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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.

Moderna starts trial for Omicron-specific booster shot​


Jan 26 (Reuters) - Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) said on Wednesday it had started a mid-stage study, testing a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine specifically designed to target the Omicron coronavirus variant, a day after rival Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) launched a similar trial.

The company said while a third shot of its original coronavirus vaccine increased neutralizing antibodies against the variant at the lower dose, their levels declined six months after the booster dose was administered.

However, neutralizing antibodies remained detectable in all participants, Moderna said.

While studies have indicated that Omicron results in a less severe COVID-19 than seen during previous waves, the variant has quickly become dominant in many parts of the world, driving up infections and straining healthcare systems.

The variant currently accounts for 99.9% of the COVID-19 cases in the Unites States.

https://www.reuters.com/business/he...ing-omicron-specific-booster-shot-2022-01-26/
 
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While studies have indicated that Omicron results in a less severe COVID-19 than seen during previous waves, the variant has quickly become dominant in many parts of the world, driving up infections and straining healthcare systems.

The variant currently accounts for 99.9% of the COVID-19 cases in the Unites States.

I guess there's now a 'son of omicron':

"Officially called omicron BA.2, it shares most of its mutations with the original omicron variant, but with a few new mutations that may potentially impact how the virus functions – and that’s what the WHO has asked officials around the world to keep an eye on. .....

The “son of omicron” caught the eye of the WHO because it has several new mutations in the area of its genome that codes for Spike, a protein that studs the outside of the virus and helps it enter host cells. Current COVID vaccines target this area of the viral genome, so mutations here could potentially help the virus evade those vaccines and/or enter cells more easily.

Early data suggests BA.2 may spread more easily than omicron, though more data is needed to confirm this – and to understand what impact increased transmissibility might have on hospitalizations and death.

It’s important to note that the WHO has not yet found any reason to designate this subvariant as a “variant of concern” or even a “variant of interest.” While they are tracking whether this BA.2 causes more severe disease, so far there is no evidence that it does."

https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/son-of-an-omicron-whats-next
 
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It’s important to note that the WHO has not yet found any reason to designate this subvariant as a “variant of concern” or even a “variant of interest.”
Yes, I thought it has been getting a lot of press all things considered.

Nearly half the people I keep up (not just friends or family, but those they associate with) and without doing the math, at least a third just had, or are having, the omicron variant. Might be closer to half actually.
 
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Yes, I thought it has been getting a lot of press all things considered.

Nearly half the people I keep up (not just friends or family, but those they associate with) and without doing the math, at least a third just had, or are having, the omicron variant. Might be closer to half actually.

Omicron’s most crucial warning: A disease can move much faster than we can​


"Our approach to pandemic response can’t react fast enough for a Covid-19 variant like omicron. That should scare us."

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/...ons-warning-pandemic-faster-vaccines-response
 
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Outrage as Paris hospitals chief raises idea of charging unvaccinated patients​

The head of hospitals in Paris has raised the question of whether Covid patients who have refused to be vaccinated should be charged for emergency treatment if they become seriously ill with the virus.

Martin Hirsch said the door to hospital treatment was open to all people but questioned whether this had to go hand in hand with “responsibility, allowing everyone to benefit,” in what he said was a “delicate debate”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...raises-idea-of-charging-unvaccinated-patients
 
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With all the news this got worldwide, might be a bit interesting to see where it goes:

Sleuths Uncovers Evidence to Suggest Djokovic’s COVID Diagnosis Was BS​


"Tennis star Novak Djokovic dropped a bombshell this month when he revealed in court filings that he had COVID in December, arguing that his recovery should allow him to skirt Australia’s strict vaccine mandate. But the BBC has found evidence to suggest Djokovic may have been fibbing. The network obtained a batch of COVID test results from Serbia from the same period and found that the serial numbers were out of sequence with the Dec. 16 positive test result Djokovic presented to Australian authorities. His negative test result six days later also had a lower sequence number than his earlier test. The batch of results, first uncovered by German researchers and then obtained by BBC, showed that codes are issued in chronological order"

https://www.thedailybeast.com/bbc-u...-djokovics-covid-diagnosis-was-false?ref=home
 
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Sleuths Uncovers Evidence to Suggest Djokovic’s COVID Diagnosis Was BS
He could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just getting the vaccine.
 
