Coronavirus COVID-19

https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/covid-vaccination-sweepstakes?cid=redir-covid-vaccination-sweepstakes

i wonder if the nations receiving their vaccines from COVAX will also be entered into this (or a similar) sweepstake

Apparently the US isn't counting breakthrough infections if the people who get them aren't sick enough to be hospitalized...

  On 5/27/2021 at 8:37 PM, TubularCorporation said:

Apparently the US isn't counting breakthrough infections if the people who get them aren't sick enough to be hospitalized...

source?

that's is contrary to what i have seen and i just searched it and found this cdc.gov page, recently updated, which shows the US counting breakthrough infections if people are hospitalized. 

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7021e3.htm

That's exactly what I said, they're counting them if people are hospitalized, but apparently if they aren't hospitalized they don't get publicly counted.

Which is worrying if, like me, you have people close to you who are immunocompromised and can't be vaccinated.

Either way it's pretty rare, but underreporting has been so bad across the board that it's frustrating to hear about another potential flavor of it.

Meanwhile in China:

Guangzhou residents queue for jabs after four cases reported https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3135095/coronavirus-guangzhou-residents-queue-jabs-after-four-cases

Also basically everyone from Guangzhou traveling anywhere else in China has been told to quarantine.

But anyway, FOUR confirmed cased and FIVE asymptomatic cases and they start implementing lockdown measures. That's a bit different approach to most of Europe and US.

  On 5/27/2021 at 10:28 PM, TubularCorporation said:

That's exactly what I said, they're counting them if people are hospitalized, but apparently if they aren't hospitalized they don't get publicly counted.

 

Which is worrying if, like me, you have people close to you who are immunocompromised and can't be vaccinated.

 

Either way it's pretty rare, but underreporting has been so bad across the board that it's frustrating to hear about another potential flavor of it.

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sorry, i misread. but my link also indicates that breakthrough cases that do not involve hospitalization are also counted:

  Quote

A total of 10,262 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine breakthrough infections had been reported from 46 U.S. states and territories as of April 30, 2021. Among these cases, 6,446 (63%) occurred in females, and the median patient age was 58 years (interquartile range = 40–74 years). Based on preliminary data, 2,725 (27%) vaccine breakthrough infections were asymptomatic, 995 (10%) patients were known to be hospitalized, and 160 (2%) patients died. Among the 995 hospitalized patients, 289 (29%) were asymptomatic or hospitalized for a reason unrelated to COVID-19. 

That's good to know. 

Good News:
Number of people Vaccinated is increasing steadily.
Most of the most vulnerable people seem to have been vaccinated.
Number of Covid-19 infected people in hospitals is decreasing.
Number of Covid-19 deaths is decreasing.
Bars, restaurants and other social and cultural places are reopening.

Things are looking up.

Let's hope that less privileged countries will be able to do the same soon too.
The sooner, the better.
So less people have to suffer.
And so the virus has less chance to mutate.

Let's hope we can reach the percentage needed to reach the herd immunity threshold.
(about 70% of the total population?)


Percentage of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered to people worldwide: (1st dose + 2nd dose)


Percentage of citizens with first Covid-19 dose:


Evolution of Covid-19 numbers in Belgium:

  Quote

All epidemics end, vaccine or no vaccine. The Spanish Flu ended. The Black Death ended.

And yes, in those cases, herd immunity did it. We reached it the hard way — down the stone paths in the cemeteries— but we got there.

But herd immunity is not the whole picture. Nor is it what constitutes “the end.”

By that I mean: the Black Death and the Spanish Flu ended only as epidemics.

The pathogens that caused them didn’t vanish. They’re still with us. But you don’t need transmission exterminated to say an epidemic is over. You just need it manageable.

Herd immunity is not a moment in time. President Biden is never going to say: “Today, at 9:04 A.M., on the deck of the U.S.S. Moderna, the virus known as SARS-CoV-2 signed our general terms of surrender.”

Instead, this virus is slowly becoming endemic: something we live with.

