COVID-19 Coronavirus Thread

[Dashmellow]

Yes, the wave has now spread across most of the country, the places it went to first are now well past their peaks, and it will be running out of new places to go by now, some places like London are seeing hospital cases bouncing a bit, not sure why, hopefully not a variant on the variant! :

Australia is far more concerning, the Delta variant has had multiple leaks through quarantine while they have nowhere near enough vaccinations and no natural immunity, seem to be treating the Delta variant as though it can be stopped by lockdown as easily as the original, which is far from realistic...

It is interesting to me how you always speak in terms of the United States as one huge monolithic nation, like the other day when you claimed the the US had "given up" on vaccinations when in fact we are a nation of 50 individual states and 5 international territories, some of which have done poorly with their vaccination rates and general handling of the pandemic and some of which have done a superb job (like Vermont (81.24% vaccinated) and the other New England states with similar numbers). 66.1 % of Americans have had at least one vaccination shot to date and 324,414,371 vaccinations have been administered across the country - 158.3 million people. 324,414,371 doses of vaccine is nearly five times the entire population of the UK!

In contrast, when it comes to the UK you seem to like to pick and choose which parts of the country to focus on as a distraction from the overall picture. But I was really speaking here to your habit of being critical of other nations for their responses and experiences with the pandemic while putting a false, positive narrative on what has been happening in the United Kingdom. In this instance, your caim that, "Appears to be very close to the peak now, certainly not going up exponentially like the press like to tell us!"

Now you are claiming that, "places it went to first are now well past their peaks and it will be running out of new places to go by now", yet the numbers continue to skyrocket.

In terms of your more local view though the numbers in England and Scotland don't look so good. Here are today's figures.

In any event, I do hope you don't have another variant on the loose and I would be happy to see the numbers drop everywhere. We are all in this together, after all, but you wouldn't know that from your posts as you continue to view the whole crisis as a strange sort of competition between nations.

You are quite right about Australia. Sydney is now on full lockdown. Hope they get things under control sooner than later.

Sydney, Australia, enters full lockdown for the first time in more than a year to fight the Delta variant. (Published 2021)

A cluster that began with an airport limousine driver has jumped to nearly 100 cases, with dozens more expected over the coming days.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Nigel]

In terms of your more local view though the numbers in England and Scotland don't look so good. Here are today's figures.

Yes, Scotland has had a huge increase in positive tests in the last week, actually looks exponential, while most of England looks linear. For the very rapid spread of the Delta variant it is necessary to look and the individual cities to understand what is happening, not just individual countries, while with the much slower spread of the Alpha variant the figures for the UK told most of the story.

The numbers of positive tests are no longer very important, since due to vaccinations they don't relate to hospitalisations. Which is why we are getting back to normal despite the increasing positives:

Silverstone will be allowed to have a capacity crowd for the British Grand Prix on 18 July.

The track can hold about 140,000 spectators, which will make it the largest crowd for a sporting event in the UK since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

British Grand Prix: Silverstone to have capacity crowd for July race

A capacity crowd will be allowed to attend the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on 18 July after the race was added to the UK government’s Events Research Programme.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Dashmellow]

Vermont has lifted ALL COVID pandemic restrictions including mask wearing, Things are getting back to normal and it has been a great feeling. All in all, throughout the pandemic most everyone came together in a cooperative spirit without the politicization, conspiracy theorizing, religious fervor about having to worship in a crowded church and general insanity seen in other states and the results have been gratifying. We've had the lowest case rate in the nation, the lowest death rates and now the highest vaccination rate.

Much of the credit goes to our Republican Governor Phil Scott and his tripartisan team of skilled public officials from all Vermont's political parties which includes Democrats and Progressives. The entire focus has been on the science and people's needs in a surprisingly relaxed, methodical and open way leaving political considerations completely out of it. People of all policatal persuasions have responded well to this. Most of the northeast has experienced at least some similar version of this to one degree or another. It is a pity some of the other states that are struggling with case rates, deaths and low vaccination numbers couldn't follow this example.

One curious thing in the face of the lifting of all the restrictions is my experience with the medical profession. In the last couple of weeks I've been to two different doctor's offices and they haven't lifted restrictions at all. You go through the sign-in process over the phone from your car. When you get to the door they take your temperature and you need to wear a mask. They ask you lots of questions about your health and ignore the fact that you might be fully vaccinated. I guess they are just not taking any chances.

 

[Nigel]

One curious thing in the face of the lifting of all the restrictions is my experience with the medical profession. In the last couple of weeks I've been to two different doctor's offices and they haven't lifted restrictions at all. You go through the sign-in process over the phone from your car. When you get to the door they take your temperature and you need to wear a mask. They ask you lots of questions about your health and ignore the fact that you might be fully vaccinated. I guess they are just not taking any chances.

