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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.

Seven doctors contract Covid after attending Florida anti-vaccine summit​

Seven anti-vaccine doctors fell sick after gathering earlier this month for a Florida “summit” at which alternative treatments for Covid-19 were discussed.

“I have been on ivermectin for 16 months, my wife and I,” Dr Bruce Boros told the audience at the event held at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, adding: “I have never felt healthier in my life.”

The 71-year-old cardiologist and staunch anti-vaccine advocate contracted Covid-19 two days later, according to the head event organizer, Dr John Littell.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/23/florida-doctors-covid-coronavirus-bruce-boros
 
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Just found out my great niece (about 4 years old) has gotten covid for the second time. Weeks after her first infection a heart murmur was detected. I just got my booster (full dose) and so far so good...just tired.

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: 5,187,496
United States: 796,319
Brazil: 613,240
India: 466,584
Russia: 267,819
United Kingdom: 144,137
France: 118,653
Italy: 133,330
Spain: 87,866
Mexico: 292,850
Poland: 81,688
South Africa: 89,635
Indonesia: 143,766
Netherlands: 19,048
Canada: 29,555
Chile: 38,161
Belgium: 26,705
Philippines: 47,682
Japan : 18,351
Bolivia: 19,096
Australia: 1,973
Peru: 200,931
 
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@Mister Funsky -- Well wishes to your niece. So sad to think of a 4-year-old going through Covid twice.

Looks like the U.S. is about to pass the 800,000 threshold.
 
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Just found out my great niece (about 4 years old) has gotten covid for the second time. Weeks after her first infection a heart murmur was detected.

2nd time round, now with a heart murmur to maybe complicate things..... They're quite certain the heart murmur is from covid?

"More than half of all kids have a heart murmur at some time in their lives and most heart murmurs don't mean anything is wrong. Doctors may call these "innocent," "functional," or "normal" murmurs. They are caused by blood rushing through the valves in a normal heart and are nothing to worry about.

One common type of normal murmur is Still's murmur, named for the doctor who first described it. This murmur is most often heard in healthy kids 3 to 7 years old."

https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/heart-murmurs.html

Here's hoping.
 
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They're quite certain the heart murmur is from covid?
The doctor(s) have not definitely attributed it to covid as of now.

She (Miller) had her first 'real' physical just prior to getting covid the first time and nothing was noticed then. I imagine we will ever know for sure, but I will update once Miller has recovered from covid and sees the cardiologist.

BTW, may everyone celebrating Thanksgiving Day be happy and safe...in our case, because one of my nephews has a significant medical condition and is too young to get the vaccine, only vaccinated relatives are gathering.
 
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What do we know about the new ‘worst ever’ Covid variant?​

What is the new variant and why is it a concern?
Scientists have detected a new Covid-19 variant called B.1.1.529 and are working to understand its potential implications. About 50 confirmed cases have been identified in South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana.

B.1.1.529 has a very unusual constellation of mutations, which are worrying because they could help it evade the body’s immune response and make it more transmissible, scientists have said. Any new variant that is able to evade vaccines or spread faster than the now-dominant Delta variant might pose a significant threat as the world emerges from the pandemic.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/25/what-do-we-know-about-the-new-worst-ever-covid-variant
 
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WHO meets amid global alarm over new Covid-19 variant found in southern Africa​


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/who-meet-new-variant-covid-19-found-southern-africa-rcna6782

“This is the most significant variant we have encountered to date," said Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the U.K. Health Security Agency.

Scientists are still learning about the variant, which was first identified earlier this week and is currently known as B.1.1.529, but its concerning nature led to rapid developments as fears hit governments and markets alike.

Wall Street opened sharply lower, with the Dow dropping around 800 points to start Black Friday. Oil prices and airline shares plunged, while major stock indexes also fell in Europe and Asia.

The U.K. said late Thursday it was banning all direct flights from six African countries: South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Israel, Singapore, Japan and a flurry of European countries also quickly announced travel restrictions from parts of the African continent, while the European Union's executive recommended a similar suspension of air travel from affected countries.

