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news Covid19-Coronavirus updates and news

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Mister Funsky

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Having relatives and friends scattered all over the globe, I am getting an overload of input (some on the record and some off the record).

My intention for this thread is for community members from around the world to post first hand stories and/or links to information sources that, for the most part, should be reliable.

In my community, just outside a major southeastern city, 'assets' have been placed. Only because I have friends in both high and low places have I heard about some of this. At this point it is only some basic medical supplies that should be equally distributed anyway in preparation for a natural emergency (hurricane/wildfire/etc.).

I will start with posting a link to a site with current data that seems to come from an aggregate of sources and hope others will do the same as they come across similar sites/pages.

Because of the 'typhoid Mary' spread-ability of this disease, I feel we may be in for a really large spread globally which will impact the global economy and through extension, retail domain prices.

One thing is for sure...things will get worse before they get better.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa-coronavirus/
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Coronavirus emerged in Italy earlier than thought, Italian study shows

The new coronavirus was circulating in Italy since September 2019, a study by the National Cancer Institute (INT) of the Italian city of Milan shows, signaling that COVID-19 might have spread beyond China earlier than previously thought.

The World Health Organization has said the new coronavirus and COVID-19, the respiratory disease it causes, were unknown before the outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, in central China, in December.

But the Italian researchers’ findings, published by the INT’s scientific magazine Tumori Journal, show that 11,6% of 959 healthy volunteers enrolled in a lung cancer screening trial between September 2019 and March 2020, had developed coronavirus antibodies well before February.

A further specific SARS-CoV-2 antibodies test was carried out by the University of Siena for the same research titled “Unexpected detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in the pre-pandemic period in Italy”.

It showed that four cases dated back to the first week of October were also positive for antibodies neutralizing the virus, meaning they had got infected in September, Giovanni Apolone, a co-author of the study, told Reuters.
 
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F.D.A. Authorizes the First At-Home Coronavirus Test

The test, developed by California-based company Lucira Health, requires a prescription from a health care provider. People under the age of 14 also can’t perform the test on themselves. But with a relatively simple nasal swab, the test can return results in about half an hour, and is projected by the company to cost $50 or less, according to the product’s website. Clinicians can also run the test on their patients, including children under the age of 14, potentially delivering answers during a single visit to a care center or pharmacy, instead of routing a tough-to-collect sample through a lab.

 
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A Proposed Origin for SARS-CoV-2 and the COVID-19 Pandemic

"In all the discussions of the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic, enormous scientific attention has been paid to the molecular character of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including its novel genome sequence in comparison with its near relatives. In stark contrast, virtually no attention has been paid to the physical provenance of those nearest genetic relatives, its presumptive ancestors, which are two viral sequences named BtCoV/4991 and RaTG13."

"This neglect is surprising because their provenance is more than interesting. BtCoV/4991 and RaTG13 were collected from a mineshaft in Yunnan province, China, in 2012/2013 by researchers from the lab of Zheng-li Shi at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)."

"Very shortly before, in the spring of 2012, six miners working in the mine had contracted a mysterious illness and three of them had died (Wu et al., 2014). The specifics of this mystery disease have been virtually forgotten; however, they are described in a Chinese Master’s thesis written in 2013 by a doctor who supervised their treatment."


https://www.independentsciencenews....gin-for-sars-cov-2-and-the-covid-19-pandemic/

EXPERT REACTION: Did COVID-19 come from a lab in Wuhan?

"We know that viruses related to SARS-CoV-2 are also found in pangolins. This suggests that other wildlife species are likely to carry relatives of SARS-CoV-2."

"There is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 in humans, originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 are commonly found in wildlife species and frequently jump to new hosts. This is also the most likely explanation for the origin of SARS-CoV-2."

"In summary, the abundance, diversity and evolution of coronaviruses in wildlife strongly suggests that SARS-CoV-2 is of natural origin."


https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/expert-reaction-did-covid-19-come-from-a-lab-in-wuhan

The Origins of SARS-CoV-2: Part 3


"We may find that turning a critical eye towards our own interactions with the environment is a more useful conversation to have about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 instead of amplifying conspiracy theories about shadowy actors."

https://leelabvirus.host/covid19/or..._Y62h01yi1S8Z5lAGopPEuAkqwtjGKiWzVbTNgdwRrvec
 
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Current Covid19 death numbers as of 9:00 am EST are below, primarily from the source in the original post (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus). If your country of interest is not listed below, simply go to the link above to do a search for relevant information.

