Covid-19

[FrostyWinnipeg]

 

[JCon]

 

 

[Super Duper Negatron]

The lack of foresight by the province regarding the need for rapid testing as a way out of this is stunning.

[Tracker]

U.S. Children Hospitalized With COVID In Near-Record Numbers

SEATTLE (AP) — The omicron-fueled surge that is sending COVID-19 cases rocketing in the U.S. is putting children in the hospital in close to record numbers, and experts lament that most of the youngsters are not vaccinated.

“It’s just so heartbreaking,” said Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious-disease expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “It was hard enough last year, but now you know that you have a way to prevent all this.”

During the week of Dec. 21-27, an average of 334 children 17 and under were admitted per day to hospitals with the coronavirus, a 58% increase from the week before, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The previous peak over the course of the pandemic was in early September, when child hospitalizations averaged 342 per day, the CDC said.

On a more hopeful note, children continue to represent a small percentage of those being hospitalized with COVID-19: An average of over 9,400 people of all ages were admitted per day during the same week in December. And many doctors say the youngsters coming in now seem less sick than those seen during the delta surge over the summer.

Two months after vaccinations were approved for 5- to 11-year-olds, about 14% are fully protected, CDC data shows. The rate is higher for 12- to 17-year-olds, at about 53%.

 

In other COVID news, there is some light at the end of this seemingly-endless tunnel. Saskatchewan has been reporting massive increases in test-positive results, but over the past week, their pandemic-related hospitalizations are actually down a bit. They are now going to reporting only the COVID hospital admissions and deaths.

In Israel, they are debating whether to offer a second booster to vulnerable people and possibly to healthcare, law enforcement and penal system workers. 

Just now, Super Duper Negatron said:

The lack of foresight by the province regarding the need for rapid testing as a way out of this is stunning.

But it is consistent with the PC philosophy of crippling the healthcare system so as to pave the way for increasing privatization.

[Mark H.]

23 minutes ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

The lack of foresight by the province regarding the need for rapid testing as a way out of this is stunning.

If rapid tests had been made widely available several months ago, it would have made a big difference

I took a rapid test as soon as I noticed symptoms, tested positive, and immediately started isolating

There was really no need to waste the time and resources of the medical system with a PCR test

Rapid tests might give you a false negative, but if you're positive with a rapid test, you can be certain that you've got Covid

[WildPath]

9 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

If rapid tests had been made widely available several months ago, it would have made a big difference

I took a rapid test as soon as I noticed symptoms, tested positive, and immediately started isolating

There was really no need to waste the time and resources of the medical system with a PCR test

Rapid tests might give you a false negative, but if you're positive with a rapid test, you can be certain that you've got Covid

The whole lack of preparation, yet again, is really frustrating. We can't even know the actual numbers because we aren't prepared to test for that many. This is despite saying we would see cases in the 1000s weeks ago. The continual playbook of hope for the best, plan for better than the best....

Despite this, and already having hospital backlogs, the new restrictions are pretty pathetic. This is what giving up looks like on a governmental level.

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

1 hour ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

The lack of foresight or selective ignorance by the province regarding the Covid pandemic response is stunning.

FIFY

 

These guys suck.

[Super Duper Negatron]

Asking people who test positive at home to go back for a PCR is hilarious. Why? For what reason?

[Mark H.]

6 minutes ago, Super Duper Negatron said:

Asking people who test positive at home to go back for a PCR is hilarious. Why? For what reason?

Contact tracing has to be impossible at this point, so I have no idea, and I wouldn't do it unless my workplace required it.  

[Tracker]

Texas team applauded for giving what Big Pharma refuses: A patent-free vaccine to the world
   
A small team of Texas researchers is being hailed for developing an unpatented Covid-19 vaccine to share with the world without personal profit, with some advocates asking, if they can do it, why can't Big Pharma?

Dubbed "the World's Covid vaccine," the inoculation—formally called Cobervax—is an open-source alternative to Big Pharma's patent-protected vaccines. Instead of being produced for profit, this shot could ultimately be manufactured around the world and made cheaply available to all without governmental or private legal retribution.

Common Dreams reported this week that Cobervax—developed jointly by Texas Children's Hospital, Houston's Baylor College, and the Indian pharmaceutical company Biological E. Limited—was authorized for emergency use in India amid a surge in infections driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant. Texas Children's Hospital says the new vaccine is at least 90% effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and 80% or more effective against its Delta variant.

"We're not trying to make money," Peter Hotez, who led the Texas Children's Hospital team, told The Washington Post. "We just want to see people get vaccinated."

Texas team applauded for giving what Big Pharma refuses: A patent-free vaccine to the world - Alternet.org

[iHeart]

sigh....regardless of how many cases are reported today, two will be way too many, my cousin has tested positive for COVID, and remember when I had brought up an uncle with COPD? he's her father and he was supposed to get a COVID booster yesterday but couldn't due to the family self-isolating, and now he's in the ICU

[HardCoreBlue]

37 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Texas team applauded for giving what Big Pharma refuses: A patent-free vaccine to the world
   
A small team of Texas researchers is being hailed for developing an unpatented Covid-19 vaccine to share with the world without personal profit, with some advocates asking, if they can do it, why can't Big Pharma?

Dubbed "the World's Covid vaccine," the inoculation—formally called Cobervax—is an open-source alternative to Big Pharma's patent-protected vaccines. Instead of being produced for profit, this shot could ultimately be manufactured around the world and made cheaply available to all without governmental or private legal retribution.

Common Dreams reported this week that Cobervax—developed jointly by Texas Children's Hospital, Houston's Baylor College, and the Indian pharmaceutical company Biological E. Limited—was authorized for emergency use in India amid a surge in infections driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant. Texas Children's Hospital says the new vaccine is at least 90% effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and 80% or more effective against its Delta variant.

