Category: Pandemic

Fauci warns time running short to prevent ‘dangerous’ Covid surge in US | US news | The Guardian

Dr Anthony Fauci speaks at a Senate hearing in Washington DC on 4 November.

The US government’s chief medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci warned on Sunday that time was running short to prevent a “dangerous” new surge of Covid-19 infections from overwhelming the upcoming holiday season. Coronavirus cases across the US are rising again for the first time in weeks, and approaching 100,000 per day. Experts fear that this week’s Thanksgiving holiday, for which tens of millions of Americans will travel for indoor celebrations with family and friends, will fuel a further surge.

Source: Fauci warns time running short to prevent ‘dangerous’ Covid surge in US | US news | The Guardian

Clampdown on the unvaccinated as Europe becomes pandemic epicentre

“Me” vs “We” brigade is organized and DEADLY. Demanding the right on the streets to irresponsibly fill our hospitals and die next winter. Meanwhile, Dan Andrews with 58 % of polled support is thinking ahead to prevent a Covid-19 future from overtaking the limited resources of our universal health system. An event that the EU, UK and the USA are beginning to re-experience as a 4th wave and resurgence hit with the onset of winter.

European governments are taking a hard-line stance against anti-vaxxers as infection numbers surge to record levels in many countries and threaten to ruin Christmas. The continent has become the global epicentre of the pandemic at a time when families had been hoping to once again embrace holiday festivities, and one another. With infections spiking again despite nearly two years of restrictions, the health crisis is increasingly pitting citizen against citizen — the vaccinated against the unvaccinated. Governments desperate to shield overburdened healthcare systems are imposing rules that limit choices for the unvaccinated in the hope doing so will drive up rates of vaccination. Despite overwhelming medical evidence that vaccines protect against death or serious illness and slow the pandemic’s spread, opposition remains stubbornly strong among parts of the population. In the Netherlands, protests this weekend turned into riots and police opened fire on crowds when a demonstration turned into what Rotterdam’s mayor called an “an orgy of violence”.

Source: Clampdown on the unvaccinated as Europe becomes pandemic epicentre

The pandemic is your fault according to the Coalition

The Coalition is not into suggesting that it’s the Government’s first and arguably only job to keep everyone safe, or that no one is okay until everyone is, or that the buck stops with them. No, it’s that everything would be fine if only you people were more responsible for your own health. In short, Gladys and Scott would very much like you to blame yourself for their failures. And that’s a game they seem to be winning.

Source: The pandemic is your fault according to the Coalition

Key to pandemic management is in the logistics

So, the advice is to:

  • socially distance: that reduces the density of the population and limits the availability of new hosts;
  • wear a mask: that reduces the ability of the virus to move between hosts;
  • get tested and socially isolate if positive: that actively reduces the carrying capacity;
  • and get vaccinated: that increases the number of people who have an immune system that can recognise and fight the virus and once again reduces carrying capacity.

I hope this helps to understand a little of the maths behind the management of the epidemic. It’s not guesswork The logistic equation can take much more complex forms and I’m certain that the modelling being used by decision-makers does just that, but the basic form of the equation is beautifully simple and clear. No magic required.

Source: Key to pandemic management is in the logistics

Crowd cheers Republican conspiracist over low vaccination rates as state dumps 65,000 doses

COVID conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks at a Republican rally in Georgia.

“This is the hardest one for me, that it does appear there’s a partisan connection,” Lee told WAMU. Nearly 60 per cent of Republicans say they are unwilling to get vaccinated, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll of 1517 US adults released last month. Meanwhile, Republican leaders, including Greene, have opposed vaccine requirements, arguing in favour of individual choices. “The messaging here in the United States has been consistently around how it’s a personal decision to get vaccinated, but pandemics by their definition are collective problems,” Lee said. “We have to think more about our actions protecting our loved ones and our communities.”

Source: Crowd cheers Republican conspiracist over low vaccination rates as state dumps 65,000 doses

India’s Vaccine Makers Are Profiteers, Not Humanitarians

A Health Worker holds a Used Vial of COVISHIELD Coronavirus Vaccine at a Vaccination Center in Sopore, District Baramulla, Jammu and Kashmir, India on 03 May 2021. Serum Institute of India CEO Aadar Poonawalla has said that the production of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield is in full swing in Pune and he will review the operations once he is back in the country. (Photo by Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto via AP)

There are more secrets among the Vaccine manufacturers secrets protected in law than there is suggested in Wu Han. These secrets also kill. Why did Scott Morrison choose AstraZeneca? Was he pushed or did he jump? What were his priorities at the time? He certainly wasn’t telling the Australian public the truth but only making political announcements to lessen the damage already done.

The Indian government’s free-market approach to vaccine distribution has privileged profit over lives.

Source: India’s Vaccine Makers Are Profiteers, Not Humanitarians

The AFR’s 2021 Rich List shows we’re not all in this together

An inequity stacked system

While the financial well-being of everyday Australians has been hit hard by COVID-19, it’s quite the opposite at the top end of town. “Australia’s billionaires have thrived during the pandemic year”, is how the AFR puts it. But let’s not laud this as an achievement. It’s a glaring signal the system is stacked. Through the worst economic crisis in a generation, the elite got richer while millions of Australians just hung on, or saw their slim assets evaporate.

Source: The AFR’s 2021 Rich List shows we’re not all in this together

Whites still won’t Mask up: Impeach Trump for discouraging Hygiene in a pandemic and killing hundreds of thousands

Whites still won’t Mask up: Impeach Trump for discouraging Hygiene in a pandemic and killing hundreds of thousands

One of Trump’s biggest crimes for which he is unlikely ever to be held responsible was just discouraging mask-wearing in the midst of a pandemic of a respiratory disease. He, of course, contracted the disease himself, as did most of his prominent staffers, mainly because they refused to socially distance or mask up. There is no reason why Bible-thumping Republicans should have rejected mask-wearing, but Trump made it a culture wars meme.

Whites still won’t Mask up: Impeach Trump for discouraging Hygiene in a pandemic and killing hundreds of thousands