Covid 19 C&P

From the USA, the pandemic's deadly winter surge is rapidly easing.

Nationally, all signs point to continued rapid easing of the pandemic’s deadly winter surge. Cases are down 23 percent from the previous week and down 57 percent from the country’s all-time peak in early January when the U.S. recorded 1.7 million new cases in a single week. Hospitalization numbers confirm this rapid decline: There were about 77,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S. as of February 10, down 42 percent from the country’s January 6 record of about 132,000 people. Reported deaths dropped for the second week in a row, with 19,266 deaths reported this week—almost 10 percent fewer than were reported in the previous week. (We have excluded from this count the 1,507 historical deaths Indiana reported with no corresponding dates on February 4; these deaths are included in our API and cumulative death count.) Testing dropped 8 percent this week, the third week of declines for that metric.






The Pandemic’s Deadly Winter Surge Is Rapidly Easing - Defense One

COVID-19 may lead to male fertility issues.


Coronavirus: Can it spread via sex and does COVID-19 reduce fertility? (thenewdaily.com.au)

The early doomsday merchants may have been close to the mark, when they spruked the virus was natures way of controlling the World's population, but not in the way they meant. Research from South Africa and the UAE has found male COVID-19 patients sustain damage to the tersticles and sperm. They found;

• There is testicular injury and inflammatory infiltration
• Viral orchitis (swelling) may occur, as patients experienced scrotal discomfort
• There are altered semen parameters and
• The number of spermatozoa with DNA fragmentation is increased.

And then the Gorilla's started coughing.

Humans are spreading the coronavirus to other animals. What does that mean for all of us?


Opinion | When Covid Spread to Gorillas - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

New rules in a vaccinated society.

New rules in a vaccinated society

Israel’s vaccination campaign is the fastest in the world, and in the coming days it will reach a milestone, inoculating half of its population with at least one dose.

The rapid rollout is giving the rest of the world a first glimpse into the rules that may govern a vaccinated society — and they’re raising thorny questions.

This week, the government is allowing the reopening of shopping malls, gyms, sport events, hotels and other venues for the first time in months — but only for people who are fully vaccinated or have recovered from Covid-19. Under a new “Green Badge” system, customers and attendees will have to carry a certificate of vaccination with a QR code to gain entrance to many areas of public life, from restaurants and event halls, to conferences and swimming pools.

The system is fueling a heated debate about personal rights versus the greater good. But for the country’s health minister, the situation is cut and dry: “Getting vaccinated is a moral duty. It is part of our mutual responsibility,” he said. “Whoever does not get vaccinated will be left behind.”

The health ministry is now proposing legislation that would require some unvaccinated employees to be tested every 48 hours for the virus, and the health minister is promoting a bill that would identify unvaccinated people to the local authorities.

While four million people out of a population of nine million have been vaccinated, about two million citizens who are eligible have not sought a vaccine. In some cities, unvaccinated employees have been threatened with dismissal, including hotel workers and educators. A quarter or more of Israel’s teachers have not sought a first dose, and critics say they pose a danger to students under 16, who are too young to be vaccinated.

Rights groups have pushed back and have written a letter to the attorney general demanding that he issue a clear opinion that, under the law, employers may not demand vaccination status from workers. But with so many competing interests involved, resolving these issues may require legislative action from Parliament.

Dr. Maya Peled Raz, an expert in health law and ethics at the University of Haifa, defended some limits on personal liberties for the greater good. Employers cannot force employees to get vaccinated, she said, but they might be allowed to employ only vaccinated workers if not doing so could harm their business.

“It’s your choice,” she added of leisure activities. “If you are vaccinated, you can enter. As long as you aren’t, we can’t let you endanger others.”

No one knows if some one vaccinated can carry the virus and spread it to others . Yet.The usual precautions should be taken, even after vaccination.

With Covid-19 vaccines rolling out across the United States, the beginning of the end of the nation’s struggle with the pandemic may be coming into sight. But while the two currently approved Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are more than 90 percent effective at preventing the development of serious illness, scientists don’t know whether someone who has been vaccinated can carry the live virus and spread it to others.

Initial vaccine trials focused on vaccine safety. These were designed to gather data quickly and accurately on how effectively the vaccines prevented large groups of people from getting seriously sick with Covid-19.


In the push to get a vaccine approved for emergency use as quickly as possible, other effects of the vaccines were left untested. Scientists must test a smaller pool of people with greater frequency to understand how the virus travels between people after vaccination—an effort that became secondary to studying vaccine safety and efficacy.
“We design the trials to determine how we reduce the disease burden and keep people from progressing to hospitalization and death and being on a ventilator—that was and I think, still is, the first primary purpose of developing a vaccine,” says Larry Corey, co-director of the Covid-19 Prevention Network, a group formed in part by the National Institutes of Health to address the need for vaccines.
Now, as new, highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 variants from California, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil spread globally, understanding transmission as it relates to vaccine rollout efforts is vital.






