Mega-Thread: Coronavirus Pandemic

[Forogil]

It seems that politicians have found a new delaying tactic!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60117202

Or in other words: Sarah Palin defamation trial delayed due to positive test (she has had covid before).

And is it just me or does the judge seem a tad bit biased against here:

"She is of course unvaccinated," the judge noted earlier, referring to Ms Palin.

[Edge-]

And is it just me or does the judge seem a tad bit biased against here:

Can he be biased if it's true?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucele...h=36def3174c21

She's been public about her opposition to the vaccine since December of last year.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/24/d...doors-nyc.html

And was recently dining indoors in NYC, in violation of NYC's order that everyone dining indoors show proof of vaccination.

[Captain N]

So Illinois' governor decided to side with the vaccinated teachers (and other school employees) and are making sure they will get paid if they are forced to quarantine due to having a COVID infection or being a close contact to a family member who tests positive. The big thing here is that those employees will also not have to use any of their accrued sick time while being forced off work....the unvaccinated however will have to use whatever time they have accumulated if they get sick. This is also retroactive to the 2021-2022 school year so any individual who was vaccinated and forced to quarantine will get their sick days back.

https://news.wttw.com/2022/01/24/gov...hool-employees

[PhaelixWW]

And now we have a new sub-variant, BA.2, that seem to be spreading even better than the original Omicron

A little more info on BA.2:

Omicron BA.2 Variant May Be Extra Transmissible

The Omicron sublineage BA.2 is making headlines for its potentially increased transmissibility as its prevalence rises in some countries, but experts aren't too concerned about the variant just yet.

Late last week, the U.K. Health Security Agency designated BA.2 a "variant under investigation" as cases were doubling every 4 days and showing a 120% growth advantage over the original Omicron clade, known as BA.1, said Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, an epidemiologist at UT Health Science Center at Houston.

Other countries, including Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and India, have seen similar growth for BA.2, Jetelina reported in her Substack email. Still, she said, it's "likely nothing like the huge transmissibility jump we saw from Delta to Omicron," which was a 500% growth advantage.

So far some 8,000 cases of BA.2 have been detected in 40 countries, according to news reports.

BA.2 is not a new sublineage. It was first detected in December and made headlines then as the "stealth" Omicron variant because it did not have the same s-gene target failure on PCR testing that BA.1 did. That's because it lacks the spike deletions 69-70 in BA.1, so s-gene targets still turn up positive.

That means BA.2 doesn't have a special signal that tells labs it's Omicron, so labs now must go to genetic sequencing to identify variants, Jetelina said.

She added that while it has many of the same mutations as BA.1, it has a lot of differences too. While BA.1 had about 60 mutations, BA.2 has about 85 mutations.

While it appears to have a transmission advantage, it's not clear what the additional mutations mean for severity, immune evasion, and other parameters.

"It may have a slight growth advantage but [there's] no evidence at all yet that it can evade Omicron (BA.1) immunity or be different to Omicron in any meaningful way," tweeted Meaghan Kall, a PhD student at the U.K.'s Health Security Agency. "Variants will continue to emerge, but not all variants will be a problem."

[Mayhem]

A little more info on BA.2:

Omicron BA.2 Variant May Be Extra Transmissible

There are already cases of people infected with BA.1 that got reinfected with BA.2 in Norway.

https://twitter.com/itosettiMD_MBA/s...77936334749698

2022 starts with a banger.

[PhaelixWW]

There are already cases of people infected with BA.1 that got reinfected with BA.2 in Norway.

https://twitter.com/itosettiMD_MBA/s...77936334749698

2022 starts with a banger.

Well, shit. Let's hope it was an anomaly, someone with a weak immune system, otherwise this line...

[there's] no evidence at all yet that it can evade Omicron (BA.1) immunity or be different to Omicron in any meaningful way

...will be disproved real quick.

[nasikas733]

Oh, the pandemic is a terrible time. Everything has been moved online. My friends still prefer online socializing, but I want to go out... A lot of people started to go crazy. Installing mods for apps, like gb whatsapp, to improve communication and the app itself. Buying add-ons. Some people stopped communicating at all and immersed themselves in the world of computer games. I lost contact with many. I really feel lonely.

[Tuor]

There are already cases of people infected with BA.1 that got reinfected with BA.2 in Norway.

https://twitter.com/itosettiMD_MBA/s...77936334749698

2022 starts with a banger.

BA.1


Vs

BA.2


Pick yours...

[Poopymonster]

BA.1


Vs

BA.2


Pick yours...

BA.1's publicist said "My client has much empathy for the incompetent."

[Forogil]

Well, shit. Let's hope it was an anomaly, someone with a weak immune system, otherwise this line...
...will be disproved real quick.

Well, there were two parts to it - can it evade immunity from BA.1 Omicron, and is different in other ways.