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He could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just getting the vaccine.
The entire timing of his positive test was very suspicious. It was just coincidentally the perfect timing that he needed.

He either lied about actually having COVID, or if you believe him knowingly had COVID and still went to functions with people, endangering them.

Either way he made the choice to not be vaccinated. Australia made the choice to not allow him to stay in their country. That is how it works.

You don't have any rights to travel to a country you are not a citizen or resident of. It is at their discretion.

Brad
 
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Outrage as Paris hospitals chief raises idea of charging unvaccinated patients​

The head of hospitals in Paris has raised the question of whether Covid patients who have refused to be vaccinated should be charged for emergency treatment if they become seriously ill with the virus.

Martin Hirsch said the door to hospital treatment was open to all people but questioned whether this had to go hand in hand with “responsibility, allowing everyone to benefit,” in what he said was a “delicate debate”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...raises-idea-of-charging-unvaccinated-patients

Is deciding to be unvaccinated any different than deciding to smoke? It is a decision, that puts you at a higher risk of illness and therefore a higher cost to the medical system.

I am not really sure exactly how healthcare works in France. I know it is a mix of universal coverage with public and private options.

If you decide to be unvaccinated how is that any different than deciding to smoke? You are making a decision that puts you at a higher risk, and therefore a higher expense to the system.

I have heard some people talk about doing things like rationing care to unvaccinated, but that goes way too far. You can't expect doctors to be forced to make that decision. If the resources are there, anyone who can be helped should be helped IMO.

However, I have absolutely no problem with insurers factoring in vaccination status when it comes to rates, just like they do with smoking now.

Brad
 
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He could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just getting the vaccine.

Could've. Maybe he's playing a game based on his owning a big part of a new biotech company that's claiming to have new virus fighting tech:

"Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, recently deported from Australia due to his coronavirus vaccine status, is co-founder and majority shareholder of a biotech firm developing a COVID-19 treatment, the Danish company’s CEO said Wednesday.

“He is one of the founders of my company we founded in June 2020,” Ivan Loncarevic, the chief executive of QuantBioRes, said.

According to information publicly available in the Danish business register, Djokovic and his wife, Jelena, together hold a stake of 80% in QuantBioRes, which employs a workforce of around 20 in Denmark, Slovenia, Australia and Britain.

“We aim to develop a new technology to fight viruses and resistant bacteria and we decided to use COVID as a showcase,” Loncarevic said.

“If we succeed with COVID, we will succeed with other viruses.”

QuantBioRes is planning to launch clinical trials in the UK in the summer, the CEO said."
 
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Could've. Maybe he's playing a game based on his owning a big part of a new biotech company that's claiming to have new virus fighting tech:

"Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, recently deported from Australia due to his coronavirus vaccine status, is co-founder and majority shareholder of a biotech firm developing a COVID-19 treatment, the Danish company’s CEO said Wednesday.

“He is one of the founders of my company we founded in June 2020,” Ivan Loncarevic, the chief executive of QuantBioRes, said.

According to information publicly available in the Danish business register, Djokovic and his wife, Jelena, together hold a stake of 80% in QuantBioRes, which employs a workforce of around 20 in Denmark, Slovenia, Australia and Britain.

“We aim to develop a new technology to fight viruses and resistant bacteria and we decided to use COVID as a showcase,” Loncarevic said.

“If we succeed with COVID, we will succeed with other viruses.”

QuantBioRes is planning to launch clinical trials in the UK in the summer, the CEO said."
LOL. Who would trust a biotech company owned by an anti-vax tennis player?

Brad
 
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If you decide to be unvaccinated how is that any different than deciding to smoke? You are making a decision that puts you at a higher risk, and therefore a higher expense to the system.
Smoking doesn't infect others with a deadly disease. Second-hand smoke can cause illness or death to others, but not at the rates of a pandemic. I don't necessarily agree with rationing health care, but it doesn't seem right for the unvaccinated to be causing so much illness and unnecessary expense to the health care system.
 