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The End IS Near. No, Seriously. (Donald G. McNeil Jr./Medium)

got my shot

France seems to be faring well this week, but look @ Argentina, yikes

  On 5/29/2021 at 2:58 AM, yekker said:

got my shot

flavor?

got moderna-ized yesterday.

  On 5/29/2021 at 12:04 PM, iococoi said:

flavor?

got moderna-ized yesterday.

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I got teh pfizzzer~

  On 5/28/2021 at 11:16 AM, MaartenVC said:

Good News:
Number of people Vaccinated is increasing steadily.
Most of the most vulnerable people seem to have been vaccinated.
Number of Covid-19 infected people in hospitals is decreasing.
Number of Covid-19 deaths is decreasing.
Bars, restaurants and other social and cultural places are reopening.

Things are looking up.

Let's hope that less privileged countries will be able to do the same soon too.
The sooner, the better.
So less people have to suffer.
And so the virus has less chance to mutate.

Let's hope we can reach the percentage needed to reach the herd immunity threshold.
(about 70% of the total population?)


Percentage of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered to people worldwide: (1st dose + 2nd dose)


Percentage of citizens with first Covid-19 dose:


Evolution of Covid-19 numbers in Belgium:

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great post and very true. also it's nice to enjoy the good news.

but it prompts me to post this counterpoint, which you allude to. zeynep has been one of the most astute and prescient journalists covering covid and here's her latest message. click the tweet to view the full thread. 

Props to the researchers who made this HQ vaccine possible.This is some bad ass vaccines we got here.I remember early in the pandemic when people were speculating that it could take years and years for a vaccine.But they pull it off and with high grades.

There are also reports that the wife of a Wuhan lab worker died of COVID in December, 2019

It sounds like a lot of people who got infected, and then vaccinated, won’t need booster shots like the rest of us will

  On 5/30/2021 at 7:41 PM, Rubin Farr said:

There are also reports that the wife of a Wuhan lab worker died of COVID in December, 2019

 

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Is there a non New York Post source for this?

Is anyone else getting a sinking feeling of dread as this news story of what may inevitably be a Chinese failure to contain COVID in a lab gains momentum? My suspicion is they are guilty, but have done such an extensive and now lengthy effort to destroy any trace of evidence in Wuhan or elsewhere, that a national effort to rewrite history is underway, as they have attempted with Tiananmen Square, and they will NEVER admit culpability. A tragedy on the global scale of COVID-19 will just not go unpunished if it was human failure, and with China gaining so much influence, and having such a gung-ho leader, I fear it may eventually lead to a global conflict, even if that takes a century or longer. 

sorry to be a bummer, but this keeps me up at night

If it's any comfort, that story is only a story in the US so far, take that as you wish.

  On 6/1/2021 at 8:03 AM, Silent Member said:

If it's any comfort, that story is only a story in the US so far, take that as you wish.

I realize it's been caught in the liberal cable news cycle, but at least a large government is making a legit effort to fully explore reconstructing what happened for history's sake if nothing else.

  On 6/1/2021 at 9:41 AM, Rubin Farr said:

I realize it's been caught in the liberal cable news cycle, but at least a large government is making a legit effort to fully explore reconstructing what happened for history's sake if nothing else.

I honestly don't see what difference it makes. Either the virus made its own way to Wuhan (and every virus that makes it to that place is pretty much guaranteed to spread to the rest of the world on account of Wuhan being such an important transportation hub) or it slipped out of a lab because labs are staffed by humans and humans are sloppy but in any case the result is the same.

No matter what the Chinese government wants to cover up, I can guarantee you technicians at that Wuhan facility will be a little more careful for the next few years. Until they inevitably get sloppy again.

Frankly it amazes me that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often.

  On 6/1/2021 at 10:51 AM, rhmilo said:

Frankly it amazes me that this sort of thing doesn't happen more often.

It probably happens now and then but the news get suppressed especially in places like China. There are some known cases like the time US DoD accidentally sent live Anthrax spores to military bases including one in South Korea https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/27/pentagon-live-anthrax-accident

whoopsie