Total: 1,346,576
United States: 254,311
Brazil: 166,743
South Africa: 20,432
United Kingdom: 52,745
Canada: 11,086
Mexico: 99,026
Russia: 34,387
India: 131,047
Bolivia: 8,866
Japan : 1,903
Indonesia: 15,503
Italy: 46,464
Spain: 41,688
Belgium: 14,839
France: 46,273
Netherlands: 8,698
Chile: 14,883
Philippines: 7,957
 
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Pfizer-BioNTech to seek Covid-19 vaccine approval 'within days' as trial shows 95 percent efficacy

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heal...9-vaccine-approval-within-days-trial-n1248079

"The U.S. pharma giant and its German partner said their Phase 3 trial was now complete and that it found the vaccine was 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19 — up from the 90 percent announced last week.

There have been no serious side effects among the 41,135 adults who received two doses, the companies said in a joint statement. The most common reactions were that 3.7 percent of participants experienced fatigue and 2 percent had a headache, it said."
 
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Immunity to the Coronavirus May Last Years, New Data Hint

Blood samples from recovered patients suggest a powerful, long-lasting immune response, researchers reported.

Eight months after infection, most people who have recovered still have enough immune cells to fend off the virus and prevent illness, the new data show. A slow rate of decline in the short term suggests, happily, that these cells may persist in the body for a very, very long time to come.

The research, published online, has not been peer-reviewed nor published in a scientific journal. But it is the most comprehensive and long-ranging study of immune memory to the coronavirus to date.


https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.15.383323v1


Interesting twitter thread with highlights of the study.

 
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Immunity to the Coronavirus May Last Years, New Data Hint

Blood samples from recovered patients suggest a powerful, long-lasting immune response, researchers reported.

Eight months after infection, most people who have recovered still have enough immune cells to fend off the virus and prevent illness, the new data show. A slow rate of decline in the short term suggests, happily, that these cells may persist in the body for a very, very long time to come.

The research, published online, has not been peer-reviewed nor published in a scientific journal. But it is the most comprehensive and long-ranging study of immune memory to the coronavirus to date.


https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.11.15.383323v1


Interesting twitter thread with highlights of the study.


I did read the nytimes.com article before, but didn't want to post it... because in my opinion it's a bit "early" to say that. Let's just go step by step, and hope, like everything is pointing, that the vaccine has a good immunity rate.

If true, it's a super good news... but let's go step by step, and see first if the vaccine last at least 1 year with good immunity.

Immunity to the Coronavirus May Last Years, New Data Hint

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/health/coronavirus-immunity.html


The research, published online, has not been peer-reviewed nor published in a scientific journal. But it is the most comprehensive and long-ranging study of immune memory to the coronavirus to date.

“That amount of memory would likely prevent the vast majority of people from getting hospitalized disease, severe disease, for many years,”
 
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Covid-19 vaccines could be available by the end of December. Here's what needs to happen first.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/heal...e-available-end-december-here-s-what-n1248135

"Following the release of more data from its Covid-19 vaccine Phase 3 clinical trial, the drugmaker Pfizer said Wednesday that it expects to submit an application for what's called emergency use authorization to the Food and Drug Administration "within days."

Another drugmaker, Moderna, has also said it aims to submit an application in the coming weeks. Both companies have announced preliminary results from their vaccine trials showing extremely high levels of efficacy.

Generally, the path of a vaccine from its beginnings in a laboratory to a person's arm takes years to navigate. The speed with which manufacturers and regulators have moved this year is unprecedented.

Health officials expect that the first to receive any vaccine will be doctors and nurses on the front lines of treating patients, followed by the elderly and people with health problems that put them at greater risk for Covid-19 complications. It is thought that the general public will not be able to receive a vaccine until the spring or summer of 2021."
 
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Covid: Oxford vaccine shows 'encouraging' immune response in older adults

The Oxford coronavirus vaccine shows a strong immune response in adults in their 60s and 70s, raising hopes that it can protect age groups most at risk from the virus.

Researchers say the Lancet phase two findings, based on 560 healthy adult volunteers, are "encouraging".

They are also testing whether the vaccine stops people developing Covid-19 in larger, phase three trials.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32466-1/fulltext

_115550917_covid19_how_vaccines_work_v3_640_2x-nc.png
 
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Current Covid19 death numbers as of 8:00 am EST are below, primarily from the source in the original post (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus). If your country of interest is not listed below, simply go to the link above to do a search for relevant information.