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LOL. Who would trust a biotech company owned by an anti-vax tennis player?

Brad

If the biotech company's clinical trials prove out, that'll help trust - although they'd still have to sell the 'based on new tech'. What won't help is having a spokesperson or even major shareholder like Djokovic, if he's shown to have lied about his covid. The bad publicity that could give that company to try and overcome.... . Would maybe be better if he sold out.
 
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Smoking doesn't infect others with a deadly disease. Second-hand smoke can cause illness or death to others, but not at the rates of a pandemic. I don't necessarily agree with rationing health care, but it doesn't seem right for the unvaccinated to be causing so much illness and unnecessary expense to the health care system.
Maybe I should have been more clear. I basically meant from the perspective of an insurer what is the difference between being unvaccinated and smoking?

Either way, it is a decision that leads to extra cost for the insurer. It is perfectly reasonable for the insurer to pass the extra cost on. Everyone should not have to foot the extra bill because of someone else's decision.

It is just factoring in risk. For instance if you are skydiving instructor, your life insurance is going to be far more expensive than an accountant.

As a society thing, being unvaccinated is much worse than smoking. It effects far more people in a negative manner.

The vaccinated have a heavy burden. They have to pull extra weight for all the unvaccinated people who are making no effort to do their part for society in general.

Some people are just selfish, or stupid, or both.

Brad
 
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it doesn't seem right for the unvaccinated to be causing so much illness and unnecessary expense to the health care system.

Some people are just selfish, or stupid, or both.

Not saying one has to put up with them, but there's anti-vaxxers that are said to have challenges like chemical imbalances - which, if true, might make it a bit hard to condemn all anti-vaxxers. How many they might be among the anti-vaxxers, and which ones they might be....

From a previous post:

Blame much on chemical imbalance? Dopamine? Video I posted before. See starting 1:45:

https://www.technologynetworks.com/...t-conspiracy-theories-do-to-your-brain-323919

Just a thought.
 
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The latest Covid variant is 1.5 times more contagious than omicron and already circulating in almost half of U.S. states​


"The new sublineage doesn't appear to further reduce the effectiveness of vaccines against symptomatic infection, according to the U.K. Health Security Agency.

"Currently there is no evidence that the BA.2 lineage is more severe than the BA.1 lineage," CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said.

BA.2 overtook the original omicron as the dominant variant in Denmark over the course of a few weeks, said Troels Lillebaek, the chairman of the Scandinavian nation's committee that conducts surveillance of Covid variants."

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/mar...f-u-s-states/ar-AATg5hF?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
 
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I talked with someone today who sounds like he probably has covid, based on symptoms. He's double vaxxed but not boosted, over 70, with a heart attack a couple years ago. He took something that someone who's lived in Thailand had suggested - they said it was working for people there and has been okayed by their government for covid issues. He figures it helped alleviate his symptoms.
He had bought the remedy a few months ago, just in case, and couldn't give me anything English off the bottle's label - he showed a store worker at an Asian food store an image of a bottle of it and it was known by them what it was - but I'm thinking it's likely this, a traditional herbal remedy:

How to Safely Use Green Chiretta Against COVID-19​


"In Thailand, one study that may be cited on the effectiveness of Andrographis paniculata is a study on its use in COVID-19 patients at the Bangkok Central Prison by Anek, Moongaomklang, M.D.

"Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mayuree Tangkiatkumjai, the Faculty of Pharmacy, Srinakharinwirot University elaborated that “30 COVID-19 patients in prison were each given four 12-mg encapsulated green chiretta powder, three times a day for five days. They received RT-PCR testing every two days. After eight days of taking the herb, COVID-19 was no longer found.

The results of the study indicated that the dose is a total of 144 mg of andrographolide powder per day, divided and given times a day, but the Department of Medical Services prescribes 180 mg per day, divided and given three times a day as well.

“Although the optimal dosage of andrographolide remains controversial, and its efficacy and side effects still need to be monitored, but the use of green chiretta to relieve the COVID-19 symptoms is possible,” Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mayuree said."

https://www.newswise.com/coronaviru...-chiretta-against-covid-19/?article_id=757479

I haven't done any further checking into it, so far.
 
