Covid And The Rest of Us

[ronandannette]

For me to Google the two Michael's would be to revisit the situation that is profoundly sad. It is also a situation that I'm at a loss as to what else the Canadian Government can do?

Please forgive me with my next comment, when individuals go into countries such as China for religious, commerce, consultation, ie reasons; how much responsibility can be shouldered by their own country. I feel the same way when ransom like demands are made by these barbaric countries for the release of people being held hostage. I'm not up to date on our vaccine situation. The last I heard regarding Covid19 was procuring rapid testing kits?

I'll continue to pray for the two Michaels.

I certainly agree that wild horses couldn't drag me into China but the Michaels' particular cases they were detained without cause and/or due process as direct retaliation for the arrest of the Huawei executive in Vancouver last winter. That particular move was made at the insistence of the US, who intended to extradite her and try her on various corporate-espionage related charges. Except then they didn't, nor will they agree to us letting her go. We're in a squeeze play between angry giants and being coerced by both of them.

Here's a very short version of what happened with the vaccine. China basically stole our expertise and millions of dollars of investment in development:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/canada-china-covid-19-vaccine-trial-plug-pulled-1.5701101

 

[ronandannette]

Sad occurrence but interesting in what it implies for how substantially unrelated underlying medical conditions effect Covid deaths. A well-traced outbreak of 72 people within a local hospital has resulted in an almost 17% fatality rate amongst the 36 patients that contracted it while receiving acute care for unrelated issues. None of the other 36 people (presumably in good health) have reported having severe outcomes at all.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/cana...d-decline-a-vaccine/ar-BB19FEGu?ocid=msedgntp

 

[MommyinHonduras]

I like this. https://unherd.com/2020/10/covid-experts-there-is-another-way/

"Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed."

 

[TLSnell1981]

I like this. https://unherd.com/2020/10/covid-experts-there-is-another-way/

"Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed."

Sadly this message is lost on too many. We are just beginning to see the consequences from the lock/shut downs.

 

[MommyinHonduras]

Here on the Island of Roatan it hit pretty quick, we would have been okay from the virus for the first couple of months, complete lockdown with no tourists and people allowed out one day a week. But now, we are going on seven months without work for 80% of the Islanders that make their income from tourism and no relief in sight. No jobs mean no money! Those 20% that are fortunate to have jobs are trying desperately to help those without. Many resorts, restaurants and other businesses remain closed or simply have gone out of business. We are actually looking to move back over the mainland for access to things our family needs, which is a huge move for us, but being locked on a small island for many months with no way off has not set well for us. Not that the mainland is that much better, but every bit matters these days.

 

[bavaria]

I like this. https://unherd.com/2020/10/covid-experts-there-is-another-way/

"Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed."

I actually had to back away from most online fora, etc as the voices of the doomers are so strong. I suspect that a lot of people who were on the edge previously have been pushed over by COVID, and many of these are the ones pushing for increased, longer, or new lockdowns. It's so bizarre to me to be told that things are far, far worse than they are by people who seem to have locked themselves inside since March. I feel for them, but they obviously need mental health support. The power that they have to impact so many people globally is quite shocking. (This occurs too with Germans online, when I say that I walked past empty testing stations, deaths are still flat despite cases increasing for a month, etc)

Those who are fortunate to be able to stay at home, working or collecting benefits, are not understanding or or don't want to understand the impact on the majority of people globally who cannot work and do not have support because of the severe restrictions from COVID.

In other news, Germany generally lifted the global travel warning, but kept it in place for Canada not because of cases/deaths, but because Canada still requires a 14 day quarantine on arrival even with a negative test. And I have never seen so many Canadian tourists in Germany as in September (easy to play 'spot the Canadian' these days with almost no Americans, although there are still quite a few as some countries in Europe will admit American tourists)

 

[EMom]

There are some people who just don’t get it and never will. Let me say we have been blessed to have DH work from home, with only small bumps in the road, and we understand how fortunate we are.

