The Coronavirus Thread

[pErvinalia]

[DarkestOne]

The virus will mutate to target specifically those who have been vaccinated, prefering those who have been double or triple vaccinated, and those with an ill standing before the god of the planet and universe known as AO in dungeons and dragons - lauded be his name.

You have been duly warned.

You heard it here first and you'll hear it from the loud speakers on helicopters and drones last.

Just kidding, or maybe I'm not? Stock up on hazmat suits from your local milsurp store

Sent from my octopus using Tapatalk

[JimC]

Yet another example of how religious fundamentalists (in this case Jewish) think they are above any secular laws:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-07/ ... /100441768

Police have fined a number of people in Melbourne's inner south-east and are investigating an alleged assault at a religious gathering that violated public health orders.

Video filmed last night shows a mass of people gathered behind a synagogue in Ripponlea.

It is believed the people were attending a celebration to mark Rosh Hashanah.

Police moved in to break up the event, leading to confrontations and heated discussions outside the venue.

A news cameraman was also allegedly assaulted while filming the gathering.

He was treated in hospital for suspected concussion and police are investigating the alleged assault.

Local business owner Steve Davis told ABC Radio Melbourne he saw up to 40 people going in and out of the synagogue, in what he said was a "blatant disregard for the rules".

[rainbow]

Yet another example of how religious fundamentalists (in this case Jewish) think they are above any secular laws:

I think their God should protect them better.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Don't tell them.

'Effects of Ivermectin therapy on the sperm functions of Nigerian onchocerciasis patients'

We observed significant reduction in the sperm counts and sperm motility of the patients tested.
On the morphology there was significant increase in the number of abnormal sperm cells. This took the
forms of two heads, double tails, white (albino) sperms and extraordinarily large heads. It is suspected
that the above alterations in the already determined parameters of the patients' sperm cells could only
have occurred as a result of their treatment with ivermectin.

[JimC]

That's terrible news! Remember, every sperm is sacred!

[L'Emmerdeur]

A nasty, horrible fact-checker on ivermectin and infertility:

'"Ivermectin Causes Infertility" Meme'

Claim
"Ivermectin causes male infertility."

Rating
Decontextualized

[pErvinalia]

Get my first jab tomorrow. Never been this excited about an injection.

[pErvinalia]

Lockdown is ending Saturday!!

Hopefully this means I can get up to Brisbane again. As well as not seeing the kids for weeks, I was set to miss out on the start of the cricket season. Starting next weekend.

[JimC]

Get my first jab tomorrow. Never been this excited about an injection.

You'll be able to sense the direction of every 5G tower in your vicinity!

[Scot Dutchy]

I had to give myself a jab yesterday for my cluster headaches and that was a hundred times worse than the Covid vaccination which I never really felt.

[Tero]

Two brave Trumpsters died and a lot of people partied on Labor Day
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - The Lincoln Lancaster County Health Department reported Tuesday that three more people have died from COVID-19.

Pat Lopez, Director of the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department, said the deaths were all males - one in his 40s, one in his 50s and one in his 70s. Lopez said two of the three people who died were not vaccinated.

The health department said there were a total of 274 COVID-19 cases over the holiday weekend: 139 Saturday, 76 Sunday, 59 Monday. On Tuesday, 159 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Lancaster County.

[JimC]

A very interesting article on the situation in Israel, with high numbers of new cases of the Delta strain, even with a high vaccination percentage.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021 ... /100442304

Just a few months ago, Israel was the picture of COVID-19 vaccination success.

After an early and rapid rollout, and with the majority of its adult population fully vaccinated, Israel lifted virtually all COVID-19 restrictions — and life in the Middle Eastern nation returned to an almost pre-COVID normal.

With daily case numbers close to zero, businesses reopened, mass gatherings resumed, and face masks were eagerly discarded as people flocked to beaches and restaurants.

But the celebrations — and optimism that herd immunity had arrived — didn't last long.

By late June, case numbers began to climb, and they haven't stopped.

New daily infections reached an all-time high of 16,011 on September 1, surpassing peak numbers seen in January (during the country's second wave) by several thousand.

Israel recently recorded the highest seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 cases per million people of any country in the world.

So why, in a nation with relatively high vaccination rates, are COVID-19 cases still surging?

And as Australia looks to reopen, what lessons can we learn?

Israel shot to an early lead in the race to vaccinate, inoculating almost 80 per cent of its citizens aged 12 and over by June, the vast majority with the Pfizer vaccine.

With leaders confident they had conquered COVID-19 and the risk of it spreading, the country lifted virtually all movement restrictions and mask mandates.

"They completely dropped their guard," said Kim Mulholland, a paediatrician at the University of Melbourne and member of the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization.

"There were lots of big gatherings, religious meetings, and all sorts of events that happened in June, in the middle of summer."

At the same time, the highly contagious Delta variant arrived on Israel's shores, first emerging in school-aged children and quickly spreading to their parents.

Leading infectious diseases expert Sharon Lewin said without any measures to control the Delta variant, it was difficult to stop chains of transmission, even with reasonably high rates of vaccination.

"What we've learned from [Israel], and what's consistent with the modelling … is that even at 80 per cent, you need to have some public health measures in place to contain transmission," said Professor Lewin, director of The Doherty Institute.

"Israel flung the door open at the time Delta hit, and once things take off and you've got very large numbers, it's very hard to bring that under control."

While overall adult vaccination rates are high, there are pockets of Israel's population that remain unvaccinated, including some ultra-orthodox Jewish communities.

Making things more challenging is the fact that 25 per cent of Israel's population is younger than 12, meaning only 68 per cent of its whole population is fully vaccinated — a threshold too low to achieve herd immunity.

[JimC]

An article about the political dimensions in Oz (particularly State vs Federal) surrounding vaccine passports or the like:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-09/ ... /100444594

The Prime Minister doesn't like the term "vaccine passport".

He bristles at the phrase and ensures it never passes his lips, well aware it triggers some of his Coalition colleagues. But Scott Morrison is not standing in the way of this new reality. Whatever you want to call it, proof of vaccination is about to become part of everyday life, whether travelling overseas or heading to the local pub.

This week, Morrison was emphatic. "Any venue, any pub, any cafe, any restaurant, any shop can, has every right under Australia's property laws to be able to deny entry to people who are unvaccinated," he told Sky News.

A couple of weeks ago, he similarly told 2GB listeners to prepare for what's coming, saying property law made it clear that businesses had a "legitimate" right to protect their staff and clients.

This may seem like a simple statement of the existing law, but it does represent a subtle shift. Five weeks earlier, the Prime Minister was more cautious when asked about the rights of businesses to turn away the unvaccinated.

"I can't make it the law for someone to require of a customer to declare their vaccination status," he said. "These things are done through public health orders at a state and territory level."

Now, Morrison is convinced existing common law already provides all the protection businesses need to stick a “no jab, no entry” sign in the shop window.

It also represents a subtle push-back from Morrison at some of his own backbenchers, conservative commentators, One Nation and Clive Palmer, who are all determined to defend the rights of the unvaccinated.

Within the Coalition, Eric Abetz, Gerard Rennick, Alex Antic, Russell Broadbent, Andrew Laming and Matt Canavan have all expressed varying degrees of concern about the freedoms and liberties of those who choose not to get a jab.

They're worried about creating two classes of citizen, locking some Australians out of society and "slippery slopes". Some see proof of vaccination as a de-facto ID card, "big brother" type approach.

In France, hundreds of thousands have joined weekly rallies over the Macron Government's vaccination "health pass", which is now required when accessing swimming pools, museums, nightclubs, sporting venues, shopping centres and larger restaurants.

For the past eight weeks, demonstrators have taken to the streets every Saturday across France, but their numbers are slowly dwindling. Life is moving on and the health pass is becoming a part of everyday life, just as similar certificates are in Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Denmark. The rules on how they're used differ slightly, but the principle is the same — no jab, no entry.

There's strong public support for such a system here, too. According to a Resolve Political Monitor published in the Nine Newspapers, 73 per cent think "a vaccine passport or certificate to prove you have had a jab is a good idea".

Millions of Australians currently in lockdown, it seems, would have no problem showing proof of vaccination if it meant they could go to the pub or the theatre.

Two weeks ago, the NSW Premier said her government was already working with industry on an "all-in-one" app to verify vaccination and check-in at a venue.

This week, the Victorian Premier flagged a similar approach in his state. "We are going to lock out people who are not vaccinated and can be," he said. An industry pilot program is being developed.

As the Prime Minister recently noted in relation to COVID-19 restrictions: "Ultimately everything is a state matter". Proof of vaccination falls into the same category. Whether federal Coalition MPs like it or not, the states are calling the shots.

Vaccination certificates are coming, but the detail of how they will work is less clear.

Which businesses will be able to apply a "no jab, no entry" rule? Only airlines, entertainment, and hospitality venues? Which businesses will be required to continue serving the unvaccinated? What will happen to the data collected? What if an unvaccinated patron refuses to leave? Will every state run a separate system? Will we face a mishmash of different rules, different apps and different systems in each state and territory?

[Tero]

Wired:
....There’s more! In the very same presentation, the very same trial that showed this antidepressant might lessen the symptoms of Covid-19 also showed that the antiparasitic drug ivermectin—you’ve heard about that one, right?—doesn’t help at all. In the Together trial, that drug, commonly used against things like river blindness and intestinal roundworms, didn’t keep anyone with Covid out of the hospital any better than a placebo. Of 677 people with Covid who got 400 micrograms per kilogram of weight per day for three days, 86 ended up in the ER or hospital; of the 678 people who got a placebo, 95 went. That’s not a significant difference.
https://www.wired.com/story/better-data ... =algorithm