On Topic Discussion 2019 Coronavirus (COVID-19/SARS-CoV-2)

[KaraBulut]

My cousin had an appointment yesterday at the Cleveland Clinic for an operation on an aneurysm on her brain which gives her headaches and affects her vision. They called her to cancel it because there are no open beds in their ICU due to covid patients. They have rescheduled her appointment for February. This isn't good.

One of the weird things about this virus is that it doesn't follow the normal patterns we're used to seeing. Normally, we expect outbreaks of respiratory viruses to happen in the summer in the Southern US and in the winter for the Northern US. The viruses followed people as they move indoors.

This virus is looking for populations of vaccinated or vulnerable people. It moves from different parts of the US until enough unvaccinated people develop immunity after infection (or until they die off). This is why cases are flat but currently, Texas hospitalizations are down but Michigan is a hot spot- we still have 1,000 people dying daily, but it's in different states from month-to-month.

When school started in September, it was the range of States eastward from Texas to Florida that got hit. It them moved to Colorado, Missouri, South Carolina. Then it was Alaska, Nebraska, Wyoming, Hawaii. Now it's Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio.

February might be better, assuming enough of the unvaccinated people in the midwest and Great Lakes areas have either gotten COVID-19 or enough people have died off so that ICU beds are open again.

 

[ruggerladirish]

Third pfizer about five hours earlier. Fully qualified nurse dealing with appointments.

Very slight itch in the injection site, and very slight headache. Time fir bed with a hot Irish whiskey, slice if fresh lemon, spoonful of honey and a few cloves. Am sure I'll be right as rain tomorrow.....

 

[belamyi]

 

[KaraBulut]

Another landmark statistic: Today, the U.S. exceeded 800,000 reported deaths from COVID-19.

Last week, the US averaged 1,279 deaths per day. That's about 38,000 deaths per month. Since the U.S. still has about 30% of the population that is unvaccinated (close to 100 million people) and Americans seem unable to scale back on holiday celebrations, we should see total deaths top 900,000 by March, 2022.

 

[ruggerladirish]

Another landmark statistic: Today, the U.S. exceeded 800,000 reported deaths from COVID-19.

Last week, the US averaged 1,279 deaths per day. That's about 38,000 deaths per month. Since the U.S. still has about 30% of the population that is unvaccinated (close to 100 million people) and Americans seem unable to scale back on holiday celebrations, we should see total deaths top 900,000 by March, 2022.

That's as frightening as it is tragic.

 

[KaraBulut]

That's as frightening as it is tragic.

And this is just from Delta!

UK seems to be having a rough row of it with Omicron. They're changed their booster schedule and are now encouraging their citizens to get boosted at 3 months instead of 6 months. UK runs variant analysis on ~ 10% of their positive samples. The US tests ~ 1% of their positive samples.

Britain battles Omicron 'tidal wave,' as infections double every two to three days and first death from variant is recorded [CNN]

Britain is facing a "tidal wave" of infections from the new Omicron coronavirus variant, ministers have warned, as they sound the alarm on rapid transmission rates in London and across the country.

On Monday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed the country's first death of a person with the variant. He told reporters at a vaccination clinic: "I think the idea that this is somehow a milder version of the virus, I think that's something we need to set on one side and just recognize the sheer pace at which it accelerates through the population."...

On Sunday, the Prime Minister set a new target of offering all adults a third shot by the end of December -- a month earlier than originally planned. He had previously cut the interval between second and third doses from six months to three. The British government has focused its Covid response around the vaccine program since last summer, and had resisted reimposing restrictions until the Omicron variant came to light.

Meanwhle, Germany and Austria are still battling high numbers for Delta variant. Recently, two unvaccinated football players came down with COVID-19. One of the players has still not completely recovered.

Bayern Munich stars Joshua Kimmich and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting test positive for Covid-19 as club grapples with virus [CNN - 24 Nov 2021]

After suffering lung problem due to Covid, Joshua Kimmich says he should have been vaccinated [CNN]

 

[rareboy]

So the Director of infectious diseases for Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, one of the leading teaching, research and clinical centres in Canada has said that he expects that even with triple vax...within a year, we will all have contracted it.

 

[belamyi]

So the Director of infectious diseases for Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, one of the leading teaching, research and clinical centres in Canada has said that he expects that even with triple vax...within a year, we will all have contracted it.

 

[cityboy-stl]

So the Director of infectious diseases for Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, one of the leading teaching, research and clinical centres in Canada has said that he expects that even with triple vax...within a year, we will all have contracted it.

Then that's a good reason to get vaccinated. Was he specifically referring to Omicron, or just in general? I remember when Delta first hit some were saying then, sooner or later everyone will contract it.

 

[belamyi]

 

[rareboy]

 

[rareboy]

Then that's a good reason to get vaccinated. Was he specifically referring to Omicron, or just in general? I remember when Delta first hit some were saying then, sooner or later everyone will contract it.

Sorry....He was referring to Omicron...and Ontario has smelled smoke and is trying to get everyone their 3rd booster shot pdq. I got it because my first 2 were Astra Zeneca and I think they felt guilty, but it is an all out campaign now to get everyone their 3rd shot.