The second part first: It still seems similar in terms of the disease, and doesn't seem to cause more hospitalizations - as there's still the huge gap between cases and icu/deaths.

The first part isn't confirmed at all, and is just overhyped reporting
https://nyheder.tv2.dk/2022-01-21-ny...er-ssi-forsker
says (well, when translated):

- It is possible that you can become infected with BA.1 Omikron first, and then soon after with BA.2, he says in 'Go morgen Danmark'.
But, says Anders Fomsgaard in an in-depth interview with TV 2, the possibility of extensive re-infection after a short time is for now mostly a theoretical possibility.
...
- We don't see any difference between hospitalization rates, death tolls and so on at Omikron and BA.2, so it's not something that worries us as such. But we are also aware that we have a very short observation time, he says, referring to the fact that BA.2 is still a new piece of the game that SSI continues to investigate.

(Emphasis mine.)

Added:
Since that was from Denmark, there's also reporting that Denmark might tomorrow announce a change in the restrictions.
So, based on having widespread BA.2 and close to 5% of the population reported as cases last week, what do you think the change will be?

Well, the scientific advice is to lift all of the internal restrictions at the end of this month, and no longer classify covid-19 as a socially critical disease:
https://sum.dk/indstillinger/2022/ja...estriktioner#2
(But just in case anyone plans to go to Denmark and celebrate: the testing and isolation for travel will remain a bit longer.)

- - - Updated - - -

There are already cases of people infected with BA.1 that got reinfected with BA.2 in Norway.

https://twitter.com/itosettiMD_MBA/s...77936334749698

That seems to be a clear example of how facts are distorted in this whisper game (or what-ever it is called).

A researcher says that "extensive re-infection is a theoretical possibility."
Someone quotes it as saying "you can get infected with BA.2 after being infected with Omicron BA.1"
Everyone then reads it and assumes everyone who had BA.1 will be re-infected with BA.2 the next day.

[Rasulis]

Since that was from Denmark, there's also reporting that Denmark might tomorrow announce a change in the restrictions.
So, based on having widespread BA.2 and close to 5% of the population reported as cases last week, what do you think the change will be?

Well, the scientific advice is to lift all of the internal restrictions at the end of this month, and no longer classify covid-19 as a socially critical disease:
https://sum.dk/indstillinger/2022/ja...estriktioner#2

It looks like San Francisco is heading in the same direction.

"Our goal is no longer to prevent every case of COVID. Instead, our goal is to prevent the worst outcomes of the disease, such as hospitalizations and deaths, and to do this while keeping essential services open, like schools and hospitals." -SFDPH Director Dr. Grant Colfax

This is the same Colfax that on January 21, 2020, with only a single confirmed case in the US, and President Trump still insisting he was “not at all” worried about a pandemic and that “we have it totally under control,” initiated emergency preparedness plans simultaneously at three major San Francisco institutions: the teaching hospital at UCSF Medical Center, SF General, and Colfax's office at the Department of Public Health. The two hospitals cancelled elective surgeries and cleared entire floors to create surge wards filled with intensive-care beds.

[PhaelixWW]

That seems to be a clear example of how facts are distorted in this whisper game (or what-ever it is called).

A researcher says that "extensive re-infection is a theoretical possibility."
Someone quotes it as saying "you can get infected with BA.2 after being infected with Omicron BA.1"
Everyone then reads it and assumes everyone who had BA.1 will be re-infected with BA.2 the next day.

Well, from a google-translated version of the article linked in the tweet:

It is possible that you can be infected with BA.1 Omikron first, and then shortly after with BA.2, he says in 'Go morgen Danmark'.

In Norway, where BA.2 is also spreading, a few cases have been seen where this has happened.

That, at least, makes it sound more than just "theoretically possible". And the timeline for reinfection is definitely short, with omicron not having been around very long at this point.

Obviously, this is still a very small sample size, so we'll see.

[Forogil]

Well, from a google-translated version of the article linked in the tweet:

That, at least, makes it sound more than just "theoretically possible".

The 'theoretical possibility' was for 'extensive reinfection', not single cases.

But it is still not clear if single cases have actually happened - as it seems that all we have is someone in Denmark reporting that it happened in Norway, and confusingly when a Norwegian news-source report on this (citing a Swedish news source citing the Danish one) they claim it hasn't happened:
https://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/spa...etopp/75206457

He (=Preben Aavitsland, chief medical officer at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI)) says they are not aware that anyone previously infected with omicron has again been infected with the new variant in Norway.

(Auto-translated and corrected spelling of omicron.)

It might still be something, or a misunderstanding, or something slightly different - like a double-infection, not a re-infection.

Obviously, this is still a very small sample size, so we'll see.

Still best to do.

