Corona Virus

"In an interim report on Monday, the panel of experts, led by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said: “The global pandemic alert system is not fit for purpose. The WHO has been underpowered to do the job.”
Monday’s report comes on the day Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit released 3 Days that Stopped the World, which showed the city of Wuhan during a crucial period early in the pandemic"

[bighmmm][bighmmm][bighmmm] Sorry to our Dear Mods. A post I made this morning tickled my funny bone possibly not my grey matter.

COVID review panel critical of China, WHO delay | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera

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Originally Posted by bob10

Dr Djokovic and 'those ' conditions. Well-known public health expert Novak Djokovic's ideas for easing the discomfort of tennis players consigned to quarantine should be taken seriously. Obviously. Djokovic, you might recall, had the marvellous idea last year of reviving the COVID-struck tennis circuit with a Balkan tournament called the Adria Tour 2020. Players and officials in Djokovic's circus did not wear masks and took to hugging and high-fiving, shooting hoops during downtime and partying into the night with such abandon – and we were all amazed at this – that the coronavirus broke out among the star players. Djokovic himself got the virus, as did his wife. The tournament had to be abandoned before it reached a final. There's a bit more about reducing time in isolation and allowing visits by coaches and personal trainers, but the final demand is pure genius. "Relocation of as many tennis players as possible to private houses with a tennis court for their isolation period." Would that come with a convoy of chefs, party organisers and DJs hurrying to Portsea, by any chance? Unfair as it may sound, Premier Daniel Andrews took about two minutes on Monday to tell Djokovic he was dreamin'. Paging Dr Djokovic: public health guru pens prescription for lockdown fever (theage.com.au)

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The solution is quite simple. Don't like the conditions? **** off back home on the next available flight. GOOD RIDDANCE. Bloody Prima Donnas.

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with such abandon –

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One wonders whether that really was "Gay Abandon?" [bigrolf]

Breaking on the tennis lock down.

Australian Open boss Craig Tiley says the majority of international players and their entourages in hotel quarantine are “over the shock” of confinement after a few “serial whingers” complained.
It came as Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews offered a glimmer of hope, suggesting that up to 30 confined players might soon be able to leave hard lockdown.
Victorian health authorities have deemed some of the recent Australian Open-linked positive COVID diagnoses to be viral shedding – meaning the cases are not contagious.
Victoria had four new virus infections on Tuesday, three more linked to the tennis and one in a returned traveller.
“If you’ve got, say, 30 people who are deemed a close contact because they’ve been on a plane with a case, and the case is no longer an active case, but a historic shedding … that would release those people from that hard lockdown,” Mr Andrews said on Thursday.
Victoria’s state’s chief health officer Brett Sutton will reveal further details about any “reclassifications” later on Tuesday.


Mr Tiley said the lockdown for some players meant preparations for the grand slam starting on February 8 were “not an even playing field”.
Players in lockdown cannot train, while another group of competitors, including world No.1 Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal, is in Adelaide where restrictions are more relaxed.
“We’re going to play our part to try to even it up as much as possible,” Mr Tiley said.






Vic may lift tennis quarantines, as Open boss defends ‘whingeing players’ (thenewdaily.com.au)

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Originally Posted by Homestar

Yes, he was firmly and quickly put in his place by both Dan Andrews and Lisa Neville.

Very amusing...

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It appears that it might be unraveling a bit. Knew it wouldn't take long.[bighmmm]

International travellers coming to Australia will from tomorrow have to take a COVID-19 test and return a negative result within three days of their scheduled flight.
Health Minister Greg Hunt announced on Thursday he had orders under the Biosecurity Act to introduce the new rules unveiled after National Cabinet two weeks ago.
“As of the 22nd of January, PCR tests will be required within 72 hours prior to departure for international travellers,” he said.
“[And] that masks will be required on international flights.
“These will be challenging for many people, and I am apologetic that we need to put in place these restrictions.”




COVID test required within three days of travel for international passengers | The New Daily

A new California variant may be driving the surge in the State. The New York Times.

In late December, scientists in California began searching coronavirus samples for a fast-spreading new variant that had just been identified in Britain.
They found it, though in relatively few samples. In the process, the scientists made another unwelcome discovery: California had produced a variant of its own.

That mutant, which belongs to a lineage known as CAL.20C, seemed to have popped up in July but lay low till November. Then it began to quickly spread.
CAL.20C accounted for more than half of the virus genome samples collected in Los Angeles laboratories on Jan. 13, according to a new study that has not yet been published.
“We had our own problem that didn’t cross over from Europe,” said Jasmine Plummer, a research scientist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who worked on the study. “It really originated here, and it had the chance to start to emerge and surge over the holiday.”
There’s no evidence that CAL.20C is more lethal than other variants. And scientists have to conduct more research to determine whether CAL.20C is in fact more contagious.

But Eric Vail, the director of molecular pathology at Cedars-Sinai, said it was possible that CAL.20C was playing a large part in the surge of cases that has overwhelmed Southern California’s hospitals. “I’m decently confident that this is a more infectious strain of the virus,” Dr. Vail said.

Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said that across the state, he and his colleagues were finding the variant in roughly 20 percent to 30 percent of samples being sequenced. “It just popped up under our noses, and now it’s rising in multiple counties,” he said. “On the whole, it’s safe to say it’s going to spread outside of California.”
Researchers are also looking in other states for CAL.20C, Dr. Plummer said, and have so far found it in Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia. It’s not clear yet how common it is outside California.

A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency was working with California to learn more about the new variant. “Currently, it’s not known whether this variant is any different from other SARS-CoV-2 viruses, whether those differences may have contributed to its emergence, or whether this emergence was merely a random event,” he said.
Outside scientists are concerned about the findings, but say it’s still unclear whether the California variant’s mutations are giving it an edge — or whether it’s showing up so much just by chance.
There might be a bias in the samples that scientists are looking at, for example. It’s also possible that CAL.C20 happened to become more common thanks to some big super-spreader events.
Dr. Chiu and his colleagues are now growing the variant in cells to see how quickly they multiply compared with other variants. The researchers are also going to observe how well antibodies produced by vaccines work against CAL.C20.
Other scientists are also looking more closely at the rise in frequency of the variant in California. They’re searching for evidence that could determine whether biology or chance is to blame.

“That’s the work that needs to be done,” said Dr. Vail. “We just don’t have that information.”

A rising tennis star who had complained about hotel quarantine has become the first Australian Open player in Melbourne to be named as an active coronavirus case.


Australian Open player confirms COVID diagnosis as travel rules tightened (thenewdaily.com.au)

https://youtu.be/DrHbQRW8v70

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Originally Posted by bob10

A new California variant may be driving the surge in the State. The New York Times.

In late December, scientists in California began searching coronavirus samples for a fast-spreading new variant that had just been identified in Britain.
They found it, though in relatively few samples. In the process, the scientists made another unwelcome discovery: California had produced a variant of its own.

That mutant, which belongs to a lineage known as CAL.20C, seemed to have popped up in July but lay low till November. Then it began to quickly spread.
CAL.20C accounted for more than half of the virus genome samples collected in Los Angeles laboratories on Jan. 13, according to a new study that has not yet been published.
“We had our own problem that didn’t cross over from Europe,” said Jasmine Plummer, a research scientist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who worked on the study. “It really originated here, and it had the chance to start to emerge and surge over the holiday.”
There’s no evidence that CAL.20C is more lethal than other variants. And scientists have to conduct more research to determine whether CAL.20C is in fact more contagious.

But Eric Vail, the director of molecular pathology at Cedars-Sinai, said it was possible that CAL.20C was playing a large part in the surge of cases that has overwhelmed Southern California’s hospitals. “I’m decently confident that this is a more infectious strain of the virus,” Dr. Vail said.

Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said that across the state, he and his colleagues were finding the variant in roughly 20 percent to 30 percent of samples being sequenced. “It just popped up under our noses, and now it’s rising in multiple counties,” he said. “On the whole, it’s safe to say it’s going to spread outside of California.”
Researchers are also looking in other states for CAL.20C, Dr. Plummer said, and have so far found it in Arizona, Connecticut, Maryland, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia. It’s not clear yet how common it is outside California.

A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency was working with California to learn more about the new variant. “Currently, it’s not known whether this variant is any different from other SARS-CoV-2 viruses, whether those differences may have contributed to its emergence, or whether this emergence was merely a random event,” he said.
Outside scientists are concerned about the findings, but say it’s still unclear whether the California variant’s mutations are giving it an edge — or whether it’s showing up so much just by chance.
There might be a bias in the samples that scientists are looking at, for example. It’s also possible that CAL.C20 happened to become more common thanks to some big super-spreader events.
Dr. Chiu and his colleagues are now growing the variant in cells to see how quickly they multiply compared with other variants. The researchers are also going to observe how well antibodies produced by vaccines work against CAL.C20.
Other scientists are also looking more closely at the rise in frequency of the variant in California. They’re searching for evidence that could determine whether biology or chance is to blame.

“That’s the work that needs to be done,” said Dr. Vail. “We just don’t have that information.”

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California had produced a variant of its own.

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That will interesting bob. Red Sports Cars, Palm Trees & cocktails maybe?

Can't be convinced this isn't Man made with inbuilt time delays. But that is my Conspiracy theory. ie. Engineered.

India[thumbsupbig]

"India has started what authorities claim is the world's fastest and largest inoculation drive, with 191,000 healthcare workers receiving a dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday.
The Government's first phase of an ambitious vaccination program will target 30 million people, starting with healthcare and frontline workers before it is expanded to people aged above 50 and those suffering from comorbidities.
Authorities have set up an initial 3,000 vaccination points across India, each to provide doses to 100 people a day.
By August, India aims to have inoculated 300 million people.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the vaccine rollout in a televised address, stating the world was "looking at India with hope".
"Such a vaccination drive at such a massive scale has never been conducted in history," he said.

"