlVaccinated people are dying from the Delta variant, but in small numbers and almost all are over 50, UK data shows
Well yes. Although I don’t think it’s impossible to achieve both, boosters and vaccinations for developing countries. It’s a matter of will and organization. We have the resources and so do the other developed nations. It’s a matter of leadership. It’s time for biden to step up.Bisbee wrote: Thu Aug 05, 2021 3:55 pm The WHO statement asking for a moratorium on booster shots really highlight the health inequities of wealthy versus developing countries. So many people in the world has yet to have their first shots with DeltaV spreading like wildfire. Yet us wealthy old farts are worrying about booster shots to avoid getting a little sick by coronavirus variants. (Vaccinated folks might feel ill with the DeltaV but have little concern for being hospitalized or dying.) That image of supreme selfishness in developed countries is enough to make me sick.
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