Global vaccination rates remain uneven, with citizens of some wealthy industrialized countries already being offered booster shots while other nations struggle to inoculate their populations due in part to lack of access and public hesitancy."

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As long as there are countries where people is not getting the vaccine, this virus seems to continue mutating.
This is why it is so important that people get vaccinated, so that this virus mutations do not appear in future.
 
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Market Plummets 800 Points amid Discovery of New COVID Variant in South Africa​

The discovery of a new COVID variant in South Africa sent U.S. stock indexes plummeting on Friday, triggering financial-market uncertainty as well as travel and commercial restrictions in a number of nations in the continent and in Europe.

At the open of the market, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped nearly 835 points, or 2.3 percent, indicating a large sell-off in assets among traders responding to the development. The S&P 500 dropped 1.4 percent at the start of the day, while the Nasdaq Composite Index slumped 0.9 percent.

Amid fears that the new version of the virus could be more infectious and vaccine resistant than the Delta variant, which has defied the vaccine in terms of prevention in some cases, the World Health Organization conducted an emergency scientific review of the strain Friday.

At the meeting, the WHO classified the new variant as a highly transmissible virus of concern, naming it “Omicron.” The agency said that the first known confirmed case was from a sample collected on November 9.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news...scovery-of-new-covid-variant-in-south-africa/
 
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As omicron variant is detected around the world, travel bans may be too late, experts say​


Confirmed and suspected covid-19 cases caused by the new variant have been detected in a growing number of regions, including Britain, Belgium, Botswana, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, Israel and the Czech Republic. Most of the cases outside Africa appear to involve people who had traveled to the continent.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...l-bans-may-be-too-late-experts-say/ar-AARdCmY

Austria reports first suspected case of Omicron COVID-19 variant​

https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...ted-case-omicron-covid-19-variant-2021-11-28/

Australia confirms two cases of Omicron COVID-19 variant​

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-...out-omicron-virus-variant-arrival-2021-11-27/

Omicron Netherlands: 13 air passengers test positive for new variant​

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59451103
 
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What do we know about the new ‘worst ever’ Covid variant?​

What is the new variant and why is it a concern?
Scientists have detected a new Covid-19 variant called B.1.1.529 and are working to understand its potential implications. About 50 confirmed cases have been identified in South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana.

B.1.1.529 has a very unusual constellation of mutations, which are worrying because they could help it evade the body’s immune response and make it more transmissible, scientists have said. Any new variant that is able to evade vaccines or spread faster than the now-dominant Delta variant might pose a significant threat as the world emerges from the pandemic.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/25/what-do-we-know-about-the-new-worst-ever-covid-variant

My 'prophecy': The 'worst ever' won't be the worst ever. With all the especially unvaxxed still out there, how bad it'll get...
 
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Officials: Variants ‘haunt’ world with vaccine imbalance between rich and poor nations​


https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...da8fa4-4fa6-11ec-a7b8-9ed28bf23929_story.html

"Across a world of vaccine haves and have-nots, the omicron variant sends a warning on how the virus can evolve and spread without more aggressive measures to expand vaccinations.

“Despite the repeated warnings of health leaders, our failure to put vaccines into the arms of people in the developing world is now coming back to haunt us,” Brown wrote.

Just 6 percent of Africa’s 1.2 billion people are vaccinated — compared to about 59 percent in the United States — largely because many places in Africa have struggled to find supplies snatched up by Western governments.

South Africa’s slowing vaccination
program also is largely due to a reluctance by its population to get the jab, driven by apathy and the feeling that “things aren’t so bad,” said Gray.

“Our problem in South Africa is that until we tackle the elephant in the room, which is the low vaccine coverage, we are never going to get ahead of the variants,” said Gray.
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Only a 25% of the population is fully vaccinated in South Africa.
 
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My 'prophecy': The 'worst ever' won't be the worst ever. With all the especially unvaxxed still out there, how bad it'll get...
Scary.
 
