COVID-19 Outbreak Information Updates (Reboot) [over 150.000,000 US cases (est.), 6,422,520 US hospitilizations, 1,148,691 US deaths.] (1 Viewer)

Interesting article

Please delete if this is too political
=======================
ORINDA, Calif. — They waved signs that read “Defeat the mandates” and “No vaccines.” They chanted “Protect our kids” and “Our kids, our choice.”

Almost everyone in the crowd of more than three dozen was a parent. And as they protested on a recent Friday in the Bay Area suburb of Orinda, Calif., they had the same refrain: They were there for their children.

Most had never been to a political rally before. But after seeing their children isolated and despondent early in the coronavirus pandemic, they despaired, they said. On Facebook, they found other worried parents who sympathized with them. They shared notes and online articles — many of them misleading — about the reopening of schools and the efficacy of vaccines and masks. Soon, those issues crowded out other concerns.

“I wish I’d woken up to this cause sooner,” said one protester, Lisa Longnecker, 54, who has a 17-year-old son. “But I can’t think of a single more important issue. It’s going to decide how I vote.”

Ms. Longnecker and her fellow objectors are part of a potentially destabilizing new movement: parents who joined the anti-vaccine and anti-mask cause during the pandemic, narrowing their political beliefs to a single-minded obsession over those issues. Their thinking hardened even as Covid-19 restrictions and mandates were eased and lifted, cementing in some cases into a skepticism of all vaccines.

Nearly half of Americans oppose masking and a similar share is against vaccine mandates for schoolchildren, polls show. But what is obscured in those numbers is the intensity with which some parents have embraced these views. While they once described themselves as Republicans or Democrats, they now identify as independents who plan to vote based solely on vaccine policies.

Their transformation injects an unpredictable element into November’s midterm elections. Fueled by a sense of righteousness after Covid vaccine and mask mandates ended, many of these parents have become increasingly dogmatic, convinced that unless they act, new mandates will be passed after the midterms.

To back up their beliefs, some have organized rallies and disrupted local school board meetings. Others are raising money for anti-mask and anti-vaccine candidates like J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for Senate in Ohio; Reinette Senum, an independent running for governor in California; and Rob Astorino, a Republican gubernatorial candidate in New York.

In interviews, 27 parents who called themselves anti-vaccine and anti-mask voters described strikingly similar paths to their new views. They said they had experienced alarm about their children during pandemic quarantines. They pushed to reopen schools and craved normalcy. They became angry, blaming lawmakers for the disruption to their children’s lives...........


when i read "they craved normalcy...blamed lawmakers for the disruption to their children's lives..." all i read is " I craved normalcy - aka not having to deal with my kids day AND night and I want no disruption to my life"
 
Since this isn't in the daily outrage machine anywhere today, COVID is still the third-largest cause of death in the US (more than 2x more than stroke, the next Dx category).

The problem hasn't gone away, just interest in it, unless you happen to be one of the dead ones.
 
Since this isn't in the daily outrage machine anywhere today, COVID is still the third-largest cause of death in the US (more than 2x more than stroke, the next Dx category).

The problem hasn't gone away, just interest in it, unless you happen to be one of the dead ones.
I would hazard a guess that even the dead have no interest in Covid. But, those they left behind probably think about it all the time.
 
Since this isn't in the daily outrage machine anywhere today, COVID is still the third-largest cause of death in the US (more than 2x more than stroke, the next Dx category).

The problem hasn't gone away, just interest in it, unless you happen to be one of the dead ones.
If I'm not mistaken, majority of the deaths are still unvaccinated, and when you throw the booster in there, the gap is even higher.. Its kinda one of those things, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink, its a sad way to look at it, but it is what it is..
 
If I'm not mistaken, majority of the deaths are still unvaccinated, and when you throw the booster in there, the gap is even higher.
And still a strong age correlation, as well.

There will be many counter-anecdotes ... but generally, if you're up to date on vaccinations and younger than 70, you don't have to worry unduly about COVID in public.
 
(Bloomberg) -- Vaccinated and masked college students had virtually no chance of catching Covid-19 in the classroom last fall, according to a sweeping study of 33,000 Boston University students that bolsters standard prevention measures.

The researchers screened the college’s health records to find nine sets of students who developed Covid at about the same time, were in class together without social distancing and had no known contact outside school, suggesting that they might have transmitted it in the classroom. However, genome analysis of coronavirus samples from the groups showed that all of them more likely were infected in other places.

“When we looked at the genomes and compared them to one another, they were cousins but not closer than that,” said Boston University School of Medicine virologist John Connor, a co-author. He said the study in the journal JAMA Network Open provides an answer to a nervous question common last fall: “I just walked into a class with 80 people in it. How do I know I’m not going to catch disease from them?”

The university was able to perform the study because of its comprehensive, in-house testing program that includes genomic analysis of virus samples. The semester under study included 140,000 class meetings with a mean size of 31 students, virtually all of whom were vaccinated as required. Classrooms were well ventilated, the researchers said...........

 
If I'm not mistaken, majority of the deaths are still unvaccinated, and when you throw the booster in there, the gap is even higher.. Its kinda one of those things, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink, its a sad way to look at it, but it is what it is..
Sad, but very true. My daughter is currently treating patients dying of covid at her hospital. She told me a very vast
majority are unvaccinated.

Once again, don't be stubborn. Please get vaccinated . It's an act of kindness to your fellow man and woman.
 
It’s inevitable that there will be another pandemic. The only question is when.