We cannot explain to 3 people who are close to us that the lockdown life isn’t workable or easy for EVERYONE. And these are very intelligent, highly educated people. There’s “Joe” and his Live in GF “Amy.” Pre-COVID, Amy only left the house to see doctors or go to the hospital, due to health issues. Joe stayed with her, except to get groceries. He has always worked from home. COVID lockdowns have changed their life only to the extent that they now get groceries delivered. They were hermits before and are hermits now.

“Bob” is retired and a loner who never had a friend group or social activities. Staying at home is not a hindrance to him at all. He is NOT a people person. None of these people have children.

Since COVID began, they insist the whole country needs to stay home, severely limit contact, etc. For months and months! No school, no nothing. We have tried explaining that tons of people cannot work from home. Or that remote learning isn’t really working. Even if DH and I are able to isolate easily enough, due to his job, I can still understand how that doesn’t work for millions of others in the long term. But from experience, I can tell you there are plenty of people who see that as a viable option. And they aren’t budging.

 

[bavaria]

From the latest RKI daily report:

Since calendar week 30, the proportion of deaths among COVID-19 cases has been consistently below 1% and is thus markedly lower than among cases in the spring, particularly in April. It is unlikely that the virus has changed to become less pathogenic. Rather, the low proportion of deaths can be explained as follows: On the one hand, recent infections have occurred mainly among young people, who rarely experience a severe course of disease. On the other hand there is also broader testing, which means more milder cases are identified.

Of course, that will be disputed by the doom and gloom crowd on various websites.

In other news, I had another free test, this time I went to a facility run by the German Red Cross and the Bundeswehr (vs the ones run by Centogene; all of these entities run the test facilities). Full marks for diversity working for the Red Cross, which meant that the whole process took about 8 minutes as the first person didn't speak German and couldn't understand my Austrian geography lesson although I did it in Spanish. He sent me to the Bundeswehr rep, who admitted that she has poor knowledge of 'southern' geography ie Bavaria and Austria. So finally the supervisor had to make the decision as the list of risk areas changes daily, and I was apparently the only one who knew Austrian geography well enough Was told after the debate to join the queue, to which I said 'there is no queue'. Nope, no queue. Quick throat swab and I was done. Negative results arrived in about 7 hours after the test, free of charge.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I actually had to back away from most online fora, etc as the voices of the doomers are so strong. I suspect that a lot of people who were on the edge previously have been pushed over by COVID, and many of these are the ones pushing for increased, longer, or new lockdowns. It's so bizarre to me to be told that things are far, far worse than they are by people who seem to have locked themselves inside since March. I feel for them, but they obviously need mental health support. The power that they have to impact so many people globally is quite shocking. (This occurs too with Germans online, when I say that I walked past empty testing stations, deaths are still flat despite cases increasing for a month, etc)

Those who are fortunate to be able to stay at home, working or collecting benefits, are not understanding or or don't want to understand the impact on the majority of people globally who cannot work and do not have support because of the severe restrictions from COVID.

In other news, Germany generally lifted the global travel warning, but kept it in place for Canada not because of cases/deaths, but because Canada still requires a 14 day quarantine on arrival even with a negative test. And I have never seen so many Canadian tourists in Germany as in September (easy to play 'spot the Canadian' these days with almost no Americans, although there are still quite a few as some countries in Europe will admit American tourists)

This virus has more than a 99% survival rate yet we’ve shut down much of the world and disrupted many lives.

Makes me sad that Americans are not amongst the tourists.

 

[bavaria]

This virus has more than a 99% survival rate yet we’ve shut down much of the world and disrupted many lives.

Makes me sad that Americans are not amongst the tourists.

Koa Wiesn ('no Oktoberfest' in Bavarian....) The streets were really bare in Munich. The North Sea resorts and the southern resorts are all full, and Italy was full of German tourists too recently. But with almost no Americans coming for business travel, and not many for tourism, it is really obvious.

Now, there ARE American tourists in Europe. We saw one in the lounge recently who was on his way to the Algarve, and in another airport lounge a woman was selling to Americans on the phone that they arranged tour routes which first brought them into 'allowed' countries (may have been Slovakia she was selling) and then after they have been in Europe for a certain time they go to other countries. Flyertalk.com has a lot of Americans finding options for travel.