Maybe because the medical profession has the highest rate of refusing the vaccine, so they need extra caution!
So much so that our government are considering making the vaccine mandatory for health workers, as the flu vaccine is.

 

[Dashmellow]

Maybe because the medical profession has the highest rate of refusing the vaccine, so they need extra caution!
So much so that our government are considering making the vaccine mandatory for health workers, as the flu vaccine is.

I don't know of any medical professional in my region that is refusing the vaccine. So far it appears to be almost universally adopted by doctors, nurses, technicians, lab workers and nurse practitioners. Some parts of the country are probably different.

Nigel: For the very rapid spread of the Delta variant it is necessary to look and the individual cities to understand what is happening, not just individual countries

For this reason, I would ask you to afford the US the same consideration. Consistently, you characterize the US as one monolithic country, ignoring that fact we are a huge, diverse nation of 50 states and 5 territories with vastly different demographics, cultures and climates consisting of perhaps hundreds of thousands of cities, towns and municipalities. What happens in one part of the country may have little or nothing to do with what happens in another part of the country. Like I said earlier, we have administered 324,414,371 doses of COVID vaccine to date. That's enough to vaccinate the entire population of the UK almost 5 times over and
179,615,165 million people have received at least one dose yet we have only vaccinated slightly more than half the population so far. Some locales have vaccinated nearly their entire populations and some have done quite poorly. So, like the UK you need to consider each region, state, city, town and village and this is something you virtually never do.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah.
Why i compared a entire municipality here in Denmark to a block or two in a mid sized American city, on most parameters we cant really compare as is, too many factors in play to do that in a fair manner.
Numbers still drop here aside for on ventilator where 1 person have joined the 10 others.

One Danish region i always count on its own with anything is the capitol region, and then the island it reside on, i dont really feel anything in common with those people aside for the language.
And i am firmly for Jutland to part from Denmark and form our own nation.

 

[Kremmen]

Across the UK the infection rate is increasing. More so and faster in some areas. Under previous circumstances this would be worrying and another full lockdown would be likely.

However, the hospital admissions and deaths are very low and almost flat lining as they like to say.

A report I heard yesterday said the majority of these infections are in the under 30's who are either unvaccinated or only had a single jab quite recently.

They've just said on the news that Australia only have about 5% vaccinated, that's low. Is that because they thought their border closure was working ?

 

[jokiin]

They've just said on the news that Australia only have about 5% vaccinated, that's low. Is that because they thought their border closure was working ?

we haven't had the vaccines to be able to get them

Across the UK the infection rate is increasing. More so and faster in some areas. Under previous circumstances this would be worrying and another full lockdown would be likely.

However, the hospital admissions and deaths are very low and almost flat lining as they like to say.

we're in lockdown now and the government is in a mad panic because this new variant is so easily transmissible, spreads easy etc, they keep reading out all these daily numbers of infections but so far nobody has been hospitalised, yeah it seems to spread easier, it would appear to not be as dangerous as other variants though, better to be safe than sorry I guess but so far it seems like an over reaction, just have to ride it out and see what happens I suppose

 

[kamkar]

Yeah i read that in the news up here.
In Israel they are back to masks and what not as vaccinated people spread this new variant, and thats the most vaccinated country i think.

 

[Dashmellow]

Across the UK the infection rate is increasing. More so and faster in some areas. Under previous circumstances this would be worrying and another full lockdown would be likely.

However, the hospital admissions and deaths are very low and almost flat lining as they like to say.

A report I heard yesterday said the majority of these infections are in the under 30's who are either unvaccinated or only had a single jab quite recently.

They've just said on the news that Australia only have about 5% vaccinated, that's low. Is that because they thought their border closure was working ?

A lot of good info and excellent charts in this BBC article. It is the first article I've seen from the UK that addresses the fact that more people have likely died from coronavirus than the government numbers would suggest due to the arbitrary decision to exclude deaths more that 28 days after testing positive from the figures. Also, it shows that hospitalizations are indeed rising but this varies by location while deaths remain fairly low.

Covid inquiry: The UK pandemic in numbers

Explore the data on how the coronavirus pandemic unfolded in the UK.

www.bbc.com

 

[Dashmellow]

Need Help Remembering Life Before Covid? Head to Vermont

The most-vaccinated state drops all its pandemic restrictions. That means indoor workouts and grocery shopping without masks, self-serve coffee, and Hayden can push you down the waterslide.

www.wsj.com

"The biggest factor was that—by and large—Vermonters trusted and listened to the state’s health authorities. In a yearlong study published in March 2021 by researchers from Harvard Medical School, Northeastern, Rutgers and Northwestern universities, Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott maintained the highest level of approval for a governor among voters. At the same time, Vermonters polled in April 2020 listed public-health officials as their most trusted source for information about Covid-19."