"We're not trying to make money," Peter Hotez, who led the Texas Children's Hospital team, told The Washington Post. "We just want to see people get vaccinated."

Texas team applauded for giving what Big Pharma refuses: A patent-free vaccine to the world - Alternet.org

Now watch the Pharma companies go full court press on this group. 

[Tracker]

2 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Now watch the Pharma companies go full court press on this group. 

It is interesting that small, tech-poor Cuba has independently developed a vaccine  that is as good as and perhaps a bit better that the vaccines developed by the big pharmaceutical companies, but the Russian and Chinese versions are worse.

[Brandon]

1 hour ago, iHeart said:

sigh....regardless of how many cases are reported today, two will be way too many, my cousin has tested positive for COVID, and remember when I had brought up an uncle with COPD? he's her father and he was supposed to get a COVID booster yesterday but couldn't due to the family self-isolating, and now he's in the ICU

I hope things end up well for your Uncle.   

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Manitoba announced 1,494* new cases of #COVID19 and 5 more deaths on Friday, Dec. 31, 2021.
 Active cases: 9,924**
 Total caseload: 80,096
 Recovered: 68,780
 Deaths: 1,392

 *Understated due to testing capacity issues
 **Overstated due to backlog in redesignating active cases

Manitoba #COVID19 patients in hospital: 192 (up 2)
 In ICU: 30 (up 1 from Thursday dashboard, but Siragusa said 30 yesterday)
 Total patients in ICU (COVID and non-COVID): Not available yet (96 on Thursday)

Five-day Manitoba #COVID19 test-positivity rate: 30.7  per cent* (up 3.4 percentage points)
 Tests completed Thursday: 4,343
 *Inflated due to screening at testing sites

 

The latest 8 Manitobans to succumb to #COVID19:
- A Northern woman in her 50s
- A Southern man in his 50s
- A Winnipeg woman in her 70s
- A Winnipeg man in his 70s
- A Southern man in his 80s
- A Winnipeg man in his 80s
- A Winnipeg woman in her 80s
- A Winnipeg woman in her 90s

 

 

Edited December 31, 2021 by FrostyWinnipeg

[rebusrankin]

From Willard Reaves:

The TPR is higher than Heather Stefanson's approval rate.

[Mark H.]

The Winnipeg School Division Board Chair is calling for KN95 / N95 masks for all staff and students, rapid tests for all schools and a period of remote learning after Christmas. (CJOB interview)

I hope remote learning doesn't happen - the focus should be on getting more kids vaccinated. 

[Super Duper Negatron]

They should have shut youth sports down before the holidays, and prioritized rapid tests for schools so they could test leading up to the first day back.

Edited December 31, 2021 by Super Duper Negatron

[Mark H.]

It's inevitable at this point. Anyone who's not vaccinated is basically a sitting duck.  No amount of testing, isolating or lockdowns will make much of a difference.  Omicron is going to find everyone. 

[bustamente]

Unfortunately a lockdown now will do nothing to stop this wave but punish people how have been punished enough, hopefully Omicron will be swift and merciful and maybe we can put this wave behind us in the month or so.

Edited January 1, 2022 by bustamente

[rebusrankin]

Just a reminder: **** these guys

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1815216707756

[GCJenks]

2 hours ago, Mark H. said:

The Winnipeg School Division Board Chair is calling for KN95 / N95 masks for all staff and students, rapid tests for all schools and a period of remote learning after Christmas. (CJOB interview)

I hope remote learning doesn't happen - the focus should be on getting more kids vaccinated. 

My 9 yr old gets upset at any discussion of remote learning. He’d really like to punch the board chair in the mouth. Recess in Kn94/95 is going to suck but the kids will do it and complain about it less than parents. 

[Mark H.]

55 minutes ago, GCJenks said:

My 9 yr old gets upset at any discussion of remote learning. He’d really like to punch the board chair in the mouth. Recess in Kn94/95 is going to suck but the kids will do it and complain about it less than parents. 

The union is asking for all of January, so we'll probably have one week or nothing at all. 

[WildPath]

16 hours ago, Mark H. said:

The Winnipeg School Division Board Chair is calling for KN95 / N95 masks for all staff and students, rapid tests for all schools and a period of remote learning after Christmas. (CJOB interview)

I hope remote learning doesn't happen - the focus should be on getting more kids vaccinated. 

I've finished reading The Premonition by Michael Lewis. Really interesting stuff for how Covid was mishandled. One of the experts in the book discusses how bad schools are for spreading viruses. I believe he refers to them as living petri dishes. Nowhere else in society are people as close consistently. He read the statistics on how physically close kids are in the classroom, on the bus and in the hallways and did not believe them so he went to his kids' school and brought measuring tape. In the US, twice as many kids ride the bus daily as people taking public transit. He said the most effective containment measure for viruses is closing schools. It should be the first option and for some viruses may be the only requirement.

This is all from a medical perspective, not a social perspective. I teach remote learning to a class of medically-advised students. These are kids who are at high risk of death and severe health complications from Covid. These are kids who haven't really been able to see friends for the past two years. The more Covid that is spreading in the community, the more anxiety and risk these kids and families face. The more our medical system is under duress, the more dangerous it is for these kids to go for medical procedures, which they unfortunately have more than the average kid.

Many students and teachers hate remote learning. For some kids, its all they have. I think closing schools for a period to give our medical system a chance to deal with what is on its plate right now would be really helpful for a section of society that is at medical risk and can't get vaccinated.

 

[Mark H.]

I am not against closing schools if that's what the numbers indicate.  There have been enough remote learning periods to show whether or not there was up tick of cases when schools opened again. And, more importantly, an uptick in severe outcomes.