 

[belamyi]

So what are we talking about there, actually: hundreds of thousands more dead in every country, more medical staff going gaga, or just a new kind of seasonal flu...

- - - Updated - - -

Or, rather, all that at once...

 

[KaraBulut]

Sorry....He was referring to Omicron...and Ontario has smelled smoke and is trying to get everyone their 3rd booster shot pdq. I got it because my first 2 were Astra Zeneca and I think they felt guilty, but it is an all out campaign now to get everyone their 3rd shot.

So what are we talking about there, actually: hundreds of thousands more dead in every country, more medical staff going gaga, or just a new kind of seasonal flu...

Going back to the pre-COVID-19 days, most of us expected that we would get "a cold" every year or two. It would last a day or two. Your nose itched, your eyes burned, you sneezed a lot. Every now and then, it might be something that lasted several days and was accompanied by a fever.

That's what these new variants will be for the vaccinated.

The tendency for respiratory viruses to evolve is to become more contagious (which crowds out other viruses and other variants) and to have less morbidity and less lethality (which allows longer periods the virus to spread to more people before the infected person takes to their bed or dies).

We are seeing that Omicron overtakes Delta pointing to Omicron having a higher R[sub]0[/sub] (more infectious) than Delta. What we don't know is how sick it making people and how lethal it is compared to Delta.

It may be true that everyone- vaccinated or not- may at some point contract these newer variants that are so much more contagious that the original strains. What will also be true is that most people who get vaccinated will have mild "colds".

The people who are not vaccinated... well, we don't know what their experience will be. If it's anything like Delta, they're going to be much sicker and if they have any risk factors, they have a much higher risk of hospitalization or death. With Delta, the risk of being hospitalized was about 14-15 times higher for a person who was unvaccinated. We don't have numbers yet on the comparison between hospitalizations for vaccinated/unvaccinated for Omicron.

Or to put it into cartoon terms:

 

[KaraBulut]

Week ending 11-Dec-2021:

Global COVID-19 Weekly Mortality/Morbidity

• Global Cases reported: 269,885,700 (up from 265,681,353 / 1.6%) - *‬*4,204,347 new cases this week
• Global Deaths: 5,304,586 (up from 5,254,677) - **49,909 people died this week

US COVID-19 Weekly Mortality/Morbidity

• Cases reported in the US - 49,892,979 (up from 49,062,819 / 1.7%), +830,160 new cases, 19.7% of world's new cases were in the US
• Deaths reported in the US - 797,224 deaths, 8,953 deaths this week , 17.9% of the world's deaths this week were in the US

US Vaccination Weekly Stats

• Approx number of US doses distributed - 594,372,295 (up from 581,107,805 / +13,264,490) - 81.2% US doses have been administered
  
  Total US residents vaccinated
• 1st dose: - 238,679,707 (up from 235,297,964 / +3,381,743) - 72.3% of US population
• 2nd dose: - 201,688,550 (up from 198,592,167 / +3,096,383) - 61.1% of US population
• 3rd dose: - 52,923,763 (up from 45,288,817 / +7,634,946) - 22.8% of US population
  
  US residents over age 5 vaccinated
• 1st dose: - 238,640,710 (up from 235,260,191 / +3,380,519) - 76.4% of US population > 5 yo
• 2nd dose: - 201,678,718 (up from 198,582,650 / +3,096,068) - 64.6% of US population > 5 yo
  
  US residents over age 12 vaccinated
• 1st dose: - 233,257,402 (up from 230,562,230 / +2,695,172) - 82.3% of US population > 12 yo
• 2nd dose: - 199,227,053 (up from 197,549,147 / +1,677,906) - 70.3% of US population > 12 yo
  
  US residents over age 65 vaccinated
• 1st dose: - 55,883,365 (up from 55,361,881 / +521,484) - 95.0% of US population >65 yo
• 2nd dose: - 47,758,285 (up from 47,388,751 / +369,534) - 87.2% of US population >65 yo
• 3rd dose: - 24,352,154 (up from 22,203,805 / +2,148,349) - 51.0% of US population >65 yo

Coronavirus weekly cases/deaths in active countries (preference to countries with JUB members):