Can You Spread Covid-19 After Getting Vaccinated? | Science | Smithsonian Magazine

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NavyDiver

I don't mind if some people choose not to or cannot be vaccinated. Not sure why people would be protesting about what is there existing right. Perhaps they think it is also their right to impose themselves on others? Aged care workers and similar who choose to protect them selves would then be a risk to the people they are supposed to care for may be a situation prompting complaints?

Its pretty clear people who do not get a Covid vax are a risk to themselves and others so will not be covered by some types of insurance or be allowed on Planes and into many countries assuming planes start moving again. When in hospital, a guy refused to allow a blood transfusion during surgery as he felt other peoples blood was "dirty". His drug taking, drinking and smoking might have had most people feeling that way about his blood had he been a blood donor. He didn't bleed to death happily for the surgeons and staff that just might have had to watch his choice kill him. I am also certain he is not a blood donor happily. I did ask him. I did not tell him I was[biggrin].

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Even after vaccination, no one knows if those vaccinated can carry the virus and pass it on to other people. Precautions taken now [ masks, social distancing] will need to carry on until proof , one way or the other, is determined. From the Smithsonian magazine.;

"With Covid-19 vaccines rolling out across the United States, the beginning of the end of the nation’s struggle with the pandemic may be coming into sight. But while the two currently approved Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are more than 90 percent effective at preventing the development of serious illness, scientists don’t know whether someone who has been vaccinated can carry the live virus and spread it to others.

Initial vaccine trials focused on vaccine safety. These were designed to gather data quickly and accurately on how effectively the vaccines prevented large groups of people from getting seriously sick with Covid-19.


In the push to get a vaccine approved for emergency use as quickly as possible, other effects of the vaccines were left untested. Scientists must test a smaller pool of people with greater frequency to understand how the virus travels between people after vaccination—an effort that became secondary to studying vaccine safety and efficacy.
“We design the trials to determine how we reduce the disease burden and keep people from progressing to hospitalization and death and being on a ventilator—that was and I think, still is, the first primary purpose of developing a vaccine,” says Larry Corey, co-director of the Covid-19 Prevention Network, a group formed in part by the National Institutes of Health to address the need for vaccines.
Now, as new, highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 variants from California, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil spread globally, understanding transmission as it relates to vaccine rollout efforts is vital."

A pandemic question mark: The variants

Epidemiologists have been warning for months that more contagious and deadly coronavirus variants have been bubbling just beneath the surface in the U.S. and could soon lead to another powerful surge of the virus — just as many places are easing up on restrictions.

And yet, there have been a number of signs in the U.S., and across the world, that the pandemic is in decline. During the last month, new cases globally have dropped to half their peak while hospitalizations in the U.S. have reached their lowest point since November. Recorded deaths around the world are also falling, declining roughly 50 percent since late January.

So then, are the variants losing?

My colleague Carl Zimmer, who writes about science for The Times, told me that assuming the positive trends will continue was “presumptuous.”

“The dynamics of viruses are weird,” Carl said. “And this is our third peak, so you’d think we’d have learned our lesson by now not to be too smug.”

It’s not certain that variants — like those discovered in South Africa or Brazil — will spread rapidly when they arrive in new territory. They may have showed up too late to the party, when another variant was already dominant, Carl said. Or the new population could be healthier, or with high rates of previous infection and antibodies.

But in the U.S., we just don’t know exactly what the variants are doing. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ramped up its sequencing of genomes, to about 9,000 cases per week, when it comes to our ability to watch the variants, Carl said, “Our eyesight is not great.”

Denmark, however, has 20/20 virus vision, and its experience may act as a warning to the U.S. The country sequences the genome of the vast majority of its coronavirus cases, and has found that even as a national lockdown drove down cases over the last few months, the virus variant B.1.1.7., first discovered in Britain, has continued to gain steam.

Camilla Holten Moller of the Statens Serum Institute, which models the epidemic for the Danish government, told me that they think the variant could make up as much as 80 percent of cases in the country, possibly by the end of this month. If that happens, she expects a sudden rise in infections and hospitalizations.

“And with B.1.1.7, it’s like speeding in a car,” she said. “Your reaction time is shorter.”

The California variant. Two new studies show that the variant first discovered in California in December is more contagious than earlier forms of the coronavirus, and may be better at evading vaccines. The findings added to concerns that emerging mutants could hamper a decline in cases.

Future COVID vaccines depend on something in short supply- monkeys. N.Y. Times.

As new variants of the coronavirus threaten to make the current batch of vaccines obsolete, scientists are racing to find new sources of monkeys, and the United States is reassessing its reliance on China, a rival with its own biotech ambitions.
The pandemic has underscored how much China controls the supply of lifesaving goods, including masks and drugs, that the United States needs in a crisis.




Future Vaccines Depend on Test Subjects in Short Supply: Monkeys - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Healthcare CEO stood down over vaccine bungle.

Healthcare CEO stood aside over vaccine dosage bungle (thenewdaily.com.au)