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30 COVID-19 patients in prison were each given four 12-mg encapsulated green chiretta powder, three times a day for five days. They received RT-PCR testing every two days. After eight days of taking the herb, COVID-19 was no longer found.
Now they must do the same but with a placebo, and maybe it will work the same way. Or even better, they can do a serious clinical trial, double blind trial, and then we can take the results seriously.

https://theconversation.com/thailan...es-what-we-know-about-this-herbal-drug-169683

"As far as we know, full data for this intervention has not been released to the international scientific community and details of the study are sparse. For example, we don’t know if there was a control group (a group that received a placebo or different treatment for comparison), and, if so, whether inmates were randomly assigned to one group or the other.

This type of “randomised, controlled trial” is the gold standard for clinical research. Especially if it is “double blind”, that is, neither the participants nor the researchers know who received the new drug and who received the placebo. This removes conscious and unconscious biases from the study."
 
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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: 5,693,849
United States: 910,104
Brazil: 627,365
India: 496,268
Russia: 332,012
United Kingdom: 155,754
France: 130,931
Italy: 146,498
Spain: 93,225
Mexico: 306,091
Poland: 105,434
South Africa: 95,093
Indonesia: 144,320
Netherlands: 21,277
Canada: 33,873
Chile: 39,721
Belgium: 29,052
Philippines: 54,054
Japan : 18,792
Bolivia: 20,951
Australia: 3,835
Peru: 205,834
 
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It was just a matter of time...

WHO warns of COVID medical waste threat​


The World Health Organization warned Tuesday that the vast amount of waste produced in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic posed a threat to human and environmental health.

The tens of thousands of tonnes of extra medical waste had put a huge strain on healthcare waste management systems, the WHO said in a report.

The extra waste is "threatening human and environmental health and exposing a dire need to improve waste management practices", the UN health agency said.

As countries scrambled to get personal protective equipment (PPE) to cope with the crisis, less attention was paid to disposing of COVID-19 health care waste safely and sustainably, the WHO said.

The report looked at the 1.5 billion units—approximately 87,000 tonnes—of PPE procured between March 2020 and November 2021, and shipped out to countries via the United Nations system—a small fraction of the global total.

Most of this equipment has likely ended up as waste, the WHO said.

"It is absolutely vital to provide health workers with the right PPE. But it is also vital to ensure that it can be used safely without impacting on the surrounding environment," said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan.

Furthermore, over 140 million test kits have been shipped, with the potential to generate 2,600 tonnes of mainly plastic, non-infectious waste and 731,000 litres of chemical waste.

more...

https://phys.org/news/2022-02-covid-medical-threat.html
 
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New vaccines developed capable of single-dose protection​


"Scientists at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia have developed new SARS-CoV-2 vaccines that prove to elicit stronger neutralizing antibodies and are capable of single-dose protection.

Researchers monitored mice immunized with RBD past six months and found that the vaccine provided prolonged protection.

"This is among the first next-generation vaccines that will have more advanced features and broader protection," Kulp said.

These new vaccines should protect against emerging variants that reduce or evade current vaccine-induced immunity. "

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/me...e-protection/ar-AAToQSI?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531
 
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Unvaccinated people are 97 times more likely to die of Covid-19 than those with a booster, CDC director says​


People who are not vaccinated against Covid-19 are 97 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than people who are vaccinated and boosted, according to data presented Wednesday by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

“Vaccination and booster doses substantially decrease the risk of death from Covid-19,” Walensky said at a White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing while presenting data collected the week ending December 4.

“The number of average weekly deaths for those who are unvaccinated was 9.7 per 100,000 people, but only 0.7 per 100,000 people for those who were vaccinated. This means the risk of dying from Covid-19 was 14 times higher for people who were unvaccinated compared to those who received only a primary series. For those who were boosted, the average of weekly deaths was 0.1 per 100,000 people, meaning that unvaccinated individuals were 97 times more likely to die compared to those who were boosted.”


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