 

[MommyinHonduras]

A bit jealous @bavaria We just got our tests back for the day for the island, Of the 144 tests processed, 122 came back positive. Its been over 48 hours since the samples were taken. With these kind of rates we have to just let herd immunity happen, there is no way to know who is positive until they are needing medical interventions or have passed.

We are now over 1,500 positive cases confirmed by PCR (since May), an untold number of unconfirmed cases. If we have about 70,000 total and they say as low as 20-40 % needed....how long do we have til that magic number is hit?

 

[mousefan73]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54423988
Covid testing glimp.
The link above is going through our team at work right now and we are just rolling our eyes and normally one would laugh but it’s just simply too sad to laugh. Our team deals a lot with businesses intelligence, data and analysis. This is just something so basic with spreadsheets It’s just mine boggling.

 

[BadPinkTink]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54423988
Covid testing glimp.
The link above is going through our team at work right now and we are just rolling our eyes and normally one would laugh but it’s just simply too sad to laugh. Our team deals a lot with businesses intelligence, data and analysis. This is just something so basic with spreadsheets It’s just mine boggling.

I saw that, Irish Twitter not sure what to do, laugh at the incompetency or feel pity for the normal UK people

 

[Heather07438]

Personally I see the situation as this:
We have to resume life while foregoing the highest hazards of spread. Too far in either direction won’t end well I suspect.
If there is no mitagation and cases start spreading rapidly we’ll end up with a lack of consumer confidence to engage (whether things are open or not).
If too many things are closed that will make recovery even more challenging.

It’s understood that certain environments seed clusters. Places indoors where higher numbers of people talk or hang out forlonger periods of time without masks or good ventilation. Going into the winter season I think we should focus on limiting spread. Keep the spread manageable and get on with life.
It’s a relatively small sector that can’t continue as usual (nightclubs, I’m especially looking at you. Sorry). But if nothing or very little is done to control rapid spread, more segments will suffer.
The least damage done to combined interest is by cutting the worst spread scenarios.

 

[bavaria]

Personally I see the situation as this:
We have to resume life while foregoing the highest hazards of spread. Too far in either direction won’t end well I suspect.
If there is no mitagation and cases start spreading rapidly we’ll end up with a lack of consumer confidence to engage (whether things are open or not).
If too many things are closed that will make recovery even more challenging.

It’s understood that certain environments seed clusters. Places indoors where higher numbers of people talk or hang out forlonger periods of time without masks or good ventilation. Going into the winter season I think we should focus on limiting spread. Keep the spread manageable and get on with life.
It’s a relatively small sector that can’t continue as usual (nightclubs, I’m especially looking at you. Sorry). But if nothing or very little is done to control rapid spread, more segments will suffer.
The least damage done to combined interest is by cutting the worst spread scenarios.

I think that a balanced approach, based on numbers, makes sense. Germany uses 50 new cases per 100,000 as the metric to implement local restrictions for short periods, such as the requirement to wear a mask in the pedestrian zone and (outdoor) market and stopping selling alcohol later in Munich for a two week period (which then resulted in a lower case per 100,000) R0, cases per 100,000, and testing and contact tracing are all part of the plan.

This avoids a blanket ban on activities, and allows business to continue in most areas. It's simply not feasible to continue to expect people in certain parts of the society to be hard hit for extended periods (like restaurants which are not allowed indoor dining). The reality is that this was so random as to who was impacted and who was not. Own or work at a signage company? Good for you, you were working overtime. Lawyer for an airline, or interior designer for a hotel company? Bad life choice, according to many, because sorry you just lost your highly skilled career. (And I know one of those personally; even as a lawyer she was in a niche market after decades so is now going back to school for a new career)

The strange thing to me is that some countries are allowing very large gatherings, indoor meetings, concerts, etc yet don't have spread from those events. If there is proven information that the spread is not coming from those areas, don't shut it down. Same holds true for air travel and rail travel - it has been shown that these are not spreading the virus, even though planes are full (for those flying)

Edited to add, the Germanic obession with 'lüften' may be one reason why the DACH countries are not seeing a rise in open schools, meetings, etc. (Anyone who has watched Babylon Berlin has seen the inside joke of the landlady getting angry with Herr Katelbach repeatedly for not lüfting his room) That means we don't have as much or any AC, and we air out rooms by opening the window (until someone cries 'es zieeeeeeeeeeeeeht!' and the window is then firmly shut) I suspect that this winter the lüften crowd will drown out the 'es zieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeht!' crowd and we will get to have more fresh air despite cold weather)

 

[bavaria]

Germany's vaccine is now in the fast lane

It is news that many have been waiting for: The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has started a rolling review process for the planned Covid-19 vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer. What sounds technical is a kind of accolade for the developers.

Obviously, the supervisors are so satisfied with the results so far from the early clinical and preclinical tests that they are ready to carry out the complex procedure in real time until approval. Normally, the approval process only officially starts when the submitting company has all the necessary data and documents.

The Mainz-based company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer can now move into the fast lane with their candidate BNT162b2: From now on, they can submit data from the clinical trials as soon as they are available. These are then immediately assessed by the responsible EMA pharmaceutical committee. The procedure, which usually takes many months, could be considerably shortened in this way
....

If the clinical trials are successful and the supervisors approve the vaccine, Pfizer and Biontech plan to produce up to 100 million vaccine doses of BNT162b2 by the end of the year. According to the two companies, it should be 1.3 billion cans by the end of 2021 - at least if everything continues to go as hoped.

https://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/arti...Impfstoff-ist-jetzt-auf-der-Ueberholspur.html

 

[FigmentSpark]

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54423988
Covid testing glimp.
The link above is going through our team at work right now and we are just rolling our eyes and normally one would laugh but it’s just simply too sad to laugh. Our team deals a lot with businesses intelligence, data and analysis. This is just something so basic with spreadsheets It’s just mine boggling.

I didn't know that. My files aren't usually that big, but I have one... a yearly budget I've kept for several years and now I know why it's not so easy to use. Time to upgrade from XLS. lol.

 

[mousefan73]

I didn't know that. My files aren't usually that big, but I have one... a yearly budget I've kept for several years and now I know why it's not so easy to use. Time to upgrade from XLS. lol.

Definitely upgrade many other benefits

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Racialized populations and the poor are disproportionately represented in the Covid statistics.

as in the case of our mutual friend in Honduras, where the restrictions are so severe as to literally be causing starvation.

These two comments could spark this conversation in different ways all based on our perception of our own corner and of our perception of rest of the world. I've quoted it to this thread because I think it has more relevance here than the Cases Rising or Dropping by You thread

https://www.kctv5.com/coronavirus/c...cle_95303b83-53bc-5ca5-bf6d-8e70a6d23921.html
A few key points:

• "An additional 88 to 115 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty, defined as living on less than $1.90 a day, in 2020 because of the pandemic and resulting economic recession, according to a report from the World Bank released Wednesday.
• And the total number of people added to the world's extreme poor as a result of the pandemic could grow to 150 million by next year.
• "Global extreme poverty is expected to rise in 2020 for the first time in over 20 years as the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic compounds the forces of conflict and climate change, which were already slowing poverty reduction progress,"
• About eight in 10 of those who will be pushed into extreme poverty this year live in what the World Bank calls "middle-income" countries: developing nations such as Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa that already have high poverty rates.
• The report also notes that growing numbers of people in urban areas are likely to fall into extreme poverty, an issue that has traditionally affected mostly people in rural areas."

I do believe the virus is not going away it would appear any time soon the darn thing seems to want to stick around with us. Sadly so are the other ramifications of it

**Please note I most def. am not downplaying anything regarding the virus, it's just these two comments came up while I was reading the news story linked and it stuck out at me.

 

[Karin1984]

Uh oh, a newspaper called the Netherlands the 'worst boy in class' in Western Europe! Almost 6.000 positives today...
We don't wanna be the worst boy in class we wanna be the best boy!
(The Netherlands are sometimes just like a dog, so eager to please everyone ;-) )