[Lenonis]

Oh, the pandemic is a terrible time. Everything has been moved online. My friends still prefer online socializing, but I want to go out...

I mean unless you live in a country with lockdowns you aren't prohibited from going out and doing stuff. You just need to assess the risk of exposure and decide.

With vaccines in place and treatments available we should start moving back to "normal" but that doesn't mean tossing masks and ignoring safety. But we really need to get back to living our lives as best and safely as we can.

[Edge-]

https://www.businessinsider.com/holo...arisons-2022-1

And now Holocaust survivors are begging anti-vaxx morons to stop wearing Jewish stars and comparing vaccines and mandates to the fuckin Holocaust. You know, people who survived literal death camps.

Just a bunch of big babies upset that they need proof of vaccination to get a latte or a Bud Light at the bar, thinking their suffering is equal to that of Jews and others killed in an actual attempt at genocide.

[Lenonis]

And now Holocaust survivors are begging anti-vaxx morons to stop wearing Jewish stars and comparing vaccines and mandates to the fuckin Holocaust.

I can think of little I've seen during the pandemic that is grosser than this.

Maybe people spitting at other people for asking them to put on a mask. That's not only gross from a hygiene perspective but I'm pretty sure that's assault.

[Zantos]

It looks like San Francisco is heading in the same direction.

"Our goal is no longer to prevent every case of COVID. Instead, our goal is to prevent the worst outcomes of the disease, such as hospitalizations and deaths, and to do this while keeping essential services open, like schools and hospitals." -SFDPH Director Dr. Grant Colfax

That is a very stupid and an asinine statement. Their goal is to prevent the worst outcomes? You know how you do that with a rapidly evolving virus that is infecting everyone, including the vaccinated? You try to prevent it from spreading and having more chances to evolve! If you're at the point where the vaccine is Not prevent it from spreading, and its still evolving, you can't just ignore it. Its like these morons don't understand that it just takes a bit more evolving to possibly prevent the vaccines from even stopping bad symptoms.

This is stupid. I have asthma, have the vaccine, and I still worry about what would happen if I caught it. I haven't been to any restaurants or movies in years. It feels like a game of the floor is lava just going out. I wish they would take this seriously so people like me can stop having to worry about a Highly contagious virus killing me when all it requires is for people to act with some decency to try to stop the spread.

[cubby]

That is a very stupid and an asinine statement. Their goal is to prevent the worst outcomes? You know how you do that with a rapidly evolving virus that is infecting everyone, including the vaccinated? You try to prevent it from spreading and having more chances to evolve! If you're at the point where the vaccine is Not prevent it from spreading, and its still evolving, you can't just ignore it. Its like these morons don't understand that it just takes a bit more evolving to possibly prevent the vaccines from even stopping bad symptoms.

This is stupid. I have asthma, have the vaccine, and I still worry about what would happen if I caught it. I haven't been to any restaurants or movies in years. It feels like a game of the floor is lava just going out. I wish they would take this seriously so people like me can stop having to worry about a Highly contagious virus killing me when all it requires is for people to act with some decency to try to stop the spread.

I can't imagine your frustration with this, now, after everything else that has come about - I have a friend in somewhat same circumstances, and they haven't done anything in the past 2 years, and aren't sure if they will be able to going forward, because catching it for them, even vaxxed/boosted, might be a death sentence.

All that being said, however, what could that do now, though? All municipalities are short on funding and manpower to do the right thing now. And the GQP made sure the right thing wasn't possible when it really would have had an effect, and has now essentially made it impossible to do anything outside of "let it run it's course, and get vaxxed/boosted".

I mean, if the politicians in San Francisco have given up, what else is there to do?

[Witchblade77]

has this been mentioned yet? sorry if it has, but hey, if others follow suit..... https://www.rollingstone.com/music/m...ation-1290020/

[Zantos]

All that being said, however, what could that do now, though? All municipalities are short on funding and manpower to do the right thing now. And the GQP made sure the right thing wasn't possible when it really would have had an effect, and has now essentially made it impossible to do anything outside of "let it run it's course, and get vaxxed/boosted".

Running its course could mean a huge disaster though. That is the issue we have. We are at the point where this thing is far worse then when we began because even the vaccine offers no protection against catching it, and its still evolving. To make matters worse, this thing has a slew of health complications that it creates in those who are sick even after they recover. This isn't a virus we can treat like the flu. The flu doesn't leave people with lingering health issues that could lead to an early death or lower their ability to think.

At the end of the day, the answer as to what we need to do is the exact same as when this all began. Shut down long enough for the virus to simply be incapable of spreading. Police it hard and basically act like a dictatorship for a few months. Worldwide. People just can't see past the greed and their own selfish desires to think rationally about this virus and just how bad this thing can get. Not even in 1 years time and the virus can already get past the vaccine with zero issues.