How is the corona virus affecting you?

Lullabelle said:
Back to wearing masks again, fine, no big deal. On my way home I nipped into our local Tesco shop I wore my mask, the staff were wearing but customers were not. I know you cannot make people wear them but...
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there they refuse you entry to the shop. No mask, no entry is a very common sign.
And some shops insist on seeing your double vaccination certificate before you are allowed entry..
And don't get me started on the hand sanitisers... they set my asthma off so I can't use them. I'm more than happy to use soap & water (actually more effective just not as convenient, my PhD was in soaps or more accurately surfactants) but way too many people don't understand...
 
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a “disaster emergency,” signing an executive order to postpone elective hospital surgeries amid an anticipated “spike” in new cases and the emergence of the new variant.
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It’s very difficult to convey uncertainty and remain authoritative. Panic and fear from leaders is problematic.
 
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I agree MG, people should get vaccinated. We now know that being vaccinated doesn't stop reinfections or transmissions but it does minimize hospitalization and death in vulnerable groups. Case in point was when the omicron variant was discovered then subsequently the Netherlands directed 2 plane in mid air flight coming from SA to be redirected and tested. Travelling internationally requires people to be fully vaccinated and if your not, your not travelling, full stop. The Netherlands tested the 600 passengers and found 61 people to have covid and of the 60, 13 were infected with omicron. Basically 10% of the plane was infected. Fear has caused a great deal of unwanted effects from the initial knee jerk reaction from most Countries, which has been and will be devastating for thousands of people, and that's not getting into the stock market sell offs around the world.

The first case in SA was detected on the 11th of November from people tested on the 9th in Botswana who actually were not from SA but from another country, don't remember which one, but were just travelling through. It appears the advice for vaccinations, social distancing, hand washing, possible mandates, lockdowns and of course travel restrictions are the status quo. Will it work this time, who knows, it kind of reminds me of the movie "groundhog day"

Anyway, it's probably been a month since omicron has moved around the planet with little or no detection which leads me to believe that while it may be more infectious, we don't know yet, but that seems to be a consensus based on the rate of infection over time in SA, and, that it might be less efficacious for causing disease, which like I said, I'm cautiously optimistic about based on hospitalizations and death reported across the planet in these early days. If it was truly another 900lb gorilla I believe that would be evident by now. Of course this opportunity may be missed if we can't get everyone on the planet mostly vaccinated otherwise another variant will emerge quicker.
 
garlichead said:
I'm cautiously optimistic about based on hospitalizations and death reported across the planet in these early days.
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I'm trying to take that view too. Time will tell. I'll continue to be ultra careful in any case. Luckily, I'm in a position where I can do that. I mean that I don't need to go to shops or to work.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
there they refuse you entry to the shop. No mask, no entry is a very common sign.
And some shops insist on seeing your double vaccination certificate before you are allowed entry..
And don't get me started on the hand sanitisers... they set my asthma off so I can't use them. I'm more than happy to use soap & water (actually more effective just not as convenient, my PhD was in soaps or more accurately surfactants) but way too many people don't understand...
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The M&S sanitiser stinks something awful, stays on your hands for days regardless of how many times you wash them.
The Tesco is only a small place and rarely have security so you don't get stopped. I think trying to stop some people only makes their attitude worse..
 
Following SA's data is appears cases are up over 600%. Hospitalizations remain steady, and of course death from omicron won't take effect right way. Apparently omicron has been detected in over 20 countries including Australia. The US doesn't sequence very much at all considering the seriousness in the country, so they were late indicating, but now it's been found in many states today. Omicron accounts for 12% of all Canadian cases, and again nobody has gone to hospital and most were mild or asymptomatic. Hopefully the Countries that banned travel to Africa will remove those bans, considering it was kind of stupid to begin and has left SA's economy and stranded travellers and families in total distress. I have a feeling that isn't going to happen and I suspect some will double down on the "groundhog day" strategy. As a matter of fact in the US when asked to the powers that be unnamed if a variant that is highly transmissable but mild might be a good strategy to start to emerge from the pandemic and the answer was, absolutely not, how would having people infected ever be a good strategy. Let that sink in for a moment. Cheers.
 
