COVID-19 - social and political fallout (8)

Eric Feigl-Ding (epidemiologist) @DrEricDing | 2:52 PM · Nov 6, 2021
BREAKING—Biden White House’s vaccine mandate for private employers has been halted by a Texas federal court.
Coincidentally—it is the same 3 judge panel that also refused to block Texas’s abortion ban law.
2 of the panel are Trump-appointed judges.
This will likely go to SCOTUS.

Steve Vladeck (U TX Law) @steve_vladeck | 1:55 PM · Nov 6, 2021:
The Fifth Circuit has stayed enforcement of the Biden administration’s private-employer vaccine mandate —
not because it actually applied the right test for such emergency relief,
but simply by asserting that the mandate raises “grave statutory and constitutional issues.”
Text ( https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1457043916662902785/photo/1 )

This isn’t just the same *court* that has bent over backwards to allow #SB8 (TX abortion law) to go into effect (despite “grave constitutional issues”);
it’s the same *panel* that reached out to prevent the district court from even *holding* a preliminary injunction hearing in the providers’ case.

Appeals court temporarily halts Biden vaccine mandate for larger businesses
AP | November 6, 2021

...The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests...

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the action stops President Biden "from moving forward with his unlawful overreach...The president will not impose medical procedures on the American people without the checks and balances afforded by the constitution..."

At least 27 states filed lawsuits challenging the rule in several circuits, some of which were made more conservative by the judicial appointments of former President Donald Trump.

...The 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, said it was delaying the federal vaccine requirement because of potential "grave statutory and constitutional issues" raised by the plaintiffs. The government must provide an expedited reply to the motion for a permanent injunction Monday, followed by petitioners' reply on Tuesday...

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/06/1053234688/appeals-court-temporarily-halts-biden-...

Is it time to start moving back to normalcy?

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=rm&ogbl#inbox/FMfcgzGlksBKmtvfmrcZWMhf...

>3 cindydavid4: I think a good rule of thumb would be to keep track of your particular county’s Covid numbers. Particularly active cases and weekly testing %’s. Also the % of people vaccinated. The more good those numbers are the safer it probably is. Also something you should track quite often because things can change rather quickly. That said the higher % of vaccinated the better things are likely to be.

My own case those numbers aren’t very good. NYS has one of the better outlooks right now than most states but those numbers aren’t reflected where I am and now being immune suppressed because of my cancer and treatment I’m much likelier to be in big trouble than others if I got Covid. So I’m keeping myself out of uncertain situations.

As for anyone thinking of going somewhere New England has the 5 highest vaccinated % rates.

Vermont 80.86 one dose 71.81 fully vaccinated
Rhode Island 79.37 one dose 71.47 fully vaccinated
Maine 78.06 one dose 71.22 fully vaccinated
Connecticut 80.35 one dose 71.18 fully vaccinated
Massachusetts 81.58 one dose 70.16 fully vaccinated

They are the only 5 states that have more than 70% fully vaccinated

New Hampshire isn’t bad but it lags behind the other 5 in fully vaccinated with 63.41

For the record New York State is 6th best, New Jersey a close behind 7th and Maryland 8th. Pretty much the Northeast is best as far as people taking Covid vaccination seriously.

With or without my issue I would not go to places with low vaccination rates or with bad or dodgy mitigation efforts.

Here in Michigan, I'm vaxxed, masked and careful. We even test ourselves before spending time with vulnerable friends and relatives.

I think we're in for a painful winter, especially the unvaxxed and immuno-compromised, though new therapies in pipeline may save us from the worst outcomes.

Won't stop hospitals from filling up, though...

Emails reveal new details of Trump White House interference in CDC Covid planning
The documents released by the committee lay out a timeline for how the Trump White House began to downplay the dangers posed by Covid-19.
ERIN BANCO | 11/12/2021

...Former President Donald Trump and his closest confidantes, including former White House adviser Scott Atlas and son-in-law Jared Kushner, tried to steer the course of the federal response, sidestepping the interagency process.

...The emails and transcripts (released by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis) detail how in the early days of 2020 Trump and his allies in the White House blocked media briefings and interviews with CDC officials, attempted to alter public safety guidance normally cleared by the agency and instructed agency officials to destroy evidence that might be construed as political interference.

The documents further underscore how Trump appointees tried to undermine the work of scientists and career staff at the CDC to control the administration’s messaging on the spread of the virus and the dangers of transmission and infection...

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/12/trump-cdc-covid-521128

>6 margd: they all have blood on their hands

sorry double post

just read about american airline pilots who claimed religious exemptions put on un paid leave. Just 1% of the total employees. I am at a loss - please can someone explain what this religious exemption is? Aside from maybe jehova witness or christian scientist I can't think of what they'd use for this

United Airlines pilot exempt from COVID vaccine mandate is on unpaid leave

>9 cindydavid4:

None of the mainstream global religions have objected to vaccinations, and prominent leaders of all of them have publicly urged their members to get vaccinated.

>11 Kuiperdolin: I would not rule out a false flag operation, as the energy and disregard for others, in Canada at least, appears to be with the anti-vaxxers...

Also in Canada:

'It's just so perverse': Vaccine opponents seize on Remembrance Day to spread message in several B.C. cities
Andrew Weichel | Nov. 11, 2021. Updated Nov. 12, 2021

A day of sombre reflection and gratitude for Canada's war veterans was marred by individuals spreading anti-vaccination messages in at least three B.C. cities on Thursday...

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/it-s-just-so-perverse-vaccine-opponents-seize-on-remembran...
______________________________________

As someone with at least seven family members who served in the world wars, who was raised on Canadian military bases, and, who, to this day wears a poppy, pauses for a moment at 11th hour of 11th day, and still has Flander's Field poem in her memory banks, I offer this 50-minute palate cleanser, a Remembrance Day ceremony dated Nov 11, 2021, from a small township in Ontario: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1qNa_rQsjI

>11 Kuiperdolin: um i understand the sentiment, but way in the wrong place. What were they thinking? gads

thats horrible, as bad as that 'church' that went to funerals protesting about gays. Im confused tho by the graffiti- did it mean to say not vaccinated?

If Chinese pet owners are anything like those in the west, authorities may have provoked their long-feared revolution!

China Pet Killings Spark Fear Among Quarantined Covid Patients
Jenni Marsh and Michelle Fay Cortez | November 16, 2021

Corgi death was latest in spate of forced cullings of animals
China taking aggressive measures to halt the spread of delta

Video of the beating to death of a dog in China whose owner was in quarantine has shocked the nation and terrified pet owners over how far the government might go to realize its goal of zero Covid.

The corgi, Chaofen, was seen being clubbed by government workers in protective gear after its owner had contact with a Covid-19 patient and was sent into isolation. The video was captured by a camera in the owner’s home. The dog ran into another room after being struck on the head with a metal rod.

The owner, identified in news reports as Ms. Fu, said afterward that Chaofen had died, and that the pets of some of her neighbors suffered the same fate...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-16/china-pet-killings-spark-fear...

AmCham’s Hong Kong president to depart after 5 years in job
Primrose Riordan and Chan Ho-him | 11/16/2021

Tara Joseph, (president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, one of the biggest international chambers in the city)... since February 2017 (will) leave AmCham in six months....

...AmCham released a survey this May that indicated 42 per cent of its members were considering whether to leave the city due to uncertainties relating to the pandemic (up to three weeks of quarantine required for most arrivals) as well as the fallout from the security law (2020)...

https://www.ft.com/content/523969b3-b785-4a20-aa5b-74c9cf9c57fe
--------------------------------------------

Hong Kong defends Jamie Dimon’s quarantine-free entry
Chan Ho-him and Tabby Kinder | 11/16/2021

...JPMorgan Chase chair and chief executive Jamie Dimon...the first Wall Street investment bank chief to visit the Chinese territory since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, flew in from the US and will spend just 32 hours in Hong Kong meeting regulators and 4,000 staff in a virtual “town hall”.

...Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive...said “(JPMorgan) is after all a huge bank which has important businesses in Hong Kong” that Dimon’s trip posed only “controllable risks” given that his itinerary was approved “with restrictions”. Those curbs included wearing a face mask, maintaining distance during meetings and not shaking hands.

...Travellers from the US, along with 24 other high-risk countries, including much of Europe, must undergo hotel quarantine for 21 days....

https://www.ft.com/content/523969b3-b785-4a20-aa5b-74c9cf9c57fe

DeSantis races Bolsonaro, Trump, and Abbott to the bottom:

Florida Republicans pass bills setting stage for clash with Biden over vaccine rules
Dartunorro Clark | Nov. 17, 2021

...In largely party-line votes, the GOP-led Legislature passed several bills taking aim at coronavirus restrictions in a special session called by Gov. Ron DeSantis...

The bill targeting President Joe Biden's vaccination requirements for private employers, which would allow certain exemptions for medical and religious reasons, would impose fines on businesses with mandates that don't comply with coming state guidelines. The Associated Press reported that the state Health Department, led by Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, a Covid vaccination critic, will determine what qualifies as an exemption after the legislation is signed into law.

The bill would also bar schools from requiring students to be vaccinated or to wear masks...

The three other measures would move the state away from Occupational Safety and Health Administration oversight, shield Covid-related complaints from the public eye and remove state health officials' authority to order vaccinations during public health emergencies...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/florida-republicans-pass-bills-se...

>17 margd: sigh. good thing vaccinations were considered for the common good back in the day, otherwise we'd have lots of people dead from polio, measles, rubella, etc. I really just don't get this

Dutch police fire warning shots as COVID riots hit Rotterdam
Jan HENNOP and Danny KEMP | Nov. 20, 2021

Dutch police fired warning shots, injuring several people, after rioters against a partial COVID lockdown torched a police car and hurled stones in Rotterdam on Friday.

Chaos broke out after a protest in the port city against the coronavirus restrictions and government plans to restrict access for unvaccinated people to some venues.

Dozens of people were arrested and seven people were injured in total, including police officers, during the nighttime rampage on one of Rotterdam's main shopping streets.

The Netherlands went back into western Europe's first partial lockdown of the winter last Saturday with at least three weeks of curbs on restaurants, shops and sports...

https://japantoday.com/category/world/dutch-police-fire-warning-shots-as-covid-r...

Covid Live Updates: Skirmishes Break Out as Austrians Protest Restrictions
Nov 21, 2021

Demonstrators gathered in several European countries a day after marches in the Netherlands turned violent....

Skirmishes break out as thousands march in Vienna against Austria’s Covid measures.

In Europe, again the pandemic’s epicenter, new restrictions provoke resistance.

Tennessee lifts its 20-month-old pandemic state of emergency.

Italy prepares for an 18th weekend of demonstrations against the country’s health pass.

...

The pandemic ‘is not yet over’: Portugal is set to add further restrictions.

...

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/11/20/world/covid-boosters-vaccines-cases-mand...

Why Health-Care Workers Are Quitting in Droves
Ed Yong | November 16, 2021

About one in five health-care workers has left their job since the pandemic started. This is their story—and the story of those left behind.

...Between 35 and 54 percent of American nurses and physicians were already feeling burned out before the pandemic. During it, many have taken stock of their difficult working conditions and inadequate pay and decided that, instead of being resigned, they will simply resign.

...Throughout the pandemic, commentators have looked to COVID-hospitalization numbers as an indicator of the health-care system’s state. But those numbers say nothing about the dwindling workforce, the mounting exhaustion of those left behind, the expertise now missing from hospitals, or the waves of post-COVID or non-COVID patients. Focusing on COVID numbers belies how much harder getting good medical care for anything is now—and how long that trend could potentially continue...

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/11/the-mass-exodus-of-americas-h...

wow, I had no idea.....

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2021/11/11/eric-clapton-vaccin...

Been a fan of his since the yardbyrds. just crazy

>21 margd: speaking to this when I was in the hospital at least a lot of the staff had input into drawing up their own schedules but at least most of them seemed to be doing a lot of OT. This was the cancer part of the hospital and there weren’t any Covid patients anywhere near us. It wasn’t unusual for the nurses though to be working strings of 12 hour shifts.

Where the Covid patients are I imagine it would have been much harder on the staff. A lot more on the line for them as far as health and safety and more pressure to put in more hours and then all the psychological issues and burnout that would come with watching people constantly dying—sometimes very young people.

FINALLY... A CHRISTMAS SONG ABOUT MARIAH CAREY THAT SOUNDS LIKE THE POGUES (3:45)
Brittlestar | 11/26/2021
https://www.facebook.com/brittlestar/posts/435795501247114

>25 Kuiperdolin: Your weird fantasies about what other people want are weird. And they're fantasies.

Pope Francis Attends Student Play on How the Pandemic has Affected Young People (ACI Africa)

Pope Francis left the Vatican on Thursday to attend a theatrical performance in Rome by students on how the pandemic has affected young people... a group of young people from 41 countries...

Wow, that it would come to this. In one year, Cdns went from celebrating to seriously intimidating health care workers...

Ottawa moves to criminalize intimidation of health care workers; introduces 10 sick days for federally regulated workers
Kristy Kirkup and Ian Bailey | November 26, 2021
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-federal-government-introduces-l...

Hey I thought canadians were nice! I shake my head as well as what has happened the past year but its a world wide problem now, people are angry everywhere and take it out on anyone trying to help. those who sent out faulty information has blood on their hands.

You should see what they are doing to teachers school personnel and board members. Needs to be more laws to protect them as well. I just don't get it.

So much of the critiques raised against mitigation or the vaccines is anecdotal which is about the worst way to look at things.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/auschwitz-memorial-condemns-lara-logan-comparing-f...
Auschwitz Memorial Condemns Lara Logan Comparing Fauci to Joseph Mengele: ‘Shameful’

Why do the lowest of the low dudes and gals keep getting high-paying jobs in Murdoch's stable of on-air news personalities??? Aussies must be thrilled that the Murdochs decided to build their empire in a foreign land.