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I'm not seriously concerned about omicron quite yet. Here's hoping:

Omicron variant's symptoms are mild so far, leading experts say​

The large number of mutations found in the Omicron variant appears to destabilize the virus, which might make it less 'fit' than the dominant delta strain, says adviser to South Africa government

“The cases that have occurred so far have all been mild cases, mild-to-moderate cases and that’s a good sign,” said Schoub, adding that it was still early days and nothing was certain yet."

https://nationalpost.com/news/world/omicron-covid-19-cases-mild-so-far-leading-experts-say
 
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Trump stoked Covid in red states – but there are blue anti-vaxxers too​

Is there a relationship between Covid and politics? Sure seems so.

By the end of October, 25 out of every 100,000 residents of counties Donald Trump won by wide margins had died from Covid. That was more than three times higher than the Covid death rate in heavily Biden counties, of 7.8 per 100,000.

Counties where Trump received at least 70% of the vote had an even higher average Covid death toll than counties where Trump won at least 60%.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-state-america-blue-anti-vaxxers-robert-reich
 
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Trump stoked Covid in red states – but there are blue anti-vaxxers too​

Is there a relationship between Covid and politics? Sure seems so.

By the end of October, 25 out of every 100,000 residents of counties Donald Trump won by wide margins had died from Covid. That was more than three times higher than the Covid death rate in heavily Biden counties, of 7.8 per 100,000.

Counties where Trump received at least 70% of the vote had an even higher average Covid death toll than counties where Trump won at least 60%.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...-state-america-blue-anti-vaxxers-robert-reich

Actually, I read that article as actually being somewhat apolitical (apart from the gory stats):

My conclusion: They’re infected not by Covid but by a narcissism that refuses even to consider the risks and costs they’re imposing on others.
If we blame Trump and the culture that produced him for the relatively low rate of vaccinations in the US, we’re missing a character trait that may offer a fuller explanation.
This trait is found among Democrats and independents in blue America as well as Republicans in Trumpland. In fact, I think it’s been near the core of the American personality since before the founding of the nation – a stubborn, selfish, me-first individualism.

Adam Smith, the father of Capitalism, has a caveat for the me-first individualism of which the author speaks:

A common misconceptions about the free market is that it encourages people to pursue their own “narrow self-interest,” usually interpreted as caring only about one’s self while ignoring the needs and desires of others. But in fact, the truth is quite the opposite. In a market, the surest route to economic failure is to focus strictly on one’s own wants and ignore the well-being of others. Indeed, this is the fundamental message about markets that Adam Smith, in 1776, was attempting to convey when presenting his famous metaphor of the invisible hand. In any economy based on voluntary cooperation and trade, as opposed either private or governmental force, it is impossible to simultaneously advance one’s own economic well-being while at the same time ignoring the desires and wishes of others.

https://www.johnlocke.org/update/th...ee-market-narrow-self-interest-means-failure/
 
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WHO warns omicron poses 'very high' global risk as variant spreads​


https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/warns-omicron-covid-variant-poses-high-global-risk-rcna6892

"The global risk of the new omicron variant is “very high,” the World Health Organization said Monday, as more countries reported cases of the variant that has sparked worldwide concern that there is more pandemic suffering ahead.

"Omicron has an unprecedented number of spike mutations, some of which are concerning for their potential impact on the trajectory of the pandemic,” the body said in the report tweeted out Monday. "If another major surge of Covid-19 takes place driven by omicron, consequences may be severe."
 
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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: 5,220,328
United States: 799,414
Brazil: 614,314
India: 468,790
Russia: 273,964
United Kingdom: 144,775
France: 118,894
Italy: 133,674
Spain: 87,955
Mexico: 293,897
Poland: 83,055
South Africa: 89,797
Indonesia: 143,819
Netherlands: 19,317
Canada: 29,633
Chile: 38,313
Belgium: 26,840
Philippines: 48,501
Japan : 18,358
Bolivia: 19,161
Australia: 1,997
Peru: 201,108
 
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Omicron is new, but the old advice to protect yourself still applies.​


https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/omicron-new-old-advice-protect-still-applies-rcna6913

"The virus still spreads the way it always has, experts say. The best ways to slow its spread should be familiar by now.

This is still an airborne virus, spread not only through droplets from sneezes and coughs, but also by talking and breathing close to another person.