Total: 1,357,717
United States: 256,311
Brazil: 167,497
South Africa: 20,556
United Kingdom: 53,274
Canada: 11,186
Mexico: 99,528
Russia: 34,850
India: 131,639
Bolivia: 8,875
Japan : 1,913
Indonesia: 15,600
Italy: 47,217
Spain: 42,039
Belgium: 15,025
France: 46,698
Netherlands: 8,698
Chile: 14,897
Philippines: 7,998
 
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Covid: Oxford vaccine shows 'encouraging' immune response in older adults

The Oxford coronavirus vaccine shows a strong immune response in adults in their 60s and 70s, raising hopes that it can protect age groups most at risk from the virus.

Researchers say the Lancet phase two findings, based on 560 healthy adult volunteers, are "encouraging".

They are also testing whether the vaccine stops people developing Covid-19 in larger, phase three trials.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32466-1/fulltext

_115550917_covid19_how_vaccines_work_v3_640_2x-nc.png
Same way as Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, that also centers on replicating the spike protein of the coronavirus.
The Oxford vaccine adds the spike protein to a chimpanzee adenovirus, and the Moderna and Pfizer takes a part of the spike RNA containing info of the spike protein, so when entering the body's cells, it produces the spike proteins, that will then trigger the body to produce the antibodies.

What is mRNA? How Pfizer and Moderna tapped new tech to make coronavirus vaccines

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/sci...rna-tapped-new-tech-make-coronavirus-n1248054

"The Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine use synthetic mRNA that contains information about the coronavirus’s signature spike protein. The vaccines essentially work by sneaking in instructions that direct the body to produce a small amount of the spike protein. Once the immune system detects this protein, the body subsequently begins producing protective antibodies."
 
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Australian state bans outdoor exercise, dog-walking

South Australia banned outdoor exercise and dog-walking for six days starting Thursday as part of the Australian state's plan to contain an outbreak of COVID-19 infections.

The new restrictions announced on Wednesday permit only one person from each household to leave their home each day and only for essential reasons


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/poli...rcise-dog-walking/ar-BB1baMLz?ocid=uxbndlbing
 
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After the FDA approved the use of Remdevisir, now the WHO doesn't recommend it.

W.H.O. Rejects Antiviral Drug Remdesivir as a Covid Treatment


https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/health/Covid-WHO-remdesivir.html


"The World Health Organization on Thursday recommended against using the antiviral remdesivir, a drug that had generated intense interest as a treatment for Covid-19.

An expert panel “concluded that remdesivir has no meaningful effect on mortality or on other important outcomes for patients, such as the need for mechanical ventilation or time to clinical improvement,” the W.H.O. announced. The panel published its review in the journal The BMJ. The report did not rule out the use of the drug altogether as a Covid treatment, but said evidence was lacking to recommend its use."
 
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Actual COVID-19 Cases Could Be 6 Times Greater Than Official Figures

A newly modelled estimate from the United States, Australia, Canada, South Korea and 11 countries in Europe suggests official figures could be struggling to capture the full scale of the outbreak.

The new model from scientists in Australia employs a 'backcasting' method, which projects the number of new daily fatalities in reverse, from the time of death to the time of infection. This allows scientists to avoid using epidemiological and serological data, which comes with testing limitations.

Comparing the new estimates with official confirmed cases, the team was able to predict the 'true' infection rate for each country. According to their results, at the end of August the population infection rate was, on average, six times higher than reported cases.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.200909#d1e825
 
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Australian state bans outdoor exercise, dog-walking

As tough as it would be to adhere to those regulations, this is why Australia keeps its infection rates so low.
 
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Actual COVID-19 Cases Could Be 6 Times Greater Than Official Figures

These are staggering numbers. That would mean 1.5 million people in the U.S. have died of Covid so far.
 
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These are staggering numbers. That would mean 1.5 million people in the U.S. have died of Covid so far.
They are talking about "possible" number of infections based on their estimation, not of deaths.
In fact they say they make their estimation looking at the reported death number:
"Simply put, we analysed statistics on how many people had died from COVID-19 in a given country and then worked backwards to see how many people would have to have been infected to arrive at that number of deaths."
 
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As tough as it would be to adhere to those regulations, this is why Australia keeps its infection rates so low.

Our population realises the danger and our country is generally not divided by partisan politics, so as a nation, we are prepared to make sacrifices for the common good of many.