Let’s not pretend the anti-mask babies would have lasted a minute in the blitz (Guardian)

It’s funny that so many of those who bang on about the ‘war effort’ seem unable to do something minor for the public good...

To those who have reacted to the precautionary mask-wearing mandate with histrionics and aggression, I think we have to say, very clearly: DO BUCK UP. This really isn’t the attitude that won us the war. As for mentioning the war, forgive me. Around 70,000 Britons died in second world war bombing raids, most of them in the blitz, while 145,000 have thus far perished from Covid. Yet somehow there does seem to be a large intersection between the Venn diagram sets “People who bang on endlessly about WW2” and “People who cannot cope with having to take a relatively minor public health measure for the greater good”...

Trump tested positive for Covid few days before Biden debate, chief of staff says in new book
Martin Pengelly | 1 Dec 2021

Mark Meadows makes stunning admission in new memoir (The Chief’s Chief) obtained by Guardian, saying a second test returned negative

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/01/trump-tested-positive-covid-befo...
-----------------------------------------------
Saturday, 26 Sept 2020--Rose Garden ceremony for Amy Coney Barrett (superspreader event*), Trump tests positive, then negative,** Trump attends rally in Middletown, Pennsylvania.

Sunday, 27 Sept--Trump plays golf in VA, stages event for military families, holds press conference in WH briefing room

Mon, 28 Sept--Trump looks slightly better – “emphasis on the word slightly”

29 September 2020--arriving late, Trump & family don't test before Biden-Trump debate, Biden stays behind plexiglass (mostly?)

2 October--Trump announces he & wife have Covid, heads to hospital
----------------------------------------------
* Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing · Oct 6, 2020
Update—33 positive WH-orbit #COVID19 cases. *2 New:

D Trump
M Trump
*2x military aides to DJT
K McEnany
K Leavitt
C Gilmartin
G Laurie
H Hicks
K Conway
C Christie
M Lee
T Tillis
R Johnson
R McDaniel
J Jenkins
B Stepien
N Luna
1x WH jr staffer
3x reporters
11x Ohio debate staff

Stormy @st0rmywthr | 2:48 PM · Oct 5, 2020
Sorry to break the character limit, but there’s also Claudia Conway and two WH residence staff members.

...

----------------------------------------------
**
They then tested WHILE Trump was on Marine-1 and Meadows calls back and says it’s negative.
Where did they get a fresh sample for the Binax test? Was the first test PCR?

-lex Maria @spudsforever | 5:16 AM · Dec 1, 2021

>32 John5918: great article.

>33 margd: nearly killed Christie……and himself. We would have had Pence then. That would have been better…or at least no January 6. Biden was smart with the plexiglass. The Donald was toxic in more ways than one.

How to manage the Great Resignation
High staff churn is here to stay. Retention strategies require a rethink
Bartleby | Nov 27, 2021

IN THE NOT-SO-DISTANT past, bosses did not have to worry as much about their workforces. Newcomers could absorb the corporate culture osmotically. Workers’ families were invisible, not constantly interrupting Zoom calls. Employees had a job, not a voice. Now firms have to “be intentional” (management-speak for thinking) about everything from the point of the office to how staff communicate with each other. Retention is the latest area to require attention...

...The spike in staff departures known as the Great Resignation is centred on America: a record 3% of the workforce there quit their jobs in September. But employees in other places are also footloose. Resignations explain why job-to-job moves in Britain reached a record high in the third quarter of this year.

Some of the churn is transitory. It was hard to act on pent-up job dissatisfaction while economies were in free fall, so there is a post-pandemic backlog of job switches to clear. And more quitting now is not the same as sustained job-hopping later. As Melissa Swift of Mercer, a consultancy, notes, white-collar workers in search of higher purpose will choose a new employer carefully and stay longer...

...What should managers be doing?

First, they should systematically gauge the retention risk that their firm faces...
Second, managers need to pull different levers to retain different types of people...
Third, managers should plan for how to find new workers...

...The Great Resignation should also prompt a question that rarely gets asked—exactly what level of churn is right? It is more expensive to hire new employees than to keep current ones. Yet by that logic, companies would never want anyone to quit. The mix of old and new is what matters. Existing hands provide cultural ballast; joiners bring fresh skills and perspectives. Keeping good employees happy is vital. But people are like water: there is such a thing as too much retention.

https://www.economist.com/business/2021/11/27/how-to-manage-the-great-resignatio...

The Pandemic Has Your Blood Pressure Rising? You’re Not Alone.
Roni Caryn Rabin | Dec. 6, 2021

Average blood pressure readings increased as the coronavirus spread, new research suggests. The finding portends medical repercussions far beyond Covid-19.

...The new study found that the average monthly change from April 2020 to December 2020, compared with the previous year, was 1.10 mm Hg to 2.50 mm Hg for systolic blood pressure, and 0.14 to 0.53 for diastolic blood pressure.

The increases held true for both men and women, and in all age groups. Larger increases in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure were seen in women.

...critics said the failure to include information on the race and the ethnicity of participants was a significant weakness in the study, as hypertension is much more prevalent among Black Americans than among white or Hispanic Americans.

...The causes of an overall increase in blood pressure are not clear, Dr. Laffin and his colleagues said. The reasons may include an increase in alcohol consumption, a decline in exercise, rising stress, a drop in doctors’ visits and less adherence to a medication regimen.

The researchers dismissed a possible effect of weight gain, known to raise blood pressure, saying that the men in the study had lost weight and that the women had not gained more weight than usual.

But other experts pointed out that average figures for weight gain might mask gains in segments of the population...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/health/covid-blood-pressure.html
----------------------------------------------------

Luke J. Laffin et al. 2021. Rise in Blood Pressure Observed Among US Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic (Research Letter). Circulation. Originally published: 6 Dec 2021. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.057075m https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.121.057075

Variants... :D

“One more set of mutations and the virus will open a Twitter account of its own.”
- @horsepharmer Randy Luckham

Cartoon (Scottish variant)
https://www.facebook.com/sergeanttoceo/photos/a.546889092126931/2064561837026308...

Rarely mentioned as a reason for job vacancies.

Long covid is destroying careers, leaving economic distress in its wake
Suffering from debilitating exhaustion and pain for months, patients find themselves on food stamps and Medicaid
Christopher Rowland | Dec 9, 2021

...Hard data is not available and estimates vary widely, but based on published studies and their own experience treating patients, several medical specialists said 750,000 to 1.3 million patients likely remain so sick for extended periods that they can’t return to the workforce full time.

...Long covid is testing not just the medical system, but also government safety nets that are not well suited to identifying and supporting people with a newly emerging chronic disease that has no established diagnostic or treatment plan. Insurers are denying coverage for some tests, the public disability system is hesitant to approve many claims, and even people with long-term disability insurance say they are struggling to get benefits.

Employers are also being tested, as they must balance their desire to get workers back on the job full time with the realities of a slow recovery for many patients...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/12/09/long-covid-work-unemployed/

>39 margd: there are lots of people looking at years of rehabilitation. They do double lung transplants for people who were younger and stronger when they went into the hospital not for people in their 50’s and older. Those who spend long periods in an ICU if they survive almost always have big problems afterwards—a lot will go out of the hospital with oxygen tanks. If a person was ventilated for any length of time and survives even more issues. I had edema issues after just a few days stuck in a bed after my fractured L-5. It took me a good two months to get over that afterwards. If you’re on a ventilator for any length of time and medically paralyzed and in a coma you’re going to have muscle atrophy afterwards that will be off the charts. You’ll have to learn to walk again like a newborn baby.

China detects second case of Omicron coronavirus variant on the mainland
Nectar Gan | Dec 14, 2021

China has detected its second case of the Omicron coronavirus variant in a traveler more than two weeks after he arrived in the country from overseas, posing a fresh challenge to the government's zero-Covid strategy.

...The second case, a 67-year-old man, entered China on November 27 in Shanghai and underwent two weeks of centralized quarantine, during which he repeatedly tested negative. The man then flew from Shanghai to Guangzhou on AirChina flight CA1837. AirChina staff confirmed to CNN the flight was nearly full, with all economy seats taken and only six seats remaining in business class.

The man then entered into home quarantine. He was tested again on December 12 -- a full 15 days after first arriving in China, with the result coming back positive in the early hours of December 13. Subsequent genome sequencing reviewed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed it was the Omicron variant, according to authorities.

Unlike the Tianjin case, the man has been diagnosed as a confirmed case -- meaning he has symptoms. He is now being treated in isolation in hospital, officials said. Following his diagnosis, 10,544 people connected to the man have been tested for the virus -- so far all results have returned negative.

...Beijing is due to host the Winter Olympics in February...Keeping infections away from the Chinese capital is a top priority for the government, as the city gears up for the Games...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/13/china/china-first-omicron-case-intl-hnk/index.htm...

>41 margd: Yikes. Still, it doesn’t prove a more than two weeks incubation. Omicron is undoubtedly spreading without symptoms. Two confirmed cases, but most likely more silent cases. That’s a lot of contacts for one person.

>42 2wonderY: I think I read somewhere that Chinese vaccines may not be up to this new variant(?)

US and allies said their diplomats won't be at Chinese Olympics this winter. Looking like Winter Olympics will have to be conducted like Japanese Summer Olympics--delay a year and/or conduct without in-person observers?

(I have mascot pin (teddy bear) from boycotted Russian Olympics that a Russian scientist gave me. Also diplomats' cigarettes--I was a smoker then--they were very good c.f. Canadian and US OTC cigs!)

German raids on Covid extremists over Saxony leader death plot (BBC)

Police in Germany's eastern state of Saxony have launched a series of raids after death threats were made against Premier Michael Kretschmer for backing coronavirus measures. Far-right anti-vaccination activists are suspected of plotting violence with crossbows or other "piercing weapons"...

Police in Saxony said security forces including the special Soko Rex anti-extremist unit were raiding a number of locations, in response to the threats made against the state premier highlighted by a German TV documentary a week ago. The plot against Mr Kretschmer was first exposed by the Frontal programme whose journalists had infiltrated a group of some 100 people communicating via the Telegram messaging app. Calling themselves Dresden Online Networking, members would discuss ideas and even meet up in parks, public broadcaster ZDF reported. The programme monitored one conversation in which one man spoke of being armed and ready. Police said statements had been made on plans to kill the state premier as well as other state representatives...

Kenyans find rural lifeline after Covid city exodus (BBC)

If the coronavirus pandemic had not happened, it is likely Jack Onyango would still be living alone, working in Kenya's capital and sending money back to his wife and children in his faraway rural home. Like so many Kenyans, he moved to Nairobi as a young man, believing that was where the country's economic opportunities lay... When the virus struck in 2020, the authorities introduced tough lockdown restrictions and like many others, Mr Onyango found himself with no work... "There was nowhere to get money to pay rent and to feed my young family," he says.

Seeing no way of staying in the city, he decided to move back home to his village in July of that year. "I was worried but I gambled," Mr Onyango says. "At home there was no rent, there was no electricity bill or water bills, as compared to Nairobi where everything was money-oriented." He started farming tomatoes and local greens such as African cabbage and African nightshade on 1.5 acres (0.6 hectares) of land that once belonged to his grandfather. He sold the produce to neighbours and vendors, who would take it to the local market.

With birds chirping loudly in the background as he speaks to me on the phone, he tells me the unexpected move has turned out for the best...

We moved out to the Kenyan countryside five years ago, long before COVID. A good decision.

He Died of COVID-19

The headline in the 12/10/21 issue of the Bellingham Herald read, "No word on condition of Whatcom (WA) state Sen. Doug Ericksen after COVID treatment." Erickson's reputation ans a fierce anti-science COVID-19 denier and public health is widely known.

Ericksen said in December that he would introduce a state law to prevent vaccine mandates of the kind issued in August by Inslee, several counties and cities, and private employers.

He’s also been critical of continuing state measures aimed at limiting the spread of COVID-19, including business closures, social distancing and masking.

His vaccination status was unknown.

No one in his offices is talking when contacted. No health status reports have been forthcoming. Even his location has become a mystery.

No information has been available for three weeks about the location or condition of Republican state Sen. Doug Ericksen of Ferndale, who was reportedly being treated for COVID-19 at a Florida hospital after testing positive for the virus in El Salvador.

People noticed and tried to get info from his Facebook page where they left inquiries and good wishes. But the page hasn't been updated since his trip to El Salvador from where he was medevaced to a Ft. Lauderdale, FL hospital.

Now we know where the lawmaker disappeared to.

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Senator Doug Ericksen (R-Whatcom County) has died.

In spite of every effort to overlook and not mention his cause of death, he died of COVID-19.

sigh. you can run but you can't hide. He leaves behind a wife and children, who I hope are now getting vaccinations

A touch of humour related to the current UK government's chaotic handling of the situation, not to mention hypocrisy:



Edited to add: It seems to have disappeared. The text reads:

Confidential Briefing from 10 Downing Street: Plan C measures for Conservative MPs

- Stay at one of your many homes, try not to go to one of your many jobs.
- Check on your friends, if they're feeling down, give them a lucrative contract.
- Let's have a bloody knees up. Number 10, bring a bottle, don't tell Gove.
- Cover your face, tracks, arse.

Facing intense criticism, Moderna pauses bitter dispute with the NIH over Covid-19 vaccine patents
Ed Silverman | Dec. 19, 2021

Moderna (MRNA) has halted a rancorous patent dispute with the U.S. government over assigning credit for its Covid-19 vaccine, saying the ongoing quarrel “could interfere with further discussions aimed at an amicable resolution” with the National Institutes of Health.

The move comes amid intensifying complaints that many vaccine makers are failing to make their intellectual property available so that still other companies can produce vaccines needed for a global eradication campaign. Moderna, which recently projected $18 billion in vaccine sales this year, has been a particular focus of criticism because U.S. taxpayers provided $2.5 billion to help develop the shot...

https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2021/12/19/covid19-omicron-vaccine-moderna-ni...

People who refuse to get the vax and/or wear masks are pro-virus, anti-human race and NUTS. And, they are degrading one of the few decent things the Trump administration accomplished.

NEW: WASHINGTON (AP) — Biden administration extends pause on student loan payments until May 1 as omicron surge hits US.
- Yamiche Alcindor @Yamiche | 12:26 PM · Dec 22, 2021

!!

Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) @IHME_UW | 11:21 AM · Dec 22, 2021:
BREAKING: According to our updated #COVID19 model, we project 3 billion infections over the next three months globally, #Omicron rapidly spreading around the world since Oct. 8

0:29 ( https://twitter.com/IHME_UW/status/1473690258965475334 )

ModelChart with upwards trend https://lnkd.in/dJ8rr65
BlogLeft speech bubble https://lnkd.in/g4idmwn
BriefingsBar chart https://lnkd.in/estaY45

https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-draws-praise-from-surprised-critics-for-def...
Trump Draws Praise From Surprised Critics for Defending Vaccines to Candace Owens: ‘Didn’t Think I’d Ever Say This…’

Trump has decided it is time for him to protect his vaccine legacy. His pals on FOX NEWS, his cult followers and his cult voters have been sh*tting all over it this year. When someone like Alex Jones calls you a traitor, it is time to wake up.

The Pandemic Is a Portal
Arundhati Roy | April 3 2020

...What is this thing that has happened to us? It’s a virus, yes. In and of itself it holds no moral brief. But it is definitely more than a virus.

Some believe it’s God’s way of bringing us to our senses. Others that it’s a Chinese conspiracy to take over the world.

Whatever it is, coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to ‘normality,’ trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca

Dr. Amit Arya (palliative care Toronto) @AmitAryaMD | 9:25 AM · Jan 1, 2022:
Remember who got us through 2021. It wasn't the billionaires or corporations. It was the nurses, PSWs, lab technicians, bus drivers, farm workers, delivery workers, factory workers & many other essential workers at work even today.

Make 2022 about supporting essential workers.

Mayo Clinic Fires 700 Employee COVID Vax Refusniks

Firmly committed to public health over private false claims of a specious "right" not to be vaccinated (last time anyone checked, there is no Constitutional right to remain unvaccinated when vaccines are mandated), the Mayo Clinic showed the door to 1% of its national workforce for refusing to respect the patients' and fellow workers' right to the insurance of their general welfare.

“While Mayo Clinic is saddened to lose valuable employees, we need to take all steps necessary to keep our patients, workforce, visitors and communities safe,” the medical clinic said in a statement, adding that the majority of medical and religious exemption requests were approved.

“Based on science and data, it’s clear that vaccination keeps people out of the hospital and saves lives. That’s true for everyone in our communities — and it’s especially true for the many patients with serious or complex diseases who seek care at Mayo Clinic each day,” the clinic said.

Thank you Mayo Clinic for reasserting that facts override opinions when making decisions about public health in spite of the opinion of 26 Minnesota lawmakers who sent a letter to the Clinic, claiming COVID vaccine mandates were "unethical" conditions of employment. Flu shots and many other immunizations are also conditions of employment among medical staff working in settings across the nation, including MN and the Mayo Clinic. Yet, nary a politicization of them being "unethical requirements for employment that infringe on people's nonexistent rights came from those same MN legislators. What were MN Republicans thinking when they elected those 26 negligent and careless tramplers of individual "rights" to state office?

>56 Limelite: Why do I get the feeling that the lion's share of these will prove to be hires in the Mayo campuses with sunnier climes?

>57 davidgn:

The Mayo Clinic said that former employees fired could be rehired if and when they fulfill the requirements for employment: full vaccination. Of course, that doesn't mean they will be. (Don't forget) these 700 were fired nationwide, not just in Rochester, MN.

Break Out Your Thoughts & Prayers

Two right wing nuts and prominent anti-vaxxers died of COVID. QAnon "star," Cirsten Weldon, famous for saying 'only idiots get vaxxed':

Weldon focused on attacking vaccines and other efforts to fight COVID-19, saying in one video that Dr. Anthony Fauci “needs to be hung from a rope.” She claimed the vaccine killed people, and even recorded herself yelling at people standing in line to receive vaccines.

“The vaccines kill, don’t get it!” Weldon warned the waiting vaccine recipients in an undated video posted to one of her online accounts. “This is how gullible these idiots are. They’re all getting vaccine!”

And fellow anti-vax podcaster and QAnon follower, Doug Kuzma:

. . .contracted COVID-19 after attending. . .the three-day “ReAwaken America” event in Dallas, which featured former Trump national security adviser and felon Michael Flynn. Few people wore masks at the event. After several attendees became ill following the rally, some claimed without evidence that they had been secretly poisoned with anthrax.

. . .the last post from him was a photo posing with the anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin. . .

Neither died from secret deadly vaccination, nor from Ivermectin cure poisoning, nor from Antifa anthrax attack. No murder here. Just two more victims of Social Darwinism. COVID kills.

And today I had two separate friends tell me that a family member was dying of it, and both asked for the vaccination.

Covid-19: Hundreds of maskless London Underground passengers fined (BBC)

Hundreds of passengers have been issued fines for not wearing face coverings on London's transport network since it was made mandatory. Compulsory face coverings were reinstated amid rising concerns about the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Penalty notices up to £200 were issued to 536 people between 30 November and 21 December, the Mayor of London said. Figures showed a further 287 passengers have penalties being processed by Transport for London (TfL)...

As a scientist commenting on Covid I’ve attracted a lot of haters – I won’t let them silence me (Guardian)

The abuse, harassment, and threats started almost immediately after I began doing media interviews. It’s been happening on a near-daily basis for almost two years now. It happens via my personal and work emails and phones as well as on social media. I’ve had my home address posted multiple times on far-right websites and social media channels, along with calls for people to pay me a visit. I was harassed by conspiracy theorists while eating breakfast in a hotel. They live-streamed the encounter, and afterwards described how sitting next to me had been like sitting next to a paedophile. I’ve even been the subject of a smear campaign by right-wing bloggers and politicians...

It’s the people who email, text, or leave voicemail messages that I’m fascinated and disturbed by. They use their real names, and often their work email addresses. I sometimes look them up online. They are executives and engineers. Political candidates, finance managers, and office administrators. Real estate agents and electricians. Some of them are retired. Others have hobbies like attending Toastmasters or being members of a running club. They are just everyday people. And they send me hateful and abusive messages because they think I’m a satanist, or that I just want to be famous, or that I’m trying to make money. My harassers can’t imagine someone not trying to profit from a situation like this. It doesn’t seem to occur to them that I could be motivated by just trying to save lives during a global pandemic. Frankly, that says more about them than it does about me. I pity them, and I won’t let them silence me.

Texas teacher 'locked Covid-positive son in car boot' (BBC)

A US teacher has been arrested after allegedly locking her Covid-positive son in a car boot to protect herself from exposure to the virus as she drove to a testing site, say local media. Sarah Beam, 41, is reportedly charged with endangering a child...

>61 John5918: Incredible the hate and abuse Peter Hotez endures for taking on anti-vaxxers. He leads the U TX group that with Indian colleagues developed a vaccine that they've freely made available to mfrs throughout the world. In a sane world he'd be celebrated, e.g., nominated for a Nobel prize!

>59 Limelite:. Thanks for the "secret deadly vaccination" meme :-) Of course that's the most likely explanation when anti-vaxx'ers get sick and die.

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/maria-baritromo-lauds-ron-johnson-as-a-truth-teller-...
Maria Bartiromo Lauds Ron Johnson as a ‘Truth Teller’ on Covid, Trump and the ‘Russia Hoax’

***
On what planet do these two Twilight Zoners live? It is a shame that Rod Serling is no longer with us. Modern-day GOPers would be providing him and his writers with a never-ending stream of material for episode scripts.

Science Still Isn't Clear

Omicron variant is widely described as more cold-like than deadly. But the virulence of one's infection seems to be correlated with one's vaccine status. Among the vast majority of fully vaxxed and boosted patients who test positive for the omicron variant, the symptoms are very like a cold -- stuffy nose or runny nose, cough, and sore throat with improvement in a week.

For the unvaccinated, there is little difference in omicron symptoms and those of delta and earlier variants -- fever, those cold symptoms, but also difficulty breathing and presentation with COVID caused pneumonia. Hospitalization, intubation, and death.

Hospitalization and death rates appear to be lower than with previous variants, but that is probably due to the natural immunity of previously infected and, of course, the even more robust immunity of the fully vaxxed and boosted. As a population, we are becoming increasingly resistant and immune to the scourge of SARS-CoV-2 because more of us are bodies that have "learned" to deal effectively with it.

Until we adopt mandated MASKS and VACCINES, the virus will take its toll every season. As long as refusniks remain stiff-necked for political excuses, they will be the ones to pay the high and ultimate prices. The rest of us will mask up and continue to follow CDC recs for vaccination and boosting as needed. Darwinian selection will eventually work it all out.

Unvaxxed Right Wing Nut Media Personality, Glenn Beck, Is Very Sick. . .

. . .with COVID. Not only is he infected with the virus, he's co-infecting himself with Ivermectin! Someone who cares should tell him that equine worm paste is ineffective against human virus caused illness. No one? Too bad, because, by his own admission, Beck is not doing well.

You'd think he would have figured it out for himself that horse paste doesn't work since this is his second bout with the coronavirus. So, I guess he didn't get much in the way of natural "herd immunity," either.

In mid-April 2021, Beck told Tucker Carlson he had previously battled COVID-19. “I have already had it,” he said at the time. “Why do I need to be vaccinated again?”

Pardon me if I BWAHAHAHA.

He claims he is "taking all the medications and treatments, and everything else. . ." Besides Ivermectin, I suppose he means bleach gargles, QAnon Shaman incantations, laying on of the hands by Pat Robertson over TV, and visits from MTG who whispers her mantra constantly into his ear, "Scientists have been wrong over and over and over since the beginning of time."

Beck confessed to fellow wing nut media personality, Mark Levin, that the disease has progressed to his lungs today, while speaking to him during Levin's radio program. His announcement was punctuated by a deep cough.

COVID leaves 85% of patients with cognitive impairment. Regardless of any other side effects, this second visit of the virus isn't going to elevate his marbles to the requisite number necessary to comprehend reality and facts.

Thoughts & prayers, Glenn.

I remember all the skits about him on the Daily Show. Jon Stewart was a genius with them. I had thought Beck had backed off on the extreme right stuff but guess not.

"These observations describe an abnormal immune profile in patients with COVID-19 at extended time points after infection and provide clear support for the existence of a syndrome of Long Covid (LC)."

"Patients with Long Covid...lacked naive T and B cells"
Implications for reinfection etc. informally discussed at https://twitter.com/fitterhappierAJ/status/1481721174921039880

---------------------------------------

Chansavath Phetsouphanh et al. 2021. Immunological dysfunction persists for 8 months following initial mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection (Letter). Nature Immunology (13 Jan 2022) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01113-x?s=09

Abstract
A proportion of patients surviving acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection develop post-acute COVID syndrome (long COVID (LC)) lasting longer than 12 weeks. Here, we studied individuals with LC compared to age- and gender-matched recovered individuals without LC, unexposed donors and individuals infected with other coronaviruses. Patients with LC had highly activated innate immune cells, lacked naive T and B cells and showed elevated expression of type I IFN (IFN-β) and type III IFN (IFN-λ1) that remained persistently high at 8 months after infection. Using a log-linear classification model, we defined an optimal set of analytes that had the strongest association with LC among the 28 analytes measured. Combinations of the inflammatory mediators IFN-β, PTX3, IFN-γ, IFN-λ2/3 and IL-6 associated with LC with 78.5–81.6% accuracy. This work defines immunological parameters associated with LC and suggests future opportunities for prevention and treatment.

...In summary, our data indicate an ongoing, sustained inflammatory response following even mild-to-moderate acute COVID-19, which is not found following prevalent coronavirus infection. The drivers of this activation require further investigation, but possibilities include persistence of antigen, autoimmunity driven by antigenic cross-reactivity or a reflection of damage repair. These observations describe an abnormal immune profile in patients with COVID-19 at extended time points after infection and provide clear support for the existence of a syndrome of LC. Our observations provide an important foundation for understanding the pathophysiology of this syndrome and potential therapeutic avenues for intervention.

Long COVID: Could antiplatelet therapy help?
Hannah Flynn | Jan 13, 2022

Scientists know little about the underlying mechanisms of long COVID despite widespread reports about it since near the start of the pandemic,
This lack of knowledge has made diagnosing and developing treatments for this condition challenging.
COVID-19 affects the lining of the blood vessels, and scientists have investigated whether long COVID symptoms could have links to this.
A team based in South Africa has released preliminary results of a treatment regime using antiplatelet therapy and anticoagulants to treat people with long COVID.

...Last year, a team from Stellenbosch University in South Africa published results of blood plasma analysis, which revealed that many people with long COVID had microclots.

These microclots were difficult to detect using standard plasma analysis procedures and resisted the body’s ability to dissolve coagulated blood. The scientists also found that the clots “trap” inflammatory molecules.

This work formed the basis of the so-called microclot model, which proposes that small clots in the blood capillaries that prevent oxygen from reaching the tissues may cause long COVID symptoms.

Now, the same team (analyzed) a 1-month-long dual antiplatelet therapy for 24 people with long COVID. The therapy involved the participants taking 75 milligrams (mg) of Clopidogrel and 75 mg of Aspirin once each day before breakfast.

They also received 5 mg of the direct oral anticoagulant Apixiban twice daily and 40 mg each day of a proton pump inhibitor called Pantoprazole. They took Pantoprazole half an hour before eating their main meal to protect the stomach.

The participants took these drugs under strict medical supervision to mitigate severe side effects.

...The team found that all 70 participants had microclots in their blood and that all 24 people who received the antiplatelet and anticoagulant therapy reported improvements in their long COVID symptoms; they also saw a reduction of microclots...

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/long-covid-could-antiplatelet-therapy-...
---------------------------------------------

* Etheresia Pretorius et al. 2021. Combined triple treatment of fibrin amyloid microclots and platelet pathology in individuals with Long COVID/ Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) can resolve their persistent symptoms. Nature Portfolio V1: Dec 28,2021. DOI:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1205453/v1 https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1205453/v1

Preprint

We recognise that fibrin(ogen) amyloid microclots and platelet hyperactivation, that we have previously observed in COVID-19 and Long COVID/Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) patients, might form a suitable set of foci for the clinical treatment of the symptoms of long COVID/PASC. We first report on the comorbidities and symptoms found in a cohort of 845 South African Long COVID/PASC patients who filled in the South African Long COVID/PASC registry, of which hypertension and high cholesterol levels (dyslipidaemia) were the most important comorbidities. The gender balance (70% female) and the most commonly reported Long COVID/PASC symptoms (fatigue, brain fog, loss of concentration and forgetfulness, shortness of breath, as well as joint and muscle pains) were comparable to those reported elsewhere. This suggests that our sample was not at all atypical. Using a previously published scoring system for fibrin amyloid microclots and platelet pathology, we analysed blood samples from 70 patients, and report the presence of significant fibrin amyloid microclots and platelet pathology in all cases; these were associated with Long COVID/PASC symptoms that persisted after the recovery from acute COVID-19. A subset of 24 patients was treated with one month of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) (Clopidogrel 75mg/Aspirin 75mg) once a day, as well as a direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) (Apixiban) 5 mg twice a day. A proton pump inhibitor (PPI) pantoprazole 40 mg/day was also prescribed for gastric protection. Such a regime must only be followed under strict and qualified medical guidance to obviate any dangers, especially haemorrhagic bleeding, and of the therapy as a whole. Thromboelastography (TEG®) was used to assist in determining their clotting status. Each of the 24 treated cases reported that their main symptoms were resolved and fatigue as the main symptom was relieved, and this was also reflected in a decrease of both the fibrin amyloid microclots and platelet pathology scores. Nine patients were genotyped for genetic variation in homocysteine metabolism implicated in hypertension, a common COVID-19 co-morbidity reported in both patients found to be homozygous for the risk-associated MTHFR 677 T-allele. Fibrin amyloid microclots that block capillaries and inhibit the transport of O2 to tissues, accompanied by platelet hyperactivation, provide a ready explanation for the symptoms of Long COVID/PASC. The removal and reversal of these underlying endotheliopathies provide an important treatment option that seems to be highly efficacious, and warrants controlled clinical studies.

12 Signs You Have a Fake N95, KN95, or KF94 Mask
Joanne Chen | Updated January 13, 2022

On the packaging
It’s not tamper-evident.
There’s no company or location information.
There’s no expiration date.
Official terminology is used incorrectly. (NIOSH)
The company tries too hard (or not hard enough).

On the mask
There’s no branding.
You notice quality-control issues.

On N95s
The NIOSH mark is missing.
There’s no approval number. (“TC-84A,” followed by four additional digits)
The mask has ear loops.
It’s labeled for children.

On KN95s
There’s no GB marking.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/12-signs-you-have-a-fake-n95-kn95-or-kf9...
_______________________________________

Where to Buy N95s, KN95s, and Surgical-Style Masks in 2022
Joanne Chen | Updated January 4, 2022
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/where-to-buy-n95-kn95-masks-online/

Bob Saget, Actor Who Died in Sleep, Possible COVID Victim

I'm posting this as an anecdote that may eventually be explained by possible complications from COVID noted above in #68 & #69 margd, referencing post-COVID impaired immune systems and referencing microclots. No official cause of death has been determined as yet.

Preliminary results show no outside cause from foul play or drugs. The medical examiner's office says final test results will not be complete for at least 12 weeks. Some media outlets have reported he had let people know that he had a recent COVID diagnosis, but felt better, and was believed to be recovering.

As Omicron Surged, So Did Abuse of Health Communicators Online
Online and in-person harassment of health-care professionals has become a significant problem during the pandemic.
Heidi Tworek | January 12, 2022

...Online and in-person harassment of health communicators has become a significant problem during the pandemic. Protests outside hospitals in summer 2021 prevented some ambulances from reaching hospitals. In response, Canada’s Liberal government criminalized the acts of intimidating a health professional and preventing access to health facilities in Bill C-3, passed in December 2021.

...In the summer of 2021, Nature conducted a survey of more than 300 scientists. Fifteen percent had received death threats. More than 40 percent reported “emotional or physical distress” after discussing COVID-19 on the media or posting about it on social media. A more recent survey by The Guardian of 42 advisers on COVID-19 to the UK government found that more than 75 percent of those surveyed had “received significant abuse about government policy, their views on the science, or their research findings.” The survey seems to indicate that much of this abuse occurs online, but privately through e-mail or direct messages on Twitter. In many cases, respondents had to spend time reporting threats to the police, conducting security reviews of their homes and workplaces, or even cooperating with private security firms hired by their employers to keep them safe...

https://www.cigionline.org/articles/as-omicron-surged-so-did-abuse-of-health-com...

Africa joins race to acquire Pfizer's COVID-19 Paxlovid pills

Africa's top public health body said it was in talks with Pfizer (PFE.N) about securing supplies of its antiviral COVID-19 pills for the continent, the latest to join the race for a drug seen as a potential game changer in fighting the virus...

Poorer nations reject over 100 mln COVID-19 vaccine doses as many near expiry

Poorer nations last month rejected more than 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines distributed by the global programme COVAX, mainly because of a rapidly approaching expiry date, a UNICEF official said on Thursday...

Short shelf life, lack of fridges are main reasons...

Both from Reuters

Covid: Quebec to impose health tax on unvaccinated Canadians https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-59960689

The fee has not yet been decided, but will be "significant”

Last week, the province announced that it would require proof of vaccination to shop in government cannabis and liquor stores.

While rare, Quebec is not the only region in the world seeking to impose a financial penalty on those unwilling to get jabbed.
Starting later this month, Greeks over age 60 are being required to pay a €100 (£85; C$142; $113) fine for each month that they remain unvaccinated.
Singapore has required Covid patients to pay for their own medical bills if they are not vaccinated.

I really like that last one, except if that person dies, the family would have to pay up.

>74 2wonderY: Singapore has required Covid patients to pay for their own medical bills if they are not vaccinated.

Much too much "common sense" in this for it to be adopted by UK. So "well done", Singapore.

A walk in the woods relieves pandemic angst, nature conservancy poll finds
Francis Campbell · Multimedia Journalist | Posted: Jan. 28, 2021

Nature Conservancy of Canada poll finds ...
94% of Canadians say nature is helping to relieve their stress and anxiety.
86% of Canadians say spending time in nature is important to their mental health during COVID-19.
74% of Canadians say spending time in nature is more important to them now than ever before.
78% of Canadians say being in nature is the best way to visit with friends and family right now (depending on provincial health guidelines).
55% of Canadians say they plan to spend more time outdoors to get through the winter months.
91% of Canadians agree we must invest now more than ever in protecting, restoring and caring for natural spaces.
Source: Ipso Reid survey of 2,000 Canadian adults

https://www.saltwire.com/cape-breton/news/provincial/a-walk-in-the-woods-relieve...

>77 margd: this is not new, been doing this for decades, unfortunately lots
of urban folk have no access to it except city parks that are sometimes to dangerous to use. But even standing outside your door early in the morning and take time to take it all in before you get on your tech, something Ive been trying to do more,gives your brain the break it needs

https://www.mediaite.com/news/justice-sotomayor-rules-in-favor-of-shannon-bream-...
Justice Sotomayor Rules in Favor of Shannon Bream Over NPR’s ‘False’ Report on Neil Gorsuch Mask Dispute

***
I believe NPR'S Nina Totenberg. The female SCOTUS member has apparently decided it is better for the country to keep the truth about the unfortunate situation under wraps. Women keeping quiet to keep "peace in the family" is as old as time. NPR stands by its original reporting.

DeSantis administration puts Florida health director on leave for encouraging vaccinations for his staff
Frank Gluck | Jan 19, 2022

...DeSantis spokeswoman Christina Pushaw referred to a health department statement on the decision to put Pino on leave: “As the decision to get vaccinated is a personal medical choice that should be made free from coercion and mandates from employers, the employee in question has been placed on administrative leave, and the Florida Department of Health is conducting an inquiry to determine if any laws were broken in this case.

...Pino’s email to his staff detailed that only 219 of his 568 staff members had received two doses. “I am sorry but in the absence of reasonable and real reasons it is irresponsible not to be vaccinated. We have been at this for two years, we were the first to give vaccines to the masses, we have done more than 300,000 and we are not even at 50% pathetic,” he wrote...

https://amp.news-press.com/amp/6579944001
------------------------------------------------

Jan 12, 2021. One of the earliest DeSantis *get vaccinated!* tours in the retirement community that is reliably red. He later touted a golf cart drive through vaccination site in The Villages.
Then he went negative when Budweiser offered free beer if 70% USA vaccinated by 7/4/21
Image ( https://twitter.com/KeyserSozeBro1/status/1484142968227479559/photo/1 )
- keyser soze @KeyserSozeBro1 | 7:37 AM · Jan 20, 2022
------------------------------------------------

Dr. Pino has been a reliable source since the pandemic began. Orlando has benefited from Mr. Pino’s science driven recommendations. It’s no mistake this is in very blue Orange County with the OC mayor being Val Demings’s husband. Political move by DeSantis in every way.
- Trudy Poodiani @poodiani | 7:37 AM · Jan 20, 2022

Wow: Per Cdn economist Allen, "It is possible that lockdown will go down as one of the greatest peacetime policy failures in modern history"...
Academic demographer from Denmark(?), Kashnitsky, begs to differ:

Ilya Kashnitsky @ikashnitsky | 9:56 AM · Jan 20, 2022 ( 12-post thread )
https://twitter.com/ikashnitsky/status/1484178022072655884
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1484178022072655884.html
This lockdown life was so miserable as if we didn't live at all, we just lost two months of life each
You know what it is? Above is the core assumption of a paper that claims to provide the most thorough cost/benefit analysis of lockdowns
THREAD 1/12
-----------------------------------------------------------
Douglas W. Allen*. 2021. Covid-19 Lockdown Cost/Benefits: A Critical Assessment of the Literature. Covid-19 Lockdown Cost/Benefits: A Critical Assessment of the Literature. International Journal of the Economics of Business. International Journal of the Economics of Business. Published online: 29 Sep 2021 . https://doi.org/10.1080/13571516.2021.1976051 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13571516.2021.1976051

Abstract
An examination of over 100 Covid-19 studies reveals that many relied on false assumptions that over-estimated the benefits and under-estimated the costs of lockdown. The most recent research has shown that lockdowns have had, at best, a marginal effect on the number of Covid-19 deaths. Generally speaking, the ineffectiveness stemmed from individual changes in behavior: either non-compliance or behavior that mimicked lockdowns. The limited effectiveness of lockdowns explains why, after more than one year, the unconditional cumulative Covid-19 deaths per million is not negatively correlated with the stringency of lockdown across countries. Using a method proposed by Professor Bryan Caplan along with estimates of lockdown benefits based on the econometric evidence, I calculate a number of cost/benefit ratios of lockdowns in terms of life-years saved. Using a mid-point estimate for costs and benefits, the reasonable estimate for Canada is a cost/benefit ratio of 141. It is possible that lockdown will go down as one of the greatest peacetime policy failures in modern history.

2.4.2. Other costs
Lost educational opportunities.
Additional effects of school closures.
Increased deaths expected from unemployment.
Increased deaths from overdoses and other deaths of despair.
Increased domestic violence.
Lost non-Covid-19 medical service.

4. Conclusion
After more than a year of gathering aggregate data, a puzzle has emerged. Lockdowns were brought on with claims that they were effective and the only means of dealing with the pandemic. However, across many different jurisdictions this relationship does not hold when looking at the raw data.

A casual examination of lockdown intensity and the number of cumulative deaths attributed to Covid-19 across jurisdictions shows no obvious relationship... Indeed, often the least intensive locations had equal or better performance. For example, using the OurWorldInData stringency index (SI) as a measure of lockdown, Pakistan (SI: 50), Finland (SI: 52), and Bulgaria (SI: 50) had similar degrees of lockdown, but the cumulative deaths per million were 61, 141, and 1023. Peru (SI: 83) and the U.K. (SI: 78) had some of the most stringent lockdowns, but also experienced some of the largest cumulative deaths per million: 1475 and 1868.54

Using information from OurWorldInData, the cumulative deaths per million on March 28, 2021 in North America were 1351 and for the European Union 1368. Sweden had light restrictions, but cumulative deaths were 1327; while the UK had heavy lockdowns and 1868 cumulative deaths per million. This stands in sharp contrast to the dire predictions that were made about Sweden in the first six months of the pandemic.55

Similar findings arise when comparing various US states. Florida and California were often compared because they are similar in terms of size and latitude, but had different lockdown policies. Florida locked down in the spring but then started lifting restrictions, on September 25th, 2020 all restrictions were lifted. California has had various mandates throughout 2020, but in early December issued a stay-at-home order that remained in place until January 25th, 2021.56 However, the cumulative deaths per 100,000 people are practically indistinguishable: 152 for Florida and 143 for California.57

It is easy to find counter examples when using unconditional counts on deaths across different jurisdictions. That is, one can find cases where lockdown states had fewer deaths per million than some non-lockdown states (e.g. Ireland and Germany had high stringency indexes and below average deaths per million). However, it remains the case that lockdown is not associated with fewer deaths per million, but (likely) more.58

These unconditional observation puzzles are resolved by the research done over the past year. The preconceived success of lockdowns was driven by theoretical models that were based on assumptions that were unrealistic and often false. The lack of any clear and large lockdown effect is because there isn’t one to be found.

The consideration of any policy must consider all costs and all benefits of that policy. All estimates of costs and benefits depend on various assumptions of parameters and structural model forms, and many of the studies examined (especially the early ones) relied on assumptions that were false, and which tended to over-estimate the benefits and under-estimate the costs of lockdown. As a result, most of the early cost/benefit studies arrived at conclusions that were refuted later by data, and which rendered their cost/benefit findings incorrect.

Advances in models and data over the past year have showed that lockdowns have had, at best, a marginal effect on the number of Covid-19 deaths. Generally speaking, the ineffectiveness of lockdown stems from voluntary changes in behavior. Lockdown jurisdictions were not able to prevent non-compliance, and non-lockdown jurisdictions benefited from voluntary changes in behavior that mimicked lockdowns.

Using a cost/benefit method proposed by Professor Bryan Caplan the most reasonable cost/benefit ratio of lockdowns in terms of life-years saved in Canada is 141. However, given their limited effectiveness, lockdowns still fail under extremely conservative estimates of costs. Furthermore, if the fall of 2021 results in many cases resulting from the more transmissible delta variant among a shrinking number of unvaccinated people, then the expected benefits of lockdown policies become even smaller. Lockdowns are not just an inefficient policy, they must rank as one of the greatest peacetime policy disasters of all time.
_______________________________________________
National Post is a conservative Cdn newspaper:

* Canadian economist never knew he would become centre of a U.S. firestorm over his research on same-sex parenting
Tristin Hopper | Publishing date: Mar 28, 2014 • January 25, 2015

Based at Burnaby, B.C.’s Simon Fraser University, Mr. Allen is known around the mountaintop campus as a popular economics professor, not a political firebrand...

https://nationalpost.com/news/canadian-economist-never-knew-he-would-become-cent...

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/simply-deranged-cnns-new-day-rips-rfk-jrs-really-emb...
‘Simply Deranged’: CNN’s New Day Rips RFK Jr’s ‘Really Embarrassing’ Anti-Vax Speech In Which He Invoked the Holocaust

***
This is a very damaged Kennedy family member. RFK Jr. and Newt should consider getting some rest off-planet. Neither man contributes anything useful to the serious discussions Americans must have now and going forward.

Library/bookstore pandemic reorganization... :D

https://twitter.com/mlipsitch/status/1485318665721589763/photo/1

>82 margd: who started the lockdownns? I vaguey remember March 22 seemed to be the date, but whose idea was it? I remember at the time there was so little known about covid; and everyone was concerned about it, washing everything they brought home (which happened much longer than the face that the virus does not live long on surfaces) Did it come from CDC, government? My memory is really foggy about the beginnings

>85 cindydavid4: China started the lockdowns, I think!

Easy to forget that we had no other options in 2020--no vaxx, no appreciation of aerosol spread (masks, ventilation & filtration), no therapeutics nor life-saving nursing strategies. Also that precious few entities executed lockdowns well.

Allen's paper is interesting, and there will be many debates in future on how we collectively (mis?)handled the pandemic. Right now difficult to debate freely: Allen's review WILL be misused to value business and "freedumb" over lives, I'm afraid...

Physicians in Canada made 26% more mental health visits during COVID-19
Corrie Pelc | January 27, 2022

An observational study examined data from around 34,000 physicians in Ottawa, Canada.

Researchers found physicians participated in nearly 26% more mental health and substance use visits during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the year prior.

The study team believes the increase is attributable to both increased stressors during the pandemic and additional access to mental health services through virtual outpatient options...

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/physicians-in-canada-made-26-more-ment...
---------------------------------

Daniel T. Myran etal. 2022. Physician Health Care Visits for Mental Health and Substance Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Ontario, Canada. JAMA Netw Open. Jan 21 2022;5(1):e2143160. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.43160 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2788289

Bernard P. Chang. 2022. The Health Care Workforce Under Stress—Clinician Heal Thyself (Invited Commentary). JAMA . Netw Open. Jan 22 2022;5(1):e2143167. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.43167 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2788293

Covid-19 Response in Sudan: The Pandemic vs. the Politics (African Arguments)

Despite having ample time to prepare, Sudan was far from ready for the novel coronavirus when its first case was confirmed in March 2020. The announcement was met with panic, disbelief, disgust and defiance. Now, almost two years later, little has changed... Governments all over the world have struggled to control the spread of Covid-19 with preventive measures ranging from simple advice on hand hygiene to strict lockdowns and fines. Bar vaccination, public health and social measures have proven to be the most effective means of control compared to pharmaceutical interventions. But these measures require immense cooperation from and constant communication with the community, and most importantly: economic and political stability. None of these factors exist in Sudan...

“There’s no outbreak, it’s just an excuse the government is using to scare people, so they won’t keep protesting”...

Pregnant New Zealand journalist stranded by quarantine rules says she turned to Taliban (Guardian)

A pregnant New Zealand journalist says she has had to turn to the Taliban for help after being prevented from returning to her home country due to quarantine rules. In a column published in the New Zealand Herald on Saturday, Charlotte Bellis said it was “brutally ironic” that she had once questioned the Taliban about their treatment of women and she was now asking the same questions of her own government. “When the Taliban offers you – a pregnant, unmarried woman – safe haven, you know your situation is messed up,” Bellis wrote in her column. New Zealand’s Covid-19 response minister, Chris Hipkins, told the Herald his office had asked officials to check whether they had followed the proper procedures in Bellis’s case, “which appeared at first sight to warrant further explanation”...

Joni Mitchell wants songs off Spotify in Covid row (BBC)

Singer Joni Mitchell has joined Neil Young in asking for her music to be removed from Spotify over Covid misinformation concerns. "Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives," the Canadian singer said in a post on her official website. On Monday, Young said the streaming platform must choose either him, or the podcaster Joe Rogan. Rogan has been accused of spreading false information about Covid...

Anthony Fauci is up against more than a virus
Dan Zak and Roxanne Roberts | January 27, 2022

Two years into the pandemic, the threats and vitriol have not stopped. And the many Americans who still trust him are exhausted.

...Under George W. Bush, Fauci became an architect of an AIDS-relief program that has, according to the U.S. government, saved 21 million lives around the world.

...As for the citizens who wish him harm, he can’t help but search for some signal, some symptom, that could help him understand.

“I’m always looking for the good in people, that kernel of something that’s positive,” Fauci says. “And it’s tough to imagine that that many people are bad people. And, I mean, it’s just — has something been smoldering in their lives? Something that’s sociologically evasive to me?...Maybe it’s pain that they’re feeling, that’s driving it?” he says, as if bedside with a patient. “And we’re focusing on the aberrancy of their actions, but we really are not fully appreciating that maybe they’re suffering. And they’re rebelling against a failing of society, maybe, to address some of their needs. Maybe we need, as a nation, to address the fundamental issues that are getting, you know, tens of millions of people to feel a certain way.”...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/01/27/fauci-pandemic-threats/

New Triumphs and Struggles for non-profit Covid Vaxxes
Hilda Bastian | Jan 30, 2022

...As far as I know, here are the vaccines that are non-profit, or very close to it:

Already rolled out – with limits on non-profit use: AZ, J&J, and Cuban vaccines
An authorization for a patent-free vaccine: Corbevax
In suspense: the NDV-HXP-S vaccine quartet
The one that struggled: Imperial College London and saRNA (Covac1)...

https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2022/01/30/new-triumphs-struggles-for-non-profi...

>90 margd: I would not want to be in his boat, you couldnt pay me enough'. Hes right, there has to be a reason for tens of millions of people to feel certain way. Part for me is social media and how quickly can be used to spread falsehoods, about a presedent who used this daily, about a 24/7 news cycle that is confusing people. I don't know how anyone can change it; how to get all these millions, evebn half of them, to agree to act for the common good. I too feel like there is good in everyone. We are finding out that the good is shadowed by experience fear and hate. I just dont know. I just worry about Fucci, and hope he is well protected.

anti maskers cause 10 day shutdown at kids museum

https://www.newser.com/story/316230/anti-maskers-cause-10-day-shutdown-at-kids-m...

NEWS FEATURE
The pandemic’s true death toll: millions more than official counts
David Adam | 18 January 2022. Clarification 31 January 2022

Countries have reported some five million COVID-19 deaths in two years, but global excess deaths are estimated at double or even quadruple that figure...

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00104-8
--------------------------------------------------------

One Million Deaths: The Hole the Pandemic Made in U.S. Society (PAYWALL)
WSJ | Updated Jan. 31, 2022

Covid-19 has been directly responsible for most of the fatalities, but the disease is also unraveling families and communities in subtler ways

"Covid has left the same proportion of the population dead—about 0.3%—as did World War II, and in less time."

https://www.wsj.com/articles/one-million-deaths-the-hole-the-pandemic-made-in-u-...

2 Houston doctors nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for low-cost COVID vaccine
Steven Devadanam | Feb 2, 2022, 10:42 am

Houston’s Dr. Peter Hotez has been nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

Hotez, and his fellow dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, were nominated for the iconic award by Houston Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (Texas-07).

The duo, who are also co-directors of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, were cited in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee for their work to develop and distribute the low-cost Corbevax vaccine to people of the world — without patent limitation.

“My hope is that the nomination not only recognizes the importance of reducing global vaccine inequities and inequalities, but also raises the awareness regarding the importance of vaccines as lifesaving interventions and combating vaccine hesitancy in the US and globally,” Hotez tells CultureMap.

As ABC13 reports, the Nobel nominations were due Monday, January 31. In March, a shortlist is prepared and then reviewed between April and August. The winners are announced in early October and they receive their awards in Oslo, Norway on December 10.

“Dr. Hotez and Dr. Bottazzi’s effort to develop the Corbevax vaccine is truly one of international cooperation and partnership to bring health, security, and peace around the world by creating a COVID-19 vaccine and making it available and accessible to all,” Fletcher said in a statement. “It is a contribution that is of the greatest benefit to humankind.”...

Houston’s Dr. Peter Hotez has been nominated for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

Hotez, and his fellow dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, were nominated for the iconic award by Houston Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher (Texas-07).

The duo, who are also co-directors of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital, were cited in a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee for their work to develop and distribute the low-cost Corbevax vaccine to people of the world — without patent limitation.

“My hope is that the nomination not only recognizes the importance of reducing global vaccine inequities and inequalities, but also raises the awareness regarding the importance of vaccines as lifesaving interventions and combating vaccine hesitancy in the US and globally,” Hotez tells CultureMap.

As ABC13 reports, the Nobel nominations were due Monday, January 31. In March, a shortlist is prepared and then reviewed between April and August. The winners are announced in early October and they receive their awards in Oslo, Norway on December 10.

“Dr. Hotez and Dr. Bottazzi’s effort to develop the Corbevax vaccine is truly one of international cooperation and partnership to bring health, security, and peace around the world by creating a COVID-19 vaccine and making it available and accessible to all,” Fletcher said in a statement. “It is a contribution that is of the greatest benefit to humankind.”...

https://houston.culturemap.com/news/innovation/02-02-22-dr-peter-hotez-nobel-pea...

wow that would be ironic for them to win given that they are from texas Hope they do though

My 5mo grandson's surgery is scheduled for Feb 18. Last I heard he's asymptomatic, so probably at risk of postponement?
Staff in pediatric hospitals are short--out sick with Omicron, or caring for sick family members... :(
More kids than before sick with COVID, but shouldn't be too (m)any in CHD section, NICU(?)

Tough choices for overwhelmed hospitals: Which baby gets heart surgery?
Kate Wells | February 2, 2022
https://www.michiganradio.org/health/2022-02-02/tough-choices-for-overwhelmed-ho...

This is covid adjacent childrens museum closes do to behavior - of the adults

and butterfly museum in texas forced to close due to threats

What in the hell is wrong with these people!!!!!!

Healthy 36 year old North Carolina man survives Covid only with the most extreme medical interventions. A ventilator wasn’t enough, his lungs were so damaged; they used a machine to directly oxygenate his blood.

https://www.wkyt.com/2022/02/02/36-year--covid-patient-wakes-up-coma-with-messag...

ETA. Reviews are coming in: >103 margd:

Economists' review on effects of lockdowns on COVID-19 mortality, economic and social costs.
Not reviewed I assume(?) TLDR.

Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke. 2022. A LITERATURE REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF LOCKDOWNS ON COVID-19 MORTALITY. The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. SAE (Studies in Applied Economics)./No.200/January 2022. 62 p. https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Ana...

Abstract
This systematic review and meta-analysis are designed to determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that “lockdowns” reduce COVID-19 mortality. Lockdowns are defined as the imposition of at least one compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI). NPIs are any government mandate that directly restrict peoples’ possibilities, such as policies that limit internal movement, close schools and businesses, and ban international travel. This study employed a systematic search and screening procedure in which 18,590 studies are identified that could potentially address the belief posed. After three levels of screening, 34 studies ultimately qualified. Of those 34 eligible studies, 24 qualified for inclusion in the meta-analysis. They were separated into three groups: lockdown stringency index studies, shelter-in-place-order (SIPO) studies, and specific NPI studies. An analysis of each of these three groups support the conclusion that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality. More
specifically, stringency index studies find that lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 0.2% on average. SIPOs were also ineffective, only reducing COVID-19 mortality by 2.9% on average. Specific NPI studies also find no broad-based evidence of noticeable effects on COVID-19 mortality.

While this meta-analysis concludes that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy instrument.

A cause of America's labor shortage: Millions with long COVID
Aimee Picchi | February 1, 2022

...Katie Bach, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said she was "floored" when she started crunching the numbers on the ranks of workers who have stepped out of the job market due to long COVID.

Her analysis found that an equivalent of 1.6 million people are missing from the full-time workforce because of the disease, which can leave people incapacitated for months with persistent symptoms including fatigue, brain fog, headaches, memory loss and heart palpitations...

To put Bach's figure into perspective, the country's labor force remains 2.2 million people short of its pre-pandemic size — an issue that's causing headaches for many employers. Earlier in the crisis, some business owners blamed extra unemployment aid for keeping workers on the sidelines. But those benefits ended in September, and the labor force still hasn't fully rebounded...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/long-covid-labor-market-missing-workers/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Katie Bach. 2022. Is ‘long Covid’ worsening the labor shortage? (Report). Brookings Institution. Tuesday, January 11, 2022. https://www.brookings.edu/research/is-long-covid-worsening-the-labor-shortage/

Band of brothers and sisters (HCW comic, dAdder Halixfax Herald)
https://twitter.com/CAFinUS/status/1489810086914625538/photo/1

>100 margd: As expected, economists' unreviewed, self-published review of COVID lockdown effectiveness is being panned.

Health Nerd @GidMK* | 6:36 PM · Feb 4, 2022:
https://twitter.com/GidMK/status/1489744749942620162

This paper has been doing the rounds, claiming that lockdown was useless (the source of the 0.2% effect of lockdown claim). Dozens of people have asked my opinion of it, so here we go:
In my opinion, it is a very weak review that doesn't really show much, if anything 1/n...

* Health Nerd @GidMK--Epidemiologist. Writer (Guardian, Observer etc). "Well known research trouble-maker". PhDing at @UoW
Host of @senscipod . Email gidmk.healthnerd@gmail.com he/him
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Andreas Backhaus @AndreasShrugged* | 4:49 PM · Feb 2, 2022
https://twitter.com/AndreasShrugged/status/1488993038915489794

Meta-shmeta analysis. They claim they find that lockdowns reduced mortality in Europe and U.S. only by 0.2%. After browsing through their methodology and results though, it's obvious they aren't doing what they claim they're doing and their analysis is deceptive. /1

* Andreas Backhaus @AndreasShrugged JMC. Economics PhD from @LMU_Muenchen . Views are my own.
Wiesbaden, Deutschland
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing* | 12:09 AM · Feb 5, 2022:
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1489828485929619458

DEBUNKING that infamous “lockdowns don’t work” self-published not-peer-reviewed junk paper… it is **total hogwash** analysis that deleted the majority of epidemiology studies to only include a subset. The author even admit bias—JohnsHopkins
needs to investigate. Thanks @GidMK...

*Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing--Epidemiologist & health economist. Senior Fellow @FAScientists. Global health security. Fmr 16 years Harvard. COVID updates from Jan '20: http://nym.ag/3olszuo

>103 margd:

Is this the same paper which proximity1 posts in #24 at https://www.librarything.com/topic/337024?

>104 John5918: Yes. I posted reference and abstract at >100 margd:.

Vastly unequal US has world’s highest Covid death toll – it’s no coincidence
Melody Schreiber | Sun 6 Feb 2022

As the US passes 900,000 Covid deaths, much of the blame has fallen on individuals despite vast income inequality and vaccine accessibility issues

...The US has never responded to the Covid pandemic in a sustained, proactive way as a unified nation. Instead, much of the responsibility – and blame – has fallen on individuals. In a country with vast income inequality, poor health and sharp political divides, the results have been grim...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/06/us-covid-death-rate-vaccines

The Covid Policy That Really Mattered Wasn’t a Policy
Ezra Klein | Feb. 6, 2022

...Public health is rooted in the soil of trust. That soil has thinned in America...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/06/opinion/covid-pandemic-policy-trust.html

>106 margd: Trump abdicated his duty as POTUS right from the get go. He made it a states problem—not a national one and turned it over to the 50 different governors to handle it however they pleased and since we’ve had all kinds of levels of seriousness and oneupmanship politics and of course Trump still couldn’t help himself from undermining health authorities with all kinds of crap like with his dopey do it yourself remedies and his open disdain for mitigation efforts to curb the spread of the virus.

A Latina scientist co-created a new Covid vaccine. She's nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Albinson Linares, Noticias Telemundo | Feb. 7, 2022 / Updated Feb. 8, 2022

Microbiologist María Elena Bottazzi discusses what it took to create an accessible, inexpensive Covid vaccine and how her work is a way to "give back" to her native Honduras.

...When Covid began to spread around the world, researchers already knew of the technological advances that could help generate a drug to combat the novel coronavirus. But due to scarce public and private funding (among its private donors, Tito's, a brand of vodka stands out; it brought the team a million dollars), it took them longer to manufacture the vaccine...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latina-scientist-co-created-new-covid-vaccin...

We didn't know what we didn't know back in 2020 ~ hindsight is always more informative. Viruses control their own spreads and lifespans ~ humans have to do the best they can handling the fallout.

Dr Pamela L Gay #BlackLivesMatter @starstryder | 1:16 AM · Feb 9, 2022:
Lack of universal health care or disability care in the US means long Covid will
bankrupt families,
drain support services,
hurt the economy, and ultimately
make some of these kids homeless.

I’m afraid of long Covid.
---------------------------------------

@Ruth5News, who's had long Covid for over 18 months, reports on 2 kids affected (5:58)
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1491084976951263234

>100 margd:

Claims that a “Johns Hopkins study”* showed lockdowns are ineffective at reducing COVID-19 mortality are based on a working paper with questionable methods

CLAIM “Lockdowns only reduced COVID-19 mortality by .2%, study finds”
VERDICT Misleading

SOURCE: Connor Boyd, Gina Martinez, Paul Best, Daily Mail, Fox News, 2 Feb. 2022

DETAILS
Misrepresents source: The working paper’s analysis included some studies that actually concluded lockdowns to be beneficial in reducing COVID-19 mortality. But the paper’s authors instead represented these studies as showing that lockdowns were detrimental.
Misleading: Several reports about the working paper labeled it as a “Johns Hopkins study”. However, only one of the paper’s three authors is affiliated with Johns Hopkins University and the paper wasn’t endorsed by the university. Experts also pointed out certain issues in the paper’s methodology that call the reliability of its conclusions into question.

KEY TAKE AWAY
A lockdown is a non-pharmaceutical intervention that is typically defined as a measure that requires people to stay at home and avoid activity outside the home involving public contact. A lockdown can comprise different restrictions, ranging from stay-at-home orders to business closures. The type of restrictions implemented and severity of a lockdown can differ greatly between countries. Published scientific studies found that lockdowns are effective at reducing COVID-19 spread and mortality.

FULL CLAIM: “Lockdowns only reduced COVID-19 mortality by .2%, study finds”; “Lockdowns, school closures and limiting gatherings only reduced COVID mortality by 0.2% at 'enormous economic and social costs', study finds”; Lockdowns are “useless”

REVIEW...

https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/claims-johns-hopkins-study-showed-lockdow...
--------------------------------------------------------------
* Jonas Herby, Lars Jonung, and Steve H. Hanke. 2022. A LITERATURE REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF LOCKDOWNS ON COVID-19 MORTALITY. The Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health, and the Study of Business Enterprise. SAE (Studies in Applied Economics)./No.200/January 2022. 62 p. https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Ana...

Hong Kong Can’t Live With the Virus. It Can’t Stop It, Either.
An Omicron surge has exposed the weaknesses of a system that was once a world leader in containing the coronavirus.
Vivian Wang and Austin Ramzy | Feb. 16, 2022

...The city’s flailing response has exposed a crucial weakness in its ability to handle the coronavirus. Unlike other places facing a surge of the Omicron variant, Hong Kong, a semiautonomous Chinese city, cannot choose to live with the virus; Beijing continues to demand local elimination. But the city, which retains certain freedoms unheard-of in the mainland, also cannot wield Beijing’s full authoritarian tool kit or nearly unlimited manpower to stamp out transmission at any cost...

...At its core, the city’s crisis reflects the limitations of its unique political model. Health experts have pointed out that certain measures, such as citywide mandatory testing, would be impractical in Hong Kong, and could also stir anger in a public already deeply distrustful of the government. But as Beijing exerts ever-tighter control over Hong Kong, through a national security law and sweeping crackdown on dissent, those considerations may start to carry less weight.

Some have called Hong Kong’s willingness to embrace tougher restrictions a proxy for its loyalty to Beijing.

“The loopholes and oscillation in Hong Kong’s antivirus strategy show that some officials have not met the requirements for ‘firm patriotism,’ said Tian Feilong, a law professor at Beijing’s Beihang University who studies Hong Kong...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/world/asia/hong-kong-covid-omicron-wave.html

When Liberal State Hosts Massive Convention, It Doesn't Create a Superspreader Event

Unlike Trump's former Rose Garden lawn parties and indoor political rallies, or the bikers' annual gatherings in Sturgis, an anime lovers convention in NYC did not contribute to an uptick in the COVID-19 infection rate for the state when Omicron was the emerging dominant virus in the US.
A C.D.C. study finds that NYC laws and convention rules that air filters, masks, and widespread vaccination be required helped prevent an Omicron outbreak at an anime event as the variant was emerging.

The share of attendee tests that came back positive was similar to the share of coronavirus tests that were positive across New York City around the same time, the C.D.C. said.
(SNIP)
. . .the few positive samples that were genetically sequenced were largely of the Delta variant, not Omicron.

And conventiongoers who became infected were more likely than those who tested negative to have gone to bars, nightclubs or karaoke clubs.

Proving once again that science doesn't care if you believe in it or not. It's true anyway.

Mapping our unvaccinated world
If health care is a human right, who is human enough to have that right?
February 20, 2022

(map: income v. # unvaxxed )

https://pandem-ic.com/mapping-our-unvaccinated-world/

Andy Slavitt (frmr Biden Covid advisor) @ASlavitt | 15/7:01 PM · Feb 18, 2022:

Florida has a 60% higher death rate than California.
Was that at a cost to the economy? No. In 2021, California’s economy grew at 11.7%, more than 50% above Florida’s rate.
Pretending the pandemic doesn’t exist isn’t a working strategy.

Graph--cumulative deaths per state ( https://twitter.com/ASlavitt/status/1494824533257342981/photo/1 )

>116 margd: DeSantis is more than ready and willing to feed his flocks of voters all kinds of bullshit misinformation and even if it kills off thousands of them as long as he can further his political ambitions he doesn’t care.

>117 lriley: I was surprised when DeSantis won FL governorship. I didn't expect much, but the cruelty of FL GOP is beyond anything one might have suspected. Never mind COVID mortalities, I read now that they are considering a law that will force teachers to report GAY students to their parents!!
___________________________________________

Opinion: The Great Resignation is also the Great Retirement of the baby boomers. That’s a problem.
Helaine Olen | February 18, 2022

...Goldman Sachs estimated last fall that more than half of those who had left the workforce during the covid era’s Great Resignation were over 55. An analysis released by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found workforce exits are higher among baby boomers than pre-covid trends would indicate, with a report last month finding women — many of whom work in public-facing positions and are between the ages of 65 and 74 — among the groups leading the way.

...Retailers became increasingly reliant on older workers in the wake of the Great Recession. ...

...In the years leading up to the pandemic, many Americans said they wanted to work well past the traditional retirement age. In 2013, a solid 10 percent told Gallup they would “never” exit the workforce. Sure, some of this was driven by financial necessity — Americans, famously, do not have enough money set aside for their senior years — but it also reflected an obsession with work as a way of finding meaning in life.

By refusing to go gentle into the good retirement night, baby boomers were doing the economy a favor. Their continued presence in the workforce helped compensate for everything from reduced immigration to the falling birthrate.

Their sudden exit, on the other hand, raises a host of gnarly issues. It’s potentially inflationary because employers competing for scarcer labor will have to pay higher wages, so they will raise the prices of their products...

It could also turn into an economic drag. Long before covid, there were fears the baby boomer retirements would stress the finances of Social Security. And the new retirees — many currently flush with outsize gains in the stock and housing markets — could find themselves in a more difficult economic position than they expect if those assets decline significantly in value...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/18/great-resignation-is-also-gre...

People finding they can find ways to survive on less than they thought. Others not going to the workplace but working from home. A lot of dynamics about our economy have changed. There is also going to be a lot of long Covid people and Covid survivors in need of rehabilitation in the coming years who will not be able to work. Some dipshits particularly on the right haven’t figured it out yet but it’s like the world has been through another world war. There are choices to be made and pieces to pick up afterwards.

Interesting discussion on why health & life insurers not more vocal on need to get COVID under control... :(

Dr Ellie Murray, ScD (epidemiology prof) @EpiEllie | 9:50 AM · Feb 21, 2022:
https://twitter.com/EpiEllie/status/1495772899638231041
Maybe I’ve missed something, but I find it surprising that the insurance (health/life) industry isn’t being more vocal on the need to get COVID under control. An increase in hospitalizations & deaths of the magnitude we’ve seen the past 2 years is surely bad for their bottom line

j, fighting for roses, too @j_quadrifrons
Oh, but Long COVID treatment is experimental, so not covered. And when it is, you'll need to prove you had COVID. No test because you got it in 2020 when tests weren't available? No official result because you did a home test in 2021 and they told you not to waste a PCR?

Bob Morris, MD, PhD @rdmorris
The insurance industry actually has a perverse disincentive to control costs. The higher costs go, the more the insurance regulators allow them to charge in the future. It is a core reason why healthcare is so much more expensive in the US.

Katia Yaga🗽@kadska
And their profit margin is capped by percentage, right? So the higher the spend, the higher absolute dollars of profit.

L @ldhm00
Profits are up at most... our system is nuts.
https://forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2022/01/19/unitedhealths-medicare-growth-he...
The big ones are diversified which protects them from this. (At least that is my limited understanding). CVS has lots of immunizations and tests to sell which helps Aetna, etc.
...I'd wager smaller insurers- say us in MA with state-level (and non-profit, less diversified) BCBS of MA or Harvard Pilgrim will have a rougher go of it, but haven't looked it up.

Mena Burke @MenaBurke
May not be true for health insurers if those with chronic needs are dying earlier & quicker. It definitely changed mortality rates but in the US I wonder how much life insurers were impacted since much life insurance is job based. Would also impact annuities that end at death.

Matthew Rae @matthew_t_rae
So far, the pandemic has led to lower utilization and less overall health spending.
Utilization:
https://healthsystemtracker.org/brief/early-2021-data-show-no-rebound-in-health-...

Spending:
https://www.kff.org/private-insurance/issue-brief/data-note-2021-medical-loss-ra...
Data Note: 2021 Medical Loss Ratio Rebates
Private insurance companies expect to pay $2.1 billion in rebates to consumers in 2021 due to excessive premiums in recent years.

...

wow never thought about insurance. A rule about getting vaccinated if yu want to contine coverage might be a really high motivation. Or not, I just thought the idea of getting a deadly disease would be motivation enough. Silly me.

New CDC Covid-19 metrics drop strong mask recommendations for most of the country (actually this headline is misleading but it appears they are relaxing mask use indoors.)

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/health/cdc-covid-metrics-mask-guidance/index.html

Kentucky just dropped from the deepest red color on the map, but we're still just above 50% fully vaccinated. Mask wearing in stores is no longer being enforced. Employees wear masks depending on their management policies. Glad to see that most elderly people are still wearing them.

>123 2wonderY: I was going to mumble something about vulnerable family member to explain my mask, if challenged. Think instead I'll borrow this from Laura McNabb (Alberta):
"My husband was at Rona (~Home Depot).
The lady at the returns counter smiled & asked him why he was still wearing a mask.
He said, “Because my wife has COVID.”
Hubby said he never saw someone put on a mask that fast before."
________________________________________________

Hong Kong, Buckling Under Covid, Leaves Its Most Vulnerable in the Cold
Poor residents have been forced to choose between infecting their families or sleeping outdoors because of cramped living quarters and a lack of isolation facilities.
Vivian Wang | March 2, 2022

the sheer scale of this wave, which in two months has led to more than 250,000 infections and 800 deaths — multiple times as many as in the previous four waves combined. Bodies have piled up in hospital hallways because morgues have no more room. Older patients have been left on gurneys outdoors.

But the suffering has also been exacerbated, some say, by government policy. Under direction from the central Chinese authorities, Hong Kong officials have insisted on some of the world’s most stringent social distancing rules, crippling many service industries. Yet, they have failed to contain the virus.

As a result, poor residents in cramped apartments have spread the virus to their families because the government has run out of isolation facilities. Those who recover cannot return to work because the testing jam means they cannot prove they are negative.

Migrant domestic workers, predominantly Southeast Asian women who work as caregivers and cleaners, have been fired after getting sick and forced to sleep on the streets. (Hong Kong law requires the workers to live in their employers’ homes.) Vegetable prices have soared, but the government has offered limited cash relief.

At times, officials have actively challenged efforts to help the needy. A top official threatened to prosecute members of the public who raised funds for migrant workers fined for violating social distancing rules.

Roger Chung, a professor of public health ethics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the containment measures risked doing as much harm to low-income residents as the virus itself...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/02/business/hong-kong-covid.html

Biden to launch ambitious overhaul of nursing home quality
President Joe Biden is launching a major overhaul of nursing home quality in his State of the Union speech
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR | February 28, 2022

...White House officials on Monday outlined more than 20 separate actions, many of them sought by advocates and opposed by the industry.

One major missing element: New sources of federal financing to pay for the ambitious upgrade.

“Overall these are very positive developments,” said Harvard health policy professor David Grabowksi, who tracks long-term care. “If you ask the industry, they'll tell you this will put them out of business. If you ask an advocate, they'll say there's plenty of money in the system. I think the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.”

Nursing home residents represent a disproportionate share of deaths in the coronavirus pandemic, and the Biden administration has been working to develop home- and community-based care as an alternative. The administration is also wary of a growing trend toward investor-owned, profit-driven facilities.

The cornerstone of Biden's nursing home plan is a new requirement for minimum staffing levels.

...Biden's plan also calls for moving nursing homes toward private rooms for their residents, directing federal regulators to explore how to phase out living arrangements that house three or more residents in the same room.

...Beefed-up oversight is another priority for Biden.

...Biden is directing Medicare to strengthen requirements that the nursing homes employ on-site infection prevention specialists.

More than half of the nation's nursing homes are owned by for-profit companies, and the administration wants to shine a spotlight on a growing trend of private equity firms snapping up ownership of facilities...

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/biden-launch-overhaul-nursing-home-sta...

The lessons learned from 1918 flu fatigue, according to historians (National Geographic)

More than a century ago, exhausted Americans just wanted to forget about two years of lockdowns and mask mandates—but experts warn against repeating history...

Opinion: Why the pandemic’s increases in risky driving might not dissipate as we return to normal
Megan McArdle | March 10, 2022

...it really has gotten more dangerous to be on the road, or even near a road. Americans drove about 13 percent fewer miles in 2020, yet fatal crashes rose by 6.8 percent. And while we don’t have a comprehensive tally of fatalities in 2021, what data we do have suggests that they are still rising, even in D.C., where speed limits were actually lowered during the pandemic.

...recent research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which suggests that this is what the roads look like when the most risk-averse people decide to stay home.

The foundation ran a survey of drivers over a month in the fall of 2020, asking people about risky behaviors such as speeding or driving under the influence. It also asked whether people had increased, held steady or reduced their driving since the beginning of the pandemic. Most people, their surveys indicate, decreased their driving, while only 4 percent said they were driving more. But that 4 percent was quite different from the group that stayed off the roads; younger and more likely to be male, as well as more likely to say they had recently texted while driving, run a red light, driven without a seat belt or yes, driven drunk...

...Why have things stayed bad (indeed, gotten worse) as the rest of us slowly returned to the roads? Perhaps it really is just pandemic stress. But...

...we take our cues about what is acceptable from the drivers around us. If the drivers around us are speeding, we go faster; if they are aggressively cutting off other drivers, so will we (or risk spending eternity in the middle lane). That’s why so much effort has gone into not just changing the law, but changing cultural norms about such things as wearing seat belts and driving after drinking. The pandemic may have undone some of that good work.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/10/pandemic-risky-driving-maybe-...
--------------------------------------------------

TEFFT et al. 2022. Self-reported Risky Driving in Relation to Amount of Driving during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Research Brief). Washington, DC. AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. https://aaafoundation.org/self-reported-risky-driving-in-relation-to-changes-in-...

Always a tiny Asian woman, or frail elder, it seems... WTH??
Man Hit Woman in the Head 125 Times Because She Was Asian, Officials Say

A man has been charged with attempted murder as a hate crime after a vicious assault in Yonkers, N.Y., that was captured by a security camera.

...The experience has been starkly different in New York City and other parts of the United States, where anti-Asian violence has risen sharply during the coronavirus pandemic. From March 19, 2020, through the end of last year, nearly 11,000 hate crimes targeting those of Asian and Pacific Island descent across America were reported to Stop AAPI Hate, an advocacy organization.

In New York City, the police recorded 131 bias incidents against Asians in 2021, up from 28 in 2020 and just three in 2019. Activists have cautioned that the figures may not tell the whole story because bias incidents are not always classified as such or reported to the police...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/nyregion/yonkers-hate-crime-anti-asian-attack...

Health care costs add up in months after COVID-19 hospital stay, study finds
Kara Gavin | March 16, 2022

Even when insurance companies were waiving COVID-19 hospitalization charges, 10% of patients faced $2,000 or more in costs within 6 months of leaving the hospital.

...on top of the bills for their hospital care, a new study suggests that many of them could face hundreds or thousands of dollars in costs after they leave the hospital.

The new study comes just a month after a previous one from the same team showed that getting hospitalized for a serious case of COVID-19 could mean hospital bills averaging $1,600 to $4,000 for many patients.

Now, the team has looked at costs for the health care that patients needed in the six months after their first COVID-related hospitalization. On average, patients with private insurance had bills just under $290, and those with Medicare Advantage were asked to pay around $270, suggesting that most patients had modest costs.

But for nearly 11% of privately insured patients and 9.3% of people covered by Medicare Advantage, the first six months after a COVID-19 hospitalization brought bills totaling $2,000 or more.

For people hospitalized in 2021 and 2022, these costs were likely higher, the researchers note. That’s because the data come from 2020, before insurance companies rolled back temporary voluntary waivers that had protected patients from out-of-pocket costs for COVID-related hospitalizations, including COVID-19 readmissions...

...The authors call on insurers to reinstate waivers for COVID-related hospitalizations, to reduce the financial toll on patients and reduce the chance that people with COVID-19 will avoid seeking care out of cost concerns...

https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/lab-notes/health-care-costs-add-up-months-after-c...
------------------------------------------------------------

Kao-Ping Chua et al. 2022. Out-of-Pocket Spending for Health Care After COVID-19 Hospitalization. Am J Manag Care. 16 March 2022;28(8):In Press. https://www.ajmc.com/view/out-of-pocket-spending-for-health-care-after-covid-19-...

For most patients who survive COVID-19 hospitalization, out-of-pocket spending within 180 days of discharge is modest. However, 1 in 10 have out-of-pocket spending exceeding $2000.

ABSTRACT
...Results: Of 7932 patients with COVID-19 included in analyses, 2061 (26.0%) had private insurance. Among privately insured and Medicare Advantage patients, median (25th-75th percentile) out-of-pocket spending after discharge was $287 ($59-$842) and $271 ($63-$783), respectively. Out-of-pocket spending exceeded $2000 for 10.9% and 9.3% of these patients, respectively. Among privately insured and Medicare Advantage patients hospitalized for pneumonia, median (25th-75th percentile) out-of-pocket spending after discharge was $276 ($62-$836) and $570 ($181-$1466). Out-of-pocket spending exceeded $2000 for 12.1% and 17.2% of these patients, respectively.

Conclusions: For most patients hospitalized for COVID-19, postdischarge care may not be a major source of financial stress. Although this is reassuring, our findings also suggest that a sizable minority of COVID-19 survivors have substantial out-of-pocket spending after discharge. These survivors could be particularly vulnerable to financial toxicity if they also receive bills for the hospitalization owing to the expiration of insurer cost-sharing waivers. Insurers should consider this possibility when deciding whether to reinstate cost-sharing waivers for COVID-19 hospitalizations.

MAGA Massacre
In Year Two of the pandemic, to sabotage Joe Biden, the GOP sacrificed its own voters by the tens of thousands
Richard Hine | Mar 21, 2022
https://thedailyedge.substack.com/p/maga-massacre?s=r

Federal coverage for COVID-19 treatment and testing for the uninsured ends today.
Coverage for vaccine administration for the uninsured ends in about two weeks.
The rationing of COVID-care by ability to pay begins.

- Adam W Gaffney (Harvard Med) @awgaffney | 3:45 PM · Mar 22, 2022

Eric Topol @EricTopol | 4:35 PM · Mar 24, 2022
On the harassment of scientists during the pandemic
Table-kinds of threats ( https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1507093662013931527/photo/1 )
Vitriolic views ( https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1507093662013931527/photo/2 )

Cathleen O’Grady. 2022. In the line of fire (Feature). Science • 24 Mar 2022 • Vol 375, Issue 6587 • pp. 1338-1343 • DOI: 10.1126/science.abq1538 h ttps://science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.abq1538

Rising Stress and Burnout in Public Health (survey of 45,000 state & local PH depts, survey, Sept 2021-Jan 2022)
de Beaumont Foundation and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials | March 22, 2022

Key findings:
More than half of public health employees report symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and 1 in 5 say their mental health is either fair or poor.

Many public health workers, especially executives, report experiencing bullying, threats, and harassment.

More than 1 in 4 public health employees say they are considering leaving their organization.

Despite these challenges, public health employees are committed to their jobs and their communities.

https://debeaumont.org/phwins/2021-findings/

Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing | 10:04 PM · Apr 9, 2022
Residents in #Shanghai screaming from high rise apartments after 7 straight days of the city lockdown.
The narrator worries that there will be major problems.
(in Shanghainese dialect—he predicts people can’t hold out much longer—he implies tragedy).

1:29 ( https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1512974880463114241 )
From Patrick Madrid ✌🏼

Eric Topol @EricTopol | 11:17 AM · Apr 10, 2022
When a physician-scientist (Peter Hotez) and microbiologist (Maria Elena Botazzi ), with the support of their institutions,
do the work that gets more than 20 million children in India protected from Covid
Deep admiration...

Poster ( https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1513174422781239302/photo/1 )

Out April 12, 2022:

Pandemic, Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick
By J. David McSwane

-------------------------------------------

J. David McSwane (Propublica) @davidmcswane | 12:34 PM · Apr 9, 2022:
https://twitter.com/davidmcswane/status/1512831441796841475
1) Let me tell you a crazy story. It's consumed 2 years of my life.
As COVID-19 shut down the world in April 2020, I decided to follow the money. I began with a call to a no-name federal contractor who’d somehow landed a $35M deal for masks. Hours later, I’m on a private jet …

Stacy Sometimes @Dominowarlock | 2:29 PM · Apr 9, 2022:
Why wasn’t the former admin’s highly suspicious decision to eliminate any oversight of emergency funds met with hair-on-fire outrage by every single legal/political ethics watchdog group in the country. Project Hope’s 2/20 export of 18 tons of PPE should have been stopped, too.
----------------------------------------------

How Profit and Incompetence Delayed N95 Masks While People Died at the VA
Federal agencies have hired contractors with no experience to find respirators and masks, fueling a black market filled with price gouging and multiple layers of profiteering brokers. One contractor called them “buccaneers and pirates.”
J. David McSwane | May 1, 2020
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-profit-and-incompetence-delayed-n95-masks...

The Debilitating COVID Situation in Shanghai
Eric Feigl-Ding | April 11, 2022

...For all practical purposes, China is reaching a breaking point with the BA2 variant of the COVID-19 virus. There are two outcomes to this. One is that it continues with its current policy which implies that there will be more human tragedies to witness for the world media, or it can change direction by letting go of the severe restrictions of lockdowns that it has in effect at the moment. The second option is also not palatable as it will give ample scope for the COVID-19 virus to spread its tentacles again and will soon lead to another deadlier outbreak of the virus that will claim even more lives than it did in the previous wave.

It is not only Shanghai that is grappling with shortages of food. There are at least 23 cities in China under full or partial lockdown. These are cities with 193 million people as residents. The doctors and nurses tending to COVID cases are fully exhausted by now.

...As of now, China is extending its Shanghai lockdown for an indefinite period as well as rushing in 38,000 health workers from other parts of the country to the embattled city. This is a scary proposition, to say the least. Delivery of food has to be ensured if the government does not want an insurrection on its hands led by starved and isolated citizens.

...in Chinese culture, where food is love and hospitality, to allow citizenry to go hungry is the one unbreakable social contract that the Chinese government knows cannot be broken...

https://medriva.com/the-debilitating-covid-situation-in-shanghai/#gs.x518t6
--------------------------------------------

Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing | 3:09 AM · Apr 12, 2022:
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1513776224086155264

6) “all but 13 of China’s top 100 cities by gross domestic product had imposed some level of quarantine restriction. Official data states nearly 500,000 people are under medical observation.”

ft.com
US orders non-essential consulate staff to leave Shanghai
Chinese city locked down after Covid-19 outbreak as officials warn about economic impact
------------------------------------------

...even millionaires in Shanghai who own grocery stores can’t get bread or mild without asking for help on WeChat...
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1513537612329402372/photo/1
-------------------------------------------

Last week, the U.S. Consulate had to beg for food for US Marines using local social media WeChat. “Marines have depleted their food and can no longer get delivery—if you can spare a meal’s worth or two for 7 extra mouths, they’d be very appreciative”...

U.S. consulate staff in China help Marines running low on rations
Engen Tham | April 6, 2022
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/us-consulate-staff-china-help-marines-runnin...

Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing | 11:03 PM · Apr 9, 2022
7) Of course, Chinese govt doesn’t condone balcony singing or & protesting. And of course, a govt drone appears:
“Please comply with COVID rules. **Control your soul’s desire for freedom**. Do not open window to sing.”
➡️yes the drone actually said that.

0:13 ( https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1512989742710898689 )
From Alice Su

The Pandemic Has Trapped Millions in Unending Grief
COVID is now the third leading cause of death—and therefore the third leading cause of grief—in the United States.
Ed Yong | April 13, 2022

...In just two years, COVID has become the third most common cause of death in the U.S., which means that it is also the third leading cause of grief in the U.S. Each American who has died of COVID has left an average of nine close relatives bereaved, creating a community of grievers larger than the population of all but 11 states. Under normal circumstances, 10 percent of bereaved people would be expected to develop prolonged grief, which is unusually intense, incapacitating, and persistent. But for COVID grievers, that proportion may be even higher, because the pandemic has ticked off many risk factors.

Deaths from COVID have been unexpected, untimely, particularly painful, and, in many cases, preventable. The pandemic has replaced community with isolation, empathy with judgment, and opportunities for healing with relentless triggers. Some of these features accompany other causes of death, but COVID has woven them together and inflicted them at scale. In 1 million instants, the disease has torn wounds in 9 million worlds, while creating the perfect conditions for those wounds to fester. It has opened up private grief to public scrutiny, all while depriving grievers of the collective support they need to recover. The U.S. seems intent on brushing aside its losses in its desire to move past the crisis. But the grief of millions of people is not going away...

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/04/us-1-million-covid-death-rate...

The Justice Department charged 21 people over coronavirus-related fraud schemes.
The schemes included selling fake vaccination cards and test results, as well as enticing patients to accept unneeded treatments, tests and telehealth visits.
Glenn Thrush | April 20, 2022

...charges the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Wednesday against 21 people across the country. Those people, officials said, were involved in schemes that totaled about $149 million in false Medicare billing related to the sweeping federal response to the pandemic.

...The schemes included printing phony vaccination cards and selling fake test results, as well as more complicated scams that enticed older or ailing patients to accept unneeded treatments, tests and telehealth visits in California, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Utah and Washington...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/us/covid-fraud-justice-department.html

Vice President Kamala Harris tests positive for Covid
Jasmine Wright, Maegan Vazquez, Betsy Klein and Kevin Liptak | April 26, 2022

Vice President Kamala Harris has tested positive for Covid-19, the White House announced Tuesday, after returning from a weeklong trip to California.

"Today, Vice President Harris tested positive for Covid-19 on rapid and PCR tests. She has exhibited no symptoms, will isolate and continue to work from the vice president's residence," said Kirsten Allen, the vice president's press secretary, in a statement..."She has not been a close contact to the President or First Lady due to their respective recent travel schedules. She will follow CDC guidelines and the advice of her physicians. The Vice President will return to the White House when she tests negative."...

https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/26/politics/kamala-harris-positive-covid/index.html

From a letter to the editor in the local paper

"The lack of concern for the safety of the immunocompromised and other vulnerable people who need to travel by air is appalling. At the very least, it is inexplicable (other than insatiable greed) why the airlines cannot designate mask and unmask sections of the planes (just as they did smoking and non-smoking sections)."

Oh yes, that should help..

>142 cindydavid4: why the airlines cannot designate mask and unmask sections of the planes (just as they did smoking and non-smoking sections)... Yeah, and pee and no-pee sections for community pools!

:/

Olga Basso @olga_basso | 8:53 PM · Apr 26, 2022:
Perinatal & reproductive epidemiologist. From Italy, was in Denmark, US, & now in Canada (McGill U).
https://twitter.com/olga_basso/status/1519117448217251841

1 Welcome to our latest COVID update. We are pleased to announce that we are in the post-pandemic, quasi-endemic phase. What? Yes, we already announced this a few months ago, but this time is for real, as our... ehm, many respected scientists keep telling you.

2 Before we get to the exciting news, we have a few announcements and, uh, recommendations. As the COVID situation has evolved, so has our language, and it is your responsibility to understand our communications.

3 For example, by "mild", we mean any case that does not cause many people at once to die or end up in the ICU because *of* COVID. (Note: it's still mild if some people die of it, or if many die later because of something COVID did to them. Long COVID? Still mild)

4 Also, we will no longer have "surges" or "waves", as these terms produce unnecessary alarm. From now on, we will have only "upticks" or, at most, "wavelets". Don't you already feel more calm and reassured?

5 Also, to avoid getting bogged down in details, we have expanded the meaning of "lockdown". Here are some examples of the new ways in which it can be used:
-Wearing a mask to travel? Lockdown
-Any COVID measure that interferes with your right to spread the virus? Lockdown

6 The first hypothesis to explain mysterious new illnesses in children? Lockdown
The fact that immunocompromised people must stay home to protect themselves? Focused protection
(Please pay attention - this is an important distinction)

7 Also, as some of you keep stubbornly resisting going back to normal, we may gently nudge you, with phrases like "Stay home if you are scared" or "are you going to mask forever?"

8 Oops - no, sorry.... Those are the pre-translation version.... Your public health officers will just make you look pathological & cowardly without ever saying so -such as in "We know some of you are anxious", or "Some people will take longer to adapt & we must all be kind".

9 Talking of PHOs: some have received awards for their actions during this emergency, and we are aware that some of you think that they haven't done a good job. Well, they have done the job they were supposed to, and they deserve recognition.

10 I mean, some still deny airborne transmission with a straight face after 2 years, which took a heroic effort and incredible capacity of lying consistently, even after most agencies admitted to it. If such dedication does not deserve an award, I don't know what does....

11 Also, some of you, despite being pro-vaccine, keep calling for "layered protections", such as masks & better ventilation. Please be aware that the vaccine is now a monotheistic religion, so calling for additional protections qualifies as heresy. Be warned.

12 And now, the exciting news! Do you know those uncomfortable & expensive headsets you need for virtual reality? Well, we are delighted to tell you that we have released a title that allows perfect immersion without any equipment, and it's free!

13 Indeed, some of you have been playing the beta version of "Return to the past: pre-pandemic" for a while, but we have a new release, with many more crowded indoor venues where you can interact with lots of unmasked people, just as if you were in 2019.

14 You'll love it. You just have to want to play to experience life to the fullest, and.... What? Oh, our lawyers say that we must warn you that playing may cause you to get infected, and blah, blah.... But we know that this won't stop you, as you REALLY want to play. Enjoy!

not sure whether to laugh or cry......maybe just crawl under the blankets and go back to sleep!

Think of the servers--they're not even mentioned...
CO2 monitors recorded 2000+ ppm CO2.

Journalists from multiple news outlets test positive after White House Correspondents Dinner weekend
Oliver Darcy | May 4, 2022

...In the days since WHCD weekend, reporters and staffers from CNN, ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, Politico, and other participating news organizations have tested positive for the virus. Most notably, ABC's Jon Karl, who shook hands with President Biden and who sat next to Kim Kardashian, has fallen ill

...While Karl did shake Biden's hand at the dinner, to have gone on-stage at the event he would have had to have taken a medically certified proctored test that the White House uses because it believes it to be a measure of infectiousness, a source told me. Which is to say, it's unlikely he was infectious at the time...

...the WHCD is bookended by dozens of parties held by news orgs and talent agencies. In other words, it will be difficult — impossible? — to identify specifically where the spread of Covid actually occurred....

https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/03/media/jonathan-karl-positive-covid-white-house-co...

Eric Topol (Scripps) @EricTopol | 11:19 AM · May 6, 2022:
Why isn't the contrast dye shortage due to supply chain issues in China, affecting so many aspects of medical practice and patient imaging, getting national media coverage? And how did we get to rely 100% on China for contrast dye?

Hundreds of Suicidal Teens Sleep in Emergency Rooms. Every Night.
Matt Richtel | May 8, 2022

With inpatient psychiatric services in short supply, adolescents are spending days, even weeks, in hospital emergency departments awaiting the help they desperately need.

...Nationally, the number of residential treatment facilities for people under the age of 18 fell to 592 in 2020 from 848 in 2012, a 30 percent decline, according to the most recent federal government survey. The decline is partly a result of well-intentioned policy changes that did not foresee a surge in mental-health cases. Social-distancing rules and labor shortages during the pandemic have eliminated additional treatment centers and beds, experts say...

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/08/health/emergency-rooms-teen-mental-health.htm...

Meatpackers hyped ‘baseless’ shortage to keep plants open amid covid
Taylor Telford | 12 May 2022

A House panel alleges that Tyson and other meat processors heavily influenced Trump’s executive order that compelled plants to keep operating...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/05/12/meatpackers-covid-deaths-trum...

>148 margd: I read at the time that a good amount of their product was for export anyway; not the domestic shortage they claimed.

Numbers sound ~right, but can't verify:

Yishan yishan | 1:30 AM · May 27, 2022:
https://twitter.com/yishan/status/1530058922777661440

Here's a stat that's a bit politically inconvenient for almost everyone:

Since 2020, there have been more children killed by COVID (~1,125) than in all school shootings since Columbine (169), over 20 years ago.

Wow, FL! Some of those special Olympics folks are particularly vulnerable to COVID:

Jay O'Brien (ABC) @jayobtv | 9:36 AM · Jun 3, 2022:
SCOOP: The State or Florida threatened the Special Olympics with $27.5 MILLION in fines because the organization had a vaccine requirement at its games in Orlando this weekend.
https://twitter.com/jayobtv/status/1532717916331950080

Late yesterday, the Special Olympics pulled the requirement. 1/3

Florida said the vaccine rule conflicted with state law, and disqualified Special Olympics athletes from competing based on their vaccine status.

State said they heard from athletes and families of athletes who complained.

Here’s the letter the state sent. 2/3
Text ( https://twitter.com/jayobtv/status/1532717922526842882/photo/1 )

Then, the Special Olympics put out this notice.

“We don’t want to fight. We want to play,” it says at the end. 3/3
Text ( https://twitter.com/jayobtv/status/1532717929887940608/photo/2 )