The Coronavirus Thread

[Tero]

A month of this and we will be over the hump:
(CNN)The US hit a seven-day average of 265,427 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, blowing past the country's previous record of about 252,000 daily cases, reported nearly a year ago on January 11.

[rainbow]

Then there is this:
https://wickedtruths.org/en/viruses-do-not-exist/

[macdoc]

ah back to the good ol days circa 16th century..

[pErvinalia]

Covid infections on a real steep rise here at the moment. Still very few deaths, thankfully.

[Brian Peacock]

Covid infections on a real steep rise here at the moment. Still very few deaths, thankfully.

Your government redefines 'close contact'...

Fewer Australians will be told to get tested for Covid, with most states backing a much narrower definition of a close contact, as a record 21,000 new daily cases were recorded nationwide.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, cited “some very practical problems” caused by the more infectious Omicron variant – including the huge strain on the PCR testing scheme that had been at the centre of Australia’s response for two years.

Speaking after a snap national cabinet meeting on Thursday, Morrison called for a “reset” because it was unfeasible to “have hundreds of thousands of Australians or more taken out of circulation based on rules that were set for the Delta variant”.

The changes come on the same day the OzSage group of scientists and economists warned that a “let it rip” and “defeatist” approach to Covid would disrupt the health system and be felt most by vulnerable groups...

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... se-contact

UK positive tests hit 180,000+ yesterday - around 1000 cases per 100,000.

[NineBerry]

Another one bytes the dust...

A Dutch economist who was a prominent skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccines and an anti-lockdown campaigner has died at the age of 53 after contracting the disease.

Robin Fransman, a political economist, passed away due to the consequences of infection with the SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, on December 28 at a hospital in Amsterdam, Dutch daily newspaper Het Parool reported.

On December 3, Fransman announced on his Twitter page that he had tested positive for the disease.

"Corona positive. It's about time too," he tweeted.

The 53-year-old was admitted to the hospital soon after and eventually succumbed to the disease after his condition worsened.

[...]

https://www.newsweek.com/economist-robi ... ds-1664069

[JimC]

With omicron, perhaps the old and once discredited idea of herd immunity will be realised, via a combination of those recovered from infection and those vaccinated, with the strongest immunity going to those in both categories...

[Brian Peacock]

OzSage experts warn ‘let it rip’ Covid strategy will condemn vulnerable Australians to death.

Oz govt seem particularly wedded to sticking it to the sick and disabled.

[JimC]

I suspect that governments the world over have almost given up on imposing major restrictions. I'm becoming fatalistic about the whole damn thing...

[pErvinalia]

Covid infections on a real steep rise here at the moment. Still very few deaths, thankfully.

Your government redefines 'close contact'...

Fewer Australians will be told to get tested for Covid, with most states backing a much narrower definition of a close contact, as a record 21,000 new daily cases were recorded nationwide.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, cited “some very practical problems” caused by the more infectious Omicron variant – including the huge strain on the PCR testing scheme that had been at the centre of Australia’s response for two years.

Speaking after a snap national cabinet meeting on Thursday, Morrison called for a “reset” because it was unfeasible to “have hundreds of thousands of Australians or more taken out of circulation based on rules that were set for the Delta variant”.

The changes come on the same day the OzSage group of scientists and economists warned that a “let it rip” and “defeatist” approach to Covid would disrupt the health system and be felt most by vulnerable groups...

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... se-contact

UK positive tests hit 180,000+ yesterday - around 1000 cases per 100,000.

Relaxing restrictions. What kind of dictators are these??

[Svartalf]

With omicron, perhaps the old and once discredited idea of herd immunity will be realised, via a combination of those recovered from infection and those vaccinated, with the strongest immunity going to those in both categories...

with luck, by 2025, they'll be giving combined covid+flu shots

[Scot Dutchy]

Another one bytes the dust...

A Dutch economist who was a prominent skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccines and an anti-lockdown campaigner has died at the age of 53 after contracting the disease.

Robin Fransman, a political economist, passed away due to the consequences of infection with the SARS-CoV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, on December 28 at a hospital in Amsterdam, Dutch daily newspaper Het Parool reported.

On December 3, Fransman announced on his Twitter page that he had tested positive for the disease.

"Corona positive. It's about time too," he tweeted.

The 53-year-old was admitted to the hospital soon after and eventually succumbed to the disease after his condition worsened.

[...]

https://www.newsweek.com/economist-robi ... ds-1664069

No mention of his extreme religious beliefs which is why he refused the vaccine. He was a member of the ultra orthodox "gereformeerd" church. He was anti lockdown only because the church was restricted in the first lock down.

[Tero]

T-cells working well. Vaccine mediated.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... m=news_tab

The findings could help explain why the wave of omicron cases hasn’t so far caused a surge in mortality from South Africa to the U.S. and the U.K. Unlike antibodies, T cells can target the whole of the virus’s spike protein, which remains largely similar even in the highly mutated omicron.

[JimC]

A telling statistic from an ABC report on covid developments in Victoria:

Victorians who have not received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine make up just 7 per cent of the population aged 12 and over, but make up roughly 90 per cent of the COVID-19 patients in ICUs.

[Tero]

15% of our state has had covid. Some 50% is vaccinated. Because of the variants, we will never get herd immunity.