Wear masks. Wash your hands. Maintain an appropriate physical distance among strangers, especially indoors. And by all means, they say, get vaccinated.

"It’s not like the vaccines are an on-off switch where you’re going to go from a high level of protection against the delta variant to no level of protection against omicron."

How the omicron variant affects the available vaccines remains unclear. But experts say that even if the variant lessens the shots’ effectiveness, it is highly unlikely that it would render them useless."
 
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Covid-19 hospitalizations rising in South Africa’s omicron hot spot​


https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphi...ising-south-africas-omicron-hot-spot-rcna6922

"Admissions have increased nearly fourfold since the beginning of November."

"Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising rapidly in a populous South African province where the new omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected.

Hospitalizations across the country have increased by 63 percent since the beginning of the month, according to data from the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. In Gauteng, a province that includes the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, hospitalizations are up by nearly 400 percent since the beginning of the month, from 120 for the week ending Nov. 6 to 580 for the week ending Saturday."
 
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oMicron=Moronic. and probably this is intentional.
No omicron, no original virus. Noone saw them.

There must be a reason why they called "it" omicron instead of
omnicorn, because in the second one there are two n's
and we would get moronnic instead of moronic, then.
 
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Moderna CEO says vaccines likely less effective against Omicron - FT​


https://www.reuters.com/business/he...less-effective-against-omicron-ft-2021-11-30/

"The head of drugmaker Moderna (MRNA.O) said COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to be as effective against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as they have been previously, sparking fresh worry in financial markets about the trajectory of the pandemic.

"There is no world, I think, where (the effectiveness) is the same level . . . we had with Delta," Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel told the Financial Times in an interview.


"I think it's going to be a material drop. I just don't know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I've talked to . . . are like 'this is not going to be good.'"

Bancel added that the high number of mutations on the protein spike the virus uses to infect human cells meant it was likely the current crop of vaccines would need to be modified."
 
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We (those of us attempting to find and share information) talked about the variants quite a lot in the beginning. The nature of all virus is to mutate...and more often than not, it will mutate itself into a benign strain.

It will likely be two weeks before any determination can be made as to the 'potency' of this strain...it seems it is easier to spread but it might be less 'potent'. Since it has been found in Canada, the first case in the US is just days away from being identified.

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Japan's first Omicron case may help portray PM Kishida as decisive​

TOKYO, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Japan confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant of coronavirus on Tuesday, a day after closing its borders to all foreigners in one of the world's toughest precautionary measures.

But the case could show Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was right in making the swift closure decision, helping to avert the sort of criticism that spurred the resignation in September of predecessor Yoshihide Suga over his handling of the virus.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the discovery of the sufferer, a diplomat from Namibia in his thirties who arrived at the Japanese capital's airport of Narita, showed that border controls had worked.

"In order to avoid the worst-case situation with Omicron, we'll stay on top of the infection situation in each nation and respond flexibly and fast," he added.

Kishida had pledged to bolster Japan's response to the pandemic when he campaigned to replace Suga, whose handling of the crisis left many dissatisfied.

https://www.reuters.com/business/he...omicron-variant-coronavirus-kyodo-2021-11-30/
 
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We (those of us attempting to find and share information) talked about the variants quite a lot in the beginning. The nature of all virus is to mutate...and more often than not, it will mutate itself into a benign strain.

It will likely be two weeks before any determination can be made as to the 'potency' of this strain...it seems it is easier to spread but it might be less 'potent'. Since it has been found in Canada, the first case in the US is just days away from being identified.
Agree. What happens is that if Omicron finally prevails over the Delta variant, even if it causes mild symptoms, if it really escapes current vaccines due to its 30 mutations in the spike protein, it can cause harm again in elderly and other health compromised population.
Everybody thinks that a new adjustment in vaccines will be necessary to be fully protected from this new strain, but the real effects and spread level of Omicron in most "already vaccinated" countries remain to be seen. The South Africa situation is not comparable, because there is only a 25% of vaccinated population.
But in this case I think that countries are doing well thinking the worst scenario, before it becomes a reality. Because at the start of this pandemic, everyone was behind the virus.
 
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fakecov2.jpg
 
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