• US: 49,892,979 (up from 49,062,819 / +830,160 / 1.7%) - 797,224 deaths (+8,953) - avg daily: cases (+118,594) / deaths (+1,279)
• Germany : 6,535,416 (up from 6,175,927 / +359,489 / 5.8%) - 105,701 deaths (+2,652) - avg daily: cases (+51,356) / deaths (+379)
• France : 8,318,995 (up from 7,978,985 / +340,010 / 4.3%) - 121,368 deaths (+878) - avg daily: cases (+48,573) / deaths (+125)
• UK : 10,833,057 (up from 10,523,251 / +309,806 / 2.9%) - 146,844 deaths (+789) - avg daily: cases (+44,258) / deaths (+113)
• Russia: 9,842,021 (up from 9,630,296 / +211,725 / 2.2%) - 283,815 deaths (+7,991) - avg daily: cases (+30,246) / deaths (+1,142)
• Turkey: 9,024,193 (up from 8,883,730 / +140,463 / 1.6%) - 78,969 deaths (+1,324) - avg daily: cases (+20,066) / deaths (+189)
• Netherlands : 2,922,334 (up from 2,793,480 / +128,854 / 4.6%) - 20,568 deaths (+450) - avg daily: cases (+18,408) / deaths (+64)
• South Africa: 3,129,622 (up from 3,004,203 / +125,419 / 4.2%) - 90,116 deaths (+172) - avg daily: cases (+17,917) / deaths (+25)
• Belgium: 1,929,772 (up from 1,827,467 / +102,305 / 5.6%) - 27,504 deaths (+337) - avg daily: cases (+14,615) / deaths (+48)
• Italy : 5,206,305 (up from 5,109,082 / +97,223 / 1.9%) - 134,765 deaths (+570) - avg daily: cases (+13,889) / deaths (+81)
• Spain : 5,290,190 (up from 5,202,958 / +87,232 / 1.7%) - 88,381 deaths (+222) - avg daily: cases (+12,462) / deaths (+32)
• Switzerland : 1,111,923 (up from 1,044,633 / +67,290 / 6.4%) - 11,747 deaths (+157) - avg daily: cases (+9,613) / deaths (+22)
• India: 34,690,510 (up from 34,633,255 / +57,255 / 0.2%) - 475,434 deaths (+2,108) - avg daily: cases (+8,179) / deaths (+301)
• South Korea : 517,271 (up from 473,034 / +44,237 / 9.4%) - 4,253 deaths (+401) - avg daily: cases (+6,320) / deaths (+57)
• Brazil: 22,177,059 (up from 22,138,247 / +38,812 / 0.2%) - 616,457 deaths (+887) - avg daily: cases (+5,545) / deaths (+127)
• Canada : 1,839,770 (up from 1,814,163 / +25,607 / 1.4%) - 29,963 deaths (+144) - avg daily: cases (+3,658) / deaths (+21)
• Ireland: 618,956 (up from 594,250 / +24,706 / 4.2%) - 5,788 deaths (+81) - avg daily: cases (+3,529) / deaths (+12)
• Iran : 6,154,813 (up from 6,134,465 / +20,348 / 0.3%) - 130,722 deaths (+522) - avg daily: cases (+2,907) / deaths (+75)
• Argentina: 5,356,885 (up from 5,339,382 / +17,503 / 0.3%) - 116,760 deaths (+117) - avg daily: cases (+2,500) / deaths (+17)
• Sweden: 1,229,217 (up from 1,212,145 / +17,072 / 1.4%) - 15,191 deaths (+21) - avg daily: cases (+2,439) / deaths (+3)
• Mexico: 3,917,361 (up from 3,900,293 / +17,068 / 0.4%) - 296,620 deaths (+1,465) - avg daily: cases (+2,438) / deaths (+209)
• Columbia: 5,091,508 (up from 5,078,987 / +12,521 / 0.2%) - 129,056 deaths (+323) - avg daily: cases (+1,789) / deaths (+46)
• Australia : 228,930 (up from 217,842 / +11,088 / 5.1%) - 2,104 deaths (+54) - avg daily: cases (+1,584) / deaths (+8)
• Lebanon: 688,515 (up from 678,801 / +9,714 / 1.4%) - 8,836 deaths (+61) - avg daily: cases (+1,388) / deaths (+9)
• Israel: 1,349,818 (up from 1,345,874 / +3,944 / 0.3%) - 8,210 deaths (+6) - avg daily: cases (+563) / deaths (+1)
• Japan: 1,727,924 (up from 1,727,229 / +695 / 0.0%) - 18,369 deaths (+9) - avg daily: cases (+99) / deaths (+1)
• New Zealand: 12,886 (up from 12,196 / +690 / 5.7%) - 46 deaths (+2) - avg daily: cases (+99) / deaths (+0)

 

[Rickrock]

I received my booster shot today of Moderna. So far the only reaction is my shoulder is sore.

I found out today that my nephew-in-law has caught covid and he hasn't received any vaccine shots. I believe that he is probably in his 30's and is married to my niece and they have two small children, one is 5 years old and will be getting a shot, but hasn't yet, and the other is younger, maybe 2.

My niece has had her vaccine shots.

 

[Kulindahr]

So the Director of infectious diseases for Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, one of the leading teaching, research and clinical centres in Canada has said that he expects that even with triple vax...within a year, we will all have contracted it.

Do you have a source? I couldn't find any news piece about it.


Meanwhile, a buddy's brother, along with wife, and entire family, all who have had two shots, are all in the hospital, two in the ICU.

 

[frankfrank]

^ Yipes.

Did any of then also have boosters?

 

[Rickrock]

^ Yeah, that is discouraging and upsetting.

 

[Rickrock]

Which countries have their own covid vaccines? The U.S. has three (I believe), England has one, China has one, and I think that Russia has one. Do India and Israel have their own covid vaccines? Do other European nations have their own, or the European Union? Who else?