Unfortunately we still have COMPLETE IDIOTS amongst us.

Breaking news:

South Australia eases restrictions as premier reveals close contact ‘deliberately misled’ authorities

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/south-australia-eases-restrictions-as-premier-reveals-close-contact-deliberately-misled-authorities
 
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Our population realises the danger and our country is generally not divided by partisan politics, so as a nation, we are prepared to make sacrifices for the common good of many.

Unfortunately we still have COMPLETE IDIOTS amongst us.

Breaking news:

South Australia eases restrictions as premier reveals close contact ‘deliberately misled’ authorities

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/south-australia-eases-restrictions-as-premier-reveals-close-contact-deliberately-misled-authorities

That's ONE SELFISH PERSON who has basically scared authorities enough to lock down an entire state of 1.67 million people, and all the rest of the domino chain of consequences that follow.

Coronavirus South Australia: As lies go, the Woodville Pizza Bar worker’s was a triple-supreme
Weddings and funerals cancelled. Elective surgery banned. The entire Schoolies celebration scrapped. Every pub and restaurant shut, their dumpsters heaving with spoiled perishables. Almost every business closed, students barred from attending school and university, supermarkets pillaged, bottle shops cleaned out.

Vast traffic jams as unnerved residents queued for as long as 10 hours to have swabs jammed up their snouts at hastily expanded COVID centres across the suburbs. More than 4000 South Aussies forced into quarantine.

Millions and millions of dollars ripped from the economy.

All because this bloke lied about the fact that he was secretly working at a pizza bar – while also working as a security guard at a medi-hotel – claiming he was merely a customer and creating a baseless but understandable fear that he may have contracted the virus from a pizza box.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/coronavirus-south-australia-as-lies-go-the-woodville-pizza-bar-workers-was-a-triplesupreme/news-story/ecab1f73236900eb5cb11aae23fc8f2a

Essentially, this person created fear that this particular strain was extremely contagious.
 
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That's ONE SELFISH PERSON who has basically scared authorities enough to lock down an entire state of 1.67 million people, and all the rest of the domino chain of consequences that follow.

Coronavirus South Australia: As lies go, the Woodville Pizza Bar worker’s was a triple-supreme
Weddings and funerals cancelled. Elective surgery banned. The entire Schoolies celebration scrapped. Every pub and restaurant shut, their dumpsters heaving with spoiled perishables. Almost every business closed, students barred from attending school and university, supermarkets pillaged, bottle shops cleaned out.

Vast traffic jams as unnerved residents queued for as long as 10 hours to have swabs jammed up their snouts at hastily expanded COVID centres across the suburbs. More than 4000 South Aussies forced into quarantine.

Millions and millions of dollars ripped from the economy.

All because this bloke lied about the fact that he was secretly working at a pizza bar – while also working as a security guard at a medi-hotel – claiming he was merely a customer and creating a baseless but understandable fear that he may have contracted the virus from a pizza box.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/coronavirus-south-australia-as-lies-go-the-woodville-pizza-bar-workers-was-a-triplesupreme/news-story/ecab1f73236900eb5cb11aae23fc8f2a

Essentially, this person created fear that this particular strain was extremely contagious.


I guess, he is going to get a lot of hate now. Idiots are everywhere.
 
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I guess, he is going to get a lot of hate now. Guess idiots are everywhere.

We've had a few idiots recently, but it is a drop in the ocean compared to the pain and suffering happening around the rest of the world. I think this recent scare in SA is a reminder that no matter how good your defences are, they can still be breached or sidelined by one individual. The chain is only as strong as the individual links.

Covid: Pizza worker's 'lie' forced South Australia lockdown
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-55011790

"This person's failure to be truthful with contact tracers means his close associates - who we understand he's had close contact with - haven't been identified and are currently in the community," Mr Stevens said.
 
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I was looking at figures and noticed that India has just reported over 9 million coronavirus cases
 
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I was looking at figures and noticed that India has just reported over 9 million coronavirus cases


Any authentic source for Chinese data?
 
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Any authentic source for Chinese data?

Bing's Covid tracker currently reports 86,398 cases and 4,634 deaths.
https://www.bing.com/covid/local/chinamainland

As has been discussed earlier today on this thread, only a fraction of case numbers are actually being discovered in many western countries, so the accuracy of 'official numbers' from China is not an issue - they appear to have it contained far better than most other nations.

I think we can only use reported numbers from most countries as a rough guide from hereon in ;(
 
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