Here, in the USA, I am given to wonder what the role of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is in the COVID crisis. What I have found is that FEMA is not dictating any kind of policy and limiting itself to funding financially, the response to the COVID pandemic, the costs of assistance: vaccine support, hospital and patient support, regulating, economic support and recovery, and of curious note, funerals. Whether FEMA funded the monies sent to people to buoy up the economy, the answer is yes, they are the force behind that. The US made a federal disaster declaration in March of 2020, shortly after the pandemic really increased in number of infections with the first wave. That pulled FEMA into effect.

DHS, The US Department of Homeland Security, is another agency that I am given to wonder about with regard to covid. DHS, it seems, has served to coordinate efforts between the White House, federal, state and local governments, CDC (Center for Desease Control), transportation facilities and other elements of the US infrastructure, - and I would hope, the supply chain issues. If any agency might be tasked with enforcing transmissability guidelines, DHS would be that, I assume.

What the European and other World government equivalents of these agencies are, I haven't a clue.
 
The NIH (National Institute of Health) in the USA is an education and research agency and its role in the COVID pandemic and crisis is that of researching and defining the covid variants, their effects on the human body (in terms of physical health) and the human population (in terms of mental health and social interactivity), and finally, research regarding vaccines, their effectiveness and the body's immune response, including social herd immunity.
 
Another quick Omicron update.

I'm only looking at data from Pretoria South Africa the epicenter for Omicron with a population of just under 3 millions inhabitants and not from news sources.

Basically hospital admissions are up. 166 admissions to the hospital and not necessarily with Covid symptoms but admissions in general. 76% of the patients with Covid were found to have Covid only after they were tested because the Hospital rules state all admissions will be tested for Covid. This is also the case in other Hospitals in the Gauteng region. The sewage data is showing a huge increase in Omicron over all regions as well, which obviously translates into a large infected portion of the population but not a lot of hospitalizations when you factor in that Covid wasn't found until the hospitalizations were tested for Covid. There are 2 patient's in ICU. Recovery from Covid is 2.8 days over the last 14 days vs 8.5 days for the last 18 months.

Basically from the data so far it appears that there is a large amount of infection in the general population based on sewage data without a lot of hospitalization. I suspect this won't translate to other countries yet for at least another 4 to 6 weeks considering Omicron has been in Africa at least that long. So when you hear in main stream media that the world is coming to an end...it really isn't, not according to this data.

EDIT to add: Personally I'm concerned that My gov't Canada and the USA along with many other Countries are calling for boosting campaigns to begin roll out without haste. First of all Omicron is more transmissible even in the vaccinated population basically vaccines are not as effective for whatever reason. Secondly the roll out of the vaccines on mass really didn't start until March/April in Most countries and now were on the 3 and promoting a 4th booster jab and with direction to continue to boost every 3 months we could be seeing 6 or up boosters in a 12 month period..they say it safe? There have been 0 studies. No random controlled trials. We've seen the 2 top officials from the FDA resign over the booster conversation. We have young men under 30 effected with significant increase in the risk of myocarditis/pericarditis from the 2nd vaccine and where some countries have accounted for this in their advice. It's called risk/benefit. This is reckless imo and based in fear and fear of doing the wrong thing and the wrong thing is a politician's greatest fear/nightmare. Why not wait and see how the Omicron pans out first......it's called science.
 
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garlichead said:
Another quick Omicron update.

I'm only looking at data from Pretoria South Africa the epicenter for Omicron with a population of just under 3 millions inhabitants and not from news sources.

Basically hospital admissions are up. 166 admissions to the hospital and not necessarily with Covid symptoms but admissions in general. 76% of the patients with Covid were found to have Covid only after they were tested because the Hospital rules state all admissions will be tested for Covid. This is also the case in other Hospitals in the Gauteng region. The sewage data is showing a huge increase in Omicron over all regions as well, which obviously translates into a large infected portion of the population but not a lot of hospitalizations when you factor in that Covid wasn't found until the hospitalizations were tested for Covid. There are 2 patient's in ICU. Recovery from Covid is 2.8 days over the last 14 days vs 8.5 days for the last 18 months.

Basically from the data so far it appears that there is a large amount of infection in the general population based on sewage data without a lot of hospitalization. I suspect this won't translate to other countries yet for at least another 4 to 6 weeks considering Omicron has been in Africa at least that long. So when you hear in main stream media that the world is coming to an end...it really isn't, not according to this data.
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Mod.comment: Could you please cite sources so that people can read the data for themselves if they wish.
 
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Chew on this for a few minutes...

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That's from a member of US congress. :facepalm:

CD
 
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