 

[Kremmen]

The site I check daily is : https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/interactive-map

It's updated at 16:00 GMT but takes about 15 minutes to fully populate. There quite a few pages and you can check your local situation via a postcode.

This site: https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19...r-find-out-how-many-have-had-the-jab-12179220 has other data including vaccinations by age group and a shaded map of vaccination takeup that shows London is high with anti-vax

 

[Nigel]

However, the hospital admissions and deaths are very low and almost flat lining as they like to say.

Have to remember that many of those hospital admissions and deaths are nothing to do with covid, they are people who are in hospital/have died and also happen to have had a positive test recently. Even if nobody dies of covid, those numbers will increase with increasing positive tests, but there seems to be no way of finding out how many were genuinely covid admissions/deaths, and since everyone in hospital is regularly tested for covid, the non genuine ones are always counted! We do know that a huge percentage of covid infections are acquired in hospital.

it would appear to not be as dangerous as other variants though, better to be safe than sorry I guess but so far it seems like an over reaction, just have to ride it out and see what happens I suppose

You don't have enough cases to judge yet, it is under 1% of cases that die, and you are still talking about 100 cases. Also you can't judge what will happen in Oz where there is zero natural immunity with what has happened in countries where maybe most people have encountered it naturally and have at least some immunity by now. Probably the best guide to what will happen if lockdown doesn't work is to look at where Delta came from - India.

 

[kamkar]

Apparently Denmark is on the cusp of buying 1 million PB vaccines from Romania, as they have vaccinated all that will and have a large group of anti vaxxers so their vaccines are in danger of getting too old.
That would do wonders for the vaccination program here, and we might even blast past our American friends on 2 shot / fully vaccinated parameters.
We could burn thru 1 mill shots in a few days if all step up here, the 30 - 40 K shots daily here, thats just the system idling.

 

[Dashmellow]

When we look at the success of vaccines in preventing suffering and death going back to at least the 1500's it is hard to imagine so many people rejecting them. I just don't get anti-vaxxers.

Smallpox
Diphtheria
Tetanus
Pertussis
Measles
Mumps
Rubella
Polio (IPV)
Hib
Hepatitis B
Varicella
Hepatitis A
HPV
Pneumococcal
Influenza
Rotavirus
Sars-COV-2

 

[kamkar]

Anti vaxxers and flat earth people, i have those in the same black hole,,,,,, sadly i am not allowed to start back filling that hole with earth so i can breathe again.

 

[kamkar]

28.000 new infected in England, 475 in Denmark, quite some difference in those numbers, as there is in population size.

0.57% of tested here are positive.

 

[Dashmellow]

Vermont had only two new cases yesterday! Everybody is totally pumped about the notion of having a normal July 4th weekend with friends, family, barbecue, parades and fireworks. Still, there's this sort of "cognitive dissonance" in the air for many people, like, "is is really safe now?" Many people are still wearing masks in some places even with the 82% vaccination rate here and we being told that testing is showing "very little virus in the state". Then again, the state is flooded with tourists and out-of-staters this time of year, especially this year, and especially with Vermont being touted as the "safest state in the nation", so who knows?

 

[kamkar]

That would be good timing, knowing how much Americans like that date.

I have just been fortunate to order some US made slugs online, so now the wait for my new gun just became even more excruciating.
But Sunday seem to be okay weather here, maybe we will have a little sympathy July 4 party at my friends place, even if we have run out of stars and stripes flags.

I have also been shanghaied to be house and dog sitter again, but this time just for 1 week and not several as it have been tradition, so week #29 are spoken for, and on August 6 i think it was, my sister is taking her nice big brother on a all expenses paid trip to the island of Samsoe, where we will kick back for a day while basking in the islands green reputation.

VisitSamsø - your official guide to Samsø | www.visitsamsoe.dk

Accommodations, restaurants, experiences, events, transportation and shops on Samsø along with a lot of suggestions as to what you can experience in nature.

www.visitsamsoe.dk

 

[Nigel]

28.000 new infected in England, 475 in Denmark, quite some difference in those numbers, as there is in population size.

0.57% of tested here are positive.

That is the UK figure, not just England, yes, we are leading the way again! Portugal is following not far behind (where all our tourists went on holiday a few weeks ago!) Spain and Denmark are now starting to climb again.

However we are vaccinated, deaths are the lowest in the last 10 years again this week, bit like last summer, but even lower: