[COVID-19] General Discussion

[The Seeker]

'The ICU is full': medical staff on frontline of China's COVID fight say hospitals are 'overwhelmed'

In more than three decades of emergency medicine, Beijing-based doctor Howard Bernstein said, he has never seen anything like this. Patients are arriving at his hospital in ever-increasing numbers; almost all are elderly and many are very unwell with COVID and pneumonia symptoms, he said...

news.yahoo.com

 

[Which Tyler]

Just what our health service needs right now!

Ministers yet to finalise Covid testing plans for travellers from China

Officials confirm new policy for England will begin on Thursday but say they are still working on final details

www.theguardian.com

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Just what our health service needs right now!

Ministers yet to finalise Covid testing plans for travellers from China

Officials confirm new policy for England will begin on Thursday but say they are still working on final details

www.theguardian.com

China is now the centre of Covid. The world should be watching – and testing | Devi Sridhar

With China’s government underplaying its domestic outbreak, it’s vital that other countries remain alert to new variants, says Devi Sridhar of Edinburgh University

www.theguardian.com

Yep, Devi saying it's pretty much a waste of time.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

What is known about new Covid variant XBB.1.5?

The latest Omicron variant is making scientists take notice in the US - so what do you need to know?

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Covid forces Camilla, Queen Consort, to cancel visits

Camilla is said to have cold symptoms but is described as keeping in "good spirits".

www.bbc.co.uk

From "seasonal illness" to Covid. Why didn't they just say that to begin with? Not like it's not uncommon to catch it anymore.

 

[Which Tyler]

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Covid inquiry: Race should be at its core, say campaigners

A coalition of organisations says the official inquiry does not focus enough on the role of racism.

www.bbc.co.uk

Although recent stats I have read has narrowed the gap with the vaccines and treatments.

 

[Reiser99]

Covid inquiry: Race should be at its core, say campaigners

A coalition of organisations says the official inquiry does not focus enough on the role of racism.

www.bbc.co.uk

Although recent stats I have read has narrowed the gap with the vaccines and treatments.

This may be my limited understanding, but I thought the issue was more poverty based, which then becomes a race issue. 'Key workers' were mostly those in low paid jobs and had to keep going to work. Also many couldn't afford to stop working and kept going even when they shouldn't have and spread the virus. Finally low paid workers tended to live in more crowded areas such as apartment blocks and council estates and so were more likely to spread it that way. The race issue comes when you realise that non-white people tend to be the poorer people in these situations.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

This may be my limited understanding, but I thought the issue was more poverty based, which then becomes a race issue. 'Key workers' were mostly those in low paid jobs and had to keep going to work. Also many couldn't afford to stop working and kept going even when they shouldn't have and spread the virus. Finally low paid workers tended to live in more crowded areas such as apartment blocks and council estates and so were more likely to spread it that way. The race issue comes when you realise that non-white people tend to be the poorer people in these situations.

Yes, all valid points. I recall also Asian communities propensity for the different generations to live in same households was also a factor in spread in the earlier days of the pandemic pre Vaccine/ treatments.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

My father’s death from Covid wasn’t ‘terrible luck’. We were failed by a racist system in the UK | Safiah Ngah

As someone from an ethnic minority, my dad was much more likely to die from Covid. So why won’t the inquiry address structural racism, asks Safiah Ngah

www.theguardian.com

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Hancock disputes claim he ignored care home Covid advice

The ex-health secretary's spokesperson says reports, based on leaked messages, offer a "distorted account".

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Bada-Bing!]

‘It’s just gotten crazy’: how the origins of Covid became a toxic US political debate

New report supporting theory the coronavirus leaked from a Chinese lab has sparked the latest eruption in a long fight over how the virus started, clouding efforts to pursue a neutral, fact-based inquiry

www.theguardian.com

IMO this is part of the Cold War that is going on between US and China. China's leadership never helped itself by not being transparent over how Covid came about, and this has helped lead to the uncertainty and "low confidence" theories. Now the Director of FBI espousing his non-transparent/peer reviewed lab theory.

 

[McTallshort]

According to some Chinese propaganda channels the virus was started by the Americans who brought it over on a military visit.

Personally I think that's nonsense but the lab leak theory does have some credibility.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

According to some Chinese propaganda channels the virus was started by the Americans who brought it over on a military visit.

Yeh that's clearly BS and part of the CCP's propaganda/misinformation.

Personally I think that's nonsense but the lab leak theory does have some credibility.

It can't be ruled out. But other renowned experts in the field have said it is highly unlikely based on the genome sequence released.

It doesn't help having competing US agencies trying to get to the bottom of it, but without producing the evidence on which their findings are based. Even less when an FBI Director appears on a right wing news channel whose audience is renowned for lapping up conspiracy theories.

 

[McTallshort]

Yeh that's clearly BS and part of the CCP's propaganda/misinformation.


It can't be ruled out. But other renowned experts in the field have said it is highly unlikely based on the genome sequence released.

It doesn't help having competing US agencies trying to get to the bottom of it, but without producing the evidence on which their findings are based. Even less when an FBI Director appears on a right wing news channel whose audience is renowned for lapping up conspiracy theories.

Thing is. The Chinese are trying to deflect this saying America brought it into Wuhan. America is saying it leaked out of a lab. That's both of them saying that they don't think it jumped from humans to animals.

We know all the variants of COVID, we know it's geen sequencing, we have treatment and vaccines for it but know one seems to care where it came from. If it jumped from animals to humans then which animal and which human? It's been over 3 years since the start of pandemic and we are still none the wiser. The only people who have made statements are the American FBI and the Chinese state both blaming each other. Very worrying

 

[Which Tyler]

Interesting use (let alone emphasis) of the word "fatal" there.
Sunak losing his job won't be quite as "fatal" as those left in care homes to die alone.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Thing is. The Chinese are trying to deflect this saying America brought it into Wuhan. America is saying it leaked out of a lab. That's both of them saying that they don't think it jumped from humans to animals.

We know all the variants of COVID, we know it's geen sequencing, we have treatment and vaccines for it but know one seems to care where it came from. If it jumped from animals to humans then which animal and which human? It's been over 3 years since the start of pandemic and we are still none the wiser. The only people who have made statements are the American FBI and the Chinese state both blaming each other. Very worrying

It is. But without CCP's cooperation on this there will be no definitive answer to this. The Wuhan Wet market has long been cleansed and there is just no way they will allow any US officials or scientists into the Wuhan lab to review.

This to-ing and fro-ing between US and China's public officials helps nobody.

Ultimately what we all want to know is that this doesn't happen again and that comes from understanding how it came about in the first place. But human kind encroaching on animal's ecosystem lies at the heart of it. And that happens all over the world.

The other thing is that Governments have to have a ready action plan to implement . It was pretty clear no one in the West had one, the ones who had not previously been hit by SARS and MERs.

 

[Which Tyler]

Thing is. The Chinese are trying to deflect this saying America brought it into Wuhan. America is saying it leaked out of a lab. That's both of them saying that they don't think it jumped from humans to animals.

We know all the variants of COVID, we know it's geen sequencing, we have treatment and vaccines for it but know one seems to care where it came from. If it jumped from animals to humans then which animal and which human? It's been over 3 years since the start of pandemic and we are still none the wiser. The only people who have made statements are the American FBI and the Chinese state both blaming each other. Very worrying

Not entirely true; but that sort of detective work takes time, and starts after the whole thing is under control a bit.

The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic - PubMed

Understanding how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in 2019 is critical to preventing future zoonotic outbreaks before they become the next pandemic. The Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, was identified as a likely source of cases in early...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The Origins of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 - PubMed

An outbreak of severe pneumonia of unknown cause was identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019: the causative agent was a novel betacoronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome-cotonavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), a virus that joins a list of coronaviruses causing severe (e.g., SARS and Middle East...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Pathogenesis of covid - 19 - Pandemonium of the pandemic in Pandora's box - PubMed

The novel disease of 2019 by name coronavirus (Covid - 19 or SARS - CoV - 2), was first detected in December of 2019 in the Seafood Market of Huanan in Wuhan region of China. In less than a month it was proclaimed as a pandemic by The World Health Organization (WHO). Now, even after a year, it...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Exploring the Natural Origins of SARS-CoV-2 in the Light of Recombination - PubMed

The lack of an identifiable intermediate host species for the proximal animal ancestor of SARS-CoV-2, and the large geographical distance between Wuhan and where the closest evolutionary related coronaviruses circulating in horseshoe bats (members of the Sarbecovirus subgenus) have been...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Gavin Williamson said teaching unions ‘just hate work’ during Covid pandemic

Former education secretary said to have made comments in leaked WhatsApp exchanges to Matt Hancock, then health secretary

www.theguardian.com

Just reconfirming what an absolute dick he is.

 

[Bada-Bing!]