And I strongly believe that no matter when it is, 5 years from now, 50 or a hundred, we will have learned zero lessons

One of the things some people said (and still say) was that covid was not “that” serious

If the next one is undeniably “that” serious, that there is no such thing as asymptomatic cases

If it’s Black Plague serious, which if I remember right was in many cases, feel perfectly fine today, sick a dog tomorrow, dead the day after that (sometimes skipping the ‘sick as a dog’ day

If during the next pandemic the daily death toll is measured in tens of thousands we still will not have leaned anything

If a near future strain of covid is not really effected by the vaccine but is as contagious as omincron but just as deadly as the original strain we will not have learned anything

And that is a depressing thought
=================================

The Lancet Commission on the coronavirus pandemic has delivered a harsh verdict on how the world responded — it was “a massive global failure,” the prestigious journal declared.

Governments were too slow and cautious, faced deep public mistrust, were undermined by misinformation and failed to serve the most vulnerable. “

The result was millions of preventable deaths,” the Lancet said. This sorry record must provide impetus to do better in the future.


The Lancet convened 28 experts under Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs for a two-year examination of pandemic preparedness, response and recovery, delving into public health, virology, social policy, economics, finance and geopolitics.

The report is but one of several worthy efforts to draw lessons from the gravest public health disaster in a century.

The authoritative new findings deserve attention, though we wish Congress and the White House had ordered a comprehensive, 9/11 Commission-like national panel in the United States. They did not.


A major lesson is that when a highly infectious disease breaks out in a vulnerable population, rapid response is essential, and even more so when many infections are asymptomatic, as was the case with covid-19. A single new case became thousands within a month.

“The ability of the public health system to identify cases, trace contacts, and isolate infected individuals can be overwhelmed in just a few weeks of uncontrolled community transmission,” the report says. That’s what happened, over and over.

“National responses were often improvisational, occasionally bordering on the absurd,” the commission states. “Several national leaders made highly irresponsible statements in the first few months of the outbreak, neglecting scientific evidence and needlessly risking lives with a view to keeping the economy open.”

Governments “showed themselves to be untrustworthy and ineffective,” and “rancor among the major powers” then “gravely weakened the capacity of international institutions” to respond, especially the World Health Organization, which comes in for sharp criticism for repeatedly erring “on the side of reserve rather than boldness.”

The panel calls for strengthening the WHO and giving it stronger powers and more solid financing……..

Two and a half years after it began, the pandemic catastrophe has led to 6.9 million reported deaths. The actual toll might be three times as high.

It is absolutely essential to apply the knowledge and lessons of this experience to prevent it from happening again……

 
Last edited:
I went to the pharmacy at my favorite grocery store and asked if they have the omicron specific vaccine. Nope. I'm ready but I haven't seen where it is available.
 
What is the latest guidance on boosters for those who have had Covid recently? Last I saw, you had to wait 90 days, but that's been a while.
 
It’s inevitable that there will be another pandemic. The only question is when.

And I strongly believe that no matter when it is, 5 years from now, 50 or a hundred, we will have learned zero lessons

One of the things some people said (and still say) was that covid was not “that” serious

If the next one is undeniably “that” serious, that there is no such thing as asymptomatic cases

If it’s Black Plague serious, which if I remember right was in many cases, feel perfectly fine today, sick a dog tomorrow, dead the day after that (sometimes skipping the ‘sick as a dog’ day

If during the next pandemic the daily death toll is measured in tens of thousands we still will not have leaned anything

If a near future strain of covid is not really effected by the vaccine but is as contagious as omincron but just as deadly as the original strain we will not have learned anything

And that is a depressing thought
=================================

The Lancet Commission on the coronavirus pandemic has delivered a harsh verdict on how the world responded — it was “a massive global failure,” the prestigious journal declared.

Governments were too slow and cautious, faced deep public mistrust, were undermined by misinformation and failed to serve the most vulnerable. “

The result was millions of preventable deaths,” the Lancet said. This sorry record must provide impetus to do better in the future.


The Lancet convened 28 experts under Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs for a two-year examination of pandemic preparedness, response and recovery, delving into public health, virology, social policy, economics, finance and geopolitics.

The report is but one of several worthy efforts to draw lessons from the gravest public health disaster in a century.

The authoritative new findings deserve attention, though we wish Congress and the White House had ordered a comprehensive, 9/11 Commission-like national panel in the United States. They did not.


A major lesson is that when a highly infectious disease breaks out in a vulnerable population, rapid response is essential, and even more so when many infections are asymptomatic, as was the case with covid-19. A single new case became thousands within a month.

“The ability of the public health system to identify cases, trace contacts, and isolate infected individuals can be overwhelmed in just a few weeks of uncontrolled community transmission,” the report says. That’s what happened, over and over.

“National responses were often improvisational, occasionally bordering on the absurd,” the commission states. “Several national leaders made highly irresponsible statements in the first few months of the outbreak, neglecting scientific evidence and needlessly risking lives with a view to keeping the economy open.”

Governments “showed themselves to be untrustworthy and ineffective,” and “rancor among the major powers” then “gravely weakened the capacity of international institutions” to respond, especially the World Health Organization, which comes in for sharp criticism for repeatedly erring “on the side of reserve rather than boldness.”

The panel calls for strengthening the WHO and giving it stronger powers and more solid financing……..

Two and a half years after it began, the pandemic catastrophe has led to 6.9 million reported deaths. The actual toll might be three times as high.

It is absolutely essential to apply the knowledge and lessons of this experience to prevent it from happening again……

You lost 40 percent of the country when you said "strengthen the WHO."
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom