Source: What we know about the Omicron Corona Variant So Far
Category: Coronavirus
While Dan looks past the horizon Melbourne activists stare at the navels yelling “fuck you. me not we” at their neighbours
Austria is taking a stand against people who have not been protected against the coronavirus, announcing unvaccinated people must lockdown. About two million people are expected to be forced to stay home from Monday amid record infection levels and growing pressure on hospitals. “We are not taking this step lightly but it is necessary,” Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg said.
Source: Coronavirus: Austria locks down 2 million unvaccinated people
View all comments Advertisement The risk of a disastrous coronavirus outbreak in Australia is now at its highest level since the pandemic began and continued escapes from quarantine can be expected at least every month. James McCaw, an epidemiologist and mathematical biologist with the University of Melbourne who is leading a research team providing modelling on the pandemic to the federal government, said it was “absolutely inevitable” that the virus would spread within Australia.
Source: Coronavirus Australia: Top epidemiologist says virus outbreak is ‘absolutely inevitable’
Almost one in seven people who test positive for COVID-19 still suffer symptoms three months later, according to UK figures. The largest study of its kind on long COVID from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found people with coronavirus are significantly more likely than the general population to report ongoing issues, which can include muscle pain and fatigue.
Source: British study finds almost one in seven suffer long COVID
In January Prime Minister Scott Morrison set a target of having 4 million Australians vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of March. Thursday marks the first day of April – and we will have missed that target by about 3.4 million people.
Source: COVID vaccine Australia: What went wrong with coronavirus shot rollout?
The shots are saving lives, but we don’t know their long-term effects thanks to an agency that often answers to industry instead of the public.
The FDA Cut Off Covid Vaccine Testing. That Was a Really Bad Idea. | Washington Monthly
“It is unforgivable that while people are literally fighting for breath, rich country governments continue to block what could be a vital breakthrough in ending this pandemic for everyone in rich and poor countries alike.”
‘Disturbing’: Rich Nations Vaccinating Person Per Second While Blocking Effort to Share Recipe With Poor Countries | Common Dreams News
The spread of COVID-19 anywhere on the planet threatens us all, yet Big Pharma’s monopoly on the vaccine supply ensures that people in most of the world aren’t getting inoculated. In this appeal, left-wing figures like Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Rafael Correa, and former Brazilian president Lula call on governments to lift the patents and ensure vaccines are distributed as cheaply and quickly as possible.
Get Rid of the Patents on COVID-19 Vaccines Already
President Biden on Monday honored the deaths of 500,000 Americans from COVID-19. It is a very large number, and commentator Sanjay Gupta at CNN had tears in his eyes because, he said, “they didn’t have to die.”
President Biden Honors 500K Dead. He didn’t say so, but they didn’t have to Die
Joe Biden is very good at. He held a somber ceremony at the White House which was carried live on the mainstream news networks and observed with appropriate gravity by nearly all who commented —except Fox News.
Fox News’ COVID denialism now threatens U.S. vaccine rollout — but its roots are deeper | Salon.com
Fox News has joined the latest round of the right-wing online campaign seeking to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. At the heart of this campaign is really an ongoing rebellion against health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, whether in requirements for the public or even precautions by individuals.
Fox News’ calls to fire Anthony Fauci are just its latest attempt to undermine public health measures | Media Matters for America
COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate, but the havoc wrought by the virus—the deaths, economic devastation, and intergenerational trauma—has disproportionately affected Black, Latino, and Native American communities. The Trump administration’s feckless response didn’t help, yet even proactive steps have reinforced preexisting inequities: Stay-at-home orders protected people with the privilege to work remotely while frontline workers, disproportionately Black and Latino, took on greater risk of exposure. People of color have also experienced more unemployment and financial insecurity. As Mary Bassett, director of Harvard’s François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, explains, none of this is caused by the virus itself: “It’s because of the social consequences of race in our society, which has been reinforced by decades, centuries of bad practices and policies.”
The Pandemic Has Unmasked America’s Deepest Inequities – Mother Jones
Views: 508 So now, as a result of Trump’s refusal to get an early grip on the virus, it’s been around long enough to mutate, and will make it that much harder to get control. CNN reports this morning.
Decline In Covid Cases Is More Of A Pause As UK Variant Begins To Spread | Crooks and Liars
More than half of New Delhi’s population of 20 million has been infected with the coronavirus and since developed antibodies, a survey by the Indian government has revealed.
Over half of New Delhi has been infected with Covid-19, Indian govt study suggests — RT World News
Democracies have slightly outperformed authoritarian countries in suppressing the coronavirus, according to an analysis that found smaller populations and competent bureaucracies were the major factors in managing the global pandemic.
COVID Performance Index ranks the countries that handled the pandemic best
A new bombshell emerged: the Trump Administration unfounded accusation of China for spreading the ‘Wuhan virus’ worldwide. It did not matter that such infamy had been questioned by both Japanese and Chinese reports. A report from a Japanese TV station which suspected some of the 14,000 Americans died of influenza may have unknowingly contracted the COVID-19 went viral on Chinese social media, stoking fears and speculations in China that the new virus may have originated in the United States. The report, by TV Asahi Corporation of Japan, suggested that the United States government may have failed to grasp how rampant the virus had gone on the United States soil. (Japanese TV report sparks speculations in China that COVID-19 may have originated in US, Global Times, February 23, 2020). Nor did the presence of suspected similar cases had occurred in Italy in late 2019 and elsewhere, as will be seen. On 12 March 2020, in a statement to the House Oversight Committee of the United States Congress the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert R. Redfield candidly admitted that: yes, some cases diagnosed as seasonal flu could have been COVID-19. As to exactly when that occurred, in October?, in November?, he could not be precise. China’s Foreign Ministry reacted to Dr. Redfield’s statements intimating that the virus could have originated in the United States.
Was COVID-19 born in the United States? (part 2) – » The Australian Independent Media Network
With new, more infectious variants of COVID-19 detected around the world, and at New Zealand’s border, the risk of further level 3 or 4 lockdowns is increased if those viruses get into the community.
Why the COVID-19 variants are so dangerous and how to stop them spreading
Disappointingly, rich countries today behave as though they will reach 100% vaccination rates before they give away a single dose, with many having bought well in excess of what is needed for 100% coverage.
The big barriers to global vaccination: patent rights, national self-interest and the wealth gap
400,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, according to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. Just Hit 400,000 COVID-19 Deaths In Record Time | HuffPost Australia
“We now face the real danger that even as vaccines bring hope to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the world’s haves and have-nots.”
—Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO
“The price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”
Warning World Is on ‘Brink of a Catastrophic Moral Failure,’ WHO Chief Denounces Vaccine-Hoarding by Rich Nations | Common Dreams News
States “thought they were getting more doses and they planned for more doses and opened up to 65 and up, thinking they were getting more.”
Promised Vaccine Stockpile Doesn’t Even Exist? Governors Demand Trump ‘Answer Immediately for This Deception’ | Common Dreams News
Third Wave: Australia close to world’s best as Covid-19 numbers soar globally – Michael West
Donald Trump aside, deaths in the US continue to soar from Covid-19, with a reported 383,000, and 23 million infections. Europe has also reported huge rises in the final month of 2020, while the numbers in African countries rose sharply too. Alan Austin takes a look at the latest pandemic wave.
Third Wave: Australia close to world’s best as Covid-19 numbers soar globally – Michael West
A new coronavirus variant has been detected in four travellers from Brazil’s Amazonas state, Japan’s Health Ministry says, the latest new mutation of the virus discovered. Studies were now underway into the efficacy of vaccines against the new variant, which differs from highly infectious variants first found in Britain and South Africa that have driven a surge in cases.
Japan finds another coronavirus variant, Health Ministry says
Researchers say the mRNA-based vaccine and recombinant protein vaccine being trialled are more targeted The Doherty Institute’s Terry Nolan says it is vital Australia has its own vaccine to prevent supply chain issues The trials have been expedited to mid-2021 with Federal Government funding
Australia to trial ‘backup’ COVID-19 vaccines that can be modified to fight virus mutations – ABC News
A study of 45 countries shows those who have contained the virus also tend to have less severe economic impacts than those that haven’t. Saving the economy does not mean sacrificing lives, writes Michael Smithson. Containing Covid versus saving the economy is a false dichotomy.
Covid-19: sacrificing lives does not mean saving the economy – Michael West
Even countries that hosted vaccine trials — like Argentina, South Africa, Brazil, and Turkey — will not receive adequate supplies.
World Faces Covid-19 “Vaccine Apartheid”
Remember when Morrison kept blaming Andrews for NOT requesting ADF personel?
Premier Daniel Andrews says he is “not happy” his request for up to 300 Australian Defence Force troops to help protect Victoria’s border with NSW throughout the Christmas period has been turned down.
Coronavirus: Victoria records 52 days of no new COVID-19 cases in the community
Hundreds of police officers from across Victoria will spend Christmas on the NSW border after the Australian Defence Force turned down a request to help prevent Sydney’s coronavirus outbreak spreading south. The officers are being recalled or redeployed to the border as the Andrews government imposes tougher restrictions on people entering Victoria from NSW.
Hundreds of police drafted into protecting Victoria’s border with NSW
Officials at the Stanford University Medical Center apologized Friday after residents and other health care staff staged a walkout after frontline workers were bumped to the back of the line for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Stanford Hospital Apologizes After Frontline Doctors Protest Botched Vaccine Rollout | HuffPost Australia
The results of the study, for which Lee and other epidemiologists enlisted the help of an engineer who specialises in aerodynamics, were published last week in the Journal of Korean Medical Science. The conclusions raised concerns that the widely accepted standard of two metres of social distance might not be far enough to keep people safe.
Coronavirus: Infected after five minutes, from six metres away: study shows COVID-19’s spread indoors
Trump is eating dust yet again.
Jakarta: Indonesia’s state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma said on Tuesday that interim data on trials it was conducting on vaccines produced by the Chinese company Sinovac showed up to 97 per cent efficacy. “Our clinical trial team found, within one month, that the interim data shows up to 97 per cent for its efficacy,” said Iwan Setiawan, a spokesman for Bio Farma, at a news conference.
Sinovac vaccine shows up to 97 per cent efficacy in early trials, Bio Farma says
The president confirmed in a Sunday afternoon tweet, US time, that the former New York mayor had tested positive. Giuliani has travelled extensively to battleground states in recent weeks in an effort to help Trump subvert his election loss.
Rudy Giuliani contracts coronavirus
The history of the Spanish flu has never been clearly explained. It’s NOT SPANISH but is AMERICAN and was first discovered to have originated in army barracks of Kansas from where it was taken by troops to Europe during WW1. The American flu killed 50 million people yet is never acknowledged as American with the appropriate name change. The question has certainly never been brought up by the Trump administration which so easily accuses China of dirty deeds done dirt cheap.
The Chinese have as much right to question the origins of COVID-19 as The Americans don’t question the Spanish flu being incorrectly named. The jury is still out on Trump’s naming it the Chinese flu it’s not out about the Spanish flu being falsely named. (ODT)
“Although China was the first to report cases, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the virus originated in China,” Zhao Lijian told a briefing. “Origin tracing is an ongoing process that may involve multiple countries and regions.”
A year after Wuhan alarm, China seeks to change Covid origin story | China | The Guardian
The ideologically driven mob who sneered at Daniel Andrews, who sounded like a choir of ventriloquist dolls nestled in the lap of corporate Australia, went searching for a magical world immune to coronavirus and its potential for social havoc. Their broken moral compasses led them to Sweden, a country it believed could defy gravity. They only saw what they wanted to see. And now all they can hear is the awful thud of a nation falling back to earth.
Garry Linnell: How Sweden’s magic trick fooled the anti-lockdown brigade
Deaths Rate has increased by 68%
The number of COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals across the United States has reached 90,000 after nearly doubling in the past month, just as holiday gatherings are expected to propel the next wave of infections.
Coronavirus: Hospitalised COVID-19 patients hit record 90,000 in US ahead of expected surge
the United States has passed the grim milestone of 250,000 deaths. Trump had predicted a worst case of 50,000 deaths last spring, but then Donald Trump could not find his ass with both hands.
Is it the Trump-Monster or capitalist Plutocracy? With 250,000 Dead, why is the US Virus Response so Particularly Bad?
Right-wing media have championed Sweden’s “low-scale” approach to the coronavirus pandemic as an alternative to stricter government mandates deployed in the United States. On Fox News, pundits argued that Sweden’s policies would allow its population to swiftly reach “herd immunity” and questioned why the U.S. was “locking down” instead. Now that country is rushing to tighten restrictions following rapid increases in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths that are far in excess of those of its neighbors.
The right-wing case for Sweden’s pandemic response has completely collapsed | Media Matters for America
Dr Fauci said controlling America’s worsening coronavirus outbreak was not impossible but becoming more and more difficult He said lockdowns should only be a last resort But he was hopeful a substantial proportion of the US population would be vaccinated by May next year
Anthony Fauci says working with Trump Administration on the coronavirus pandemic has been ‘very stressful’ – ABC News
A survey by ANU shows workers born overseas and older Australians bore the brunt of cuts to hours compared with other groups
Australian workers lost $47bn in wages during first eight months of Covid recession, study says | Australia news | The Guardian
Mark Meadows, Trump campaign adviser Nick Trainer and Rep. Matt Gaetz are the latest victims of another Trump World outbreak of coronavirus.
Mark Meadows, Matt Gaetz And Several Staffers COVID Positive | Crooks and Liars
Sweden’s strategy relies heavily on people taking personal responsibility The number of recorded cases surged by 80 per cent in Sweden’s capital of Stockholm last week Thousands of scientists in Sweden signed an open letter calling for more stringent control measures
Australian health worker who caught COVID-19 in Sweden says she was ‘chucked in the deep end’ – ABC News
The country famously didn’t introduce much of a lockdown during its first wave, and its death rate surged to one of the world’s highest.
Faced with the reality of a winter surge, Sweden is finally bringing in some harsher restrictions after months of being one of the few countries with no lockdown | Business Insider
Savannah Bergquist, Thomas Otten, Marcello Antonini and Professor Francesco Paolucci look closely at the U.S.’ troubled COVID-19 response strategy.
Why the U.S. is number one for COVID-19-related deaths
The deaths of more than 174,000 people from the coronavirus could have been avoided if it weren’t for the harmful, man-made pollutants dirtying the air.
Source: Live somewhere with polluted air? Your risk of dying of COVID is higher
Support for Premier Daniel Andrews remains solid, with just over half of Victorians backing his handling of the coronavirus pandemic despite months of tough lockdown restrictions and criticism over the failed hotel quarantine program.
Coronavirus Victoria: Poll shows Daniel Andrews’ support still strong but Liberal leader Michael O’Brien floundering
Brazilian health authority Anvisa says a volunteer in a clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University has died but adds that the trial will continue.
Volunteer in AstraZeneca vaccine trial dies
Perhaps though, what has annoyed the lynch mob most is that Andrews’ strategy for controlling the spread of COVID-19 in Victoria has worked. The number of cases has been falling steadily. This past weekend, record low figures were achieved. As a result, restrictions have been eased, as promised, with more to come next weekend. Whatever he does though, it will never be right, never enough for his detractors. The painful reality for the lynch mob though is that Andrews has stared them down, and they don’t like it. This daily inquisition is demeaning, unnecessary, unbecoming, and a pox on our politics. It must now stop.
Dan Andrews stares down the lynch mob – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Paul Sakkal By Paul Sakkal October 12, 2020 — 8.30am View all comments The virus that causes COVID-19 can last up to 28 days on surfaces like mobile phone and ATM screens, much longer than previously thought, but lasts for much less time on softer surfaces, new CSIRO research shows.
Coronavirus Australia: COVID-19 can last almost a month on smartphones, ATMs, CSIRO finds
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