Coronavirus Goes Fourth

[Gfted1]

CDC study finds about 78% of people hospitalized for Covid were overweight or obese.

[Hurlshort]

58 minutes ago, Gfted1 said:

CDC study finds about 78% of people hospitalized for Covid were overweight or obese.

Yeah. Couple that with 73.6% of Americans being overweight, and you've got a pretty good idea why the US did badly.

[InsaneCommander]

3 minutes ago, Hurlshot said:

Yeah. Couple that with 73.6% of Americans being overweight, and you've got a pretty good idea why the US did badly.

Studies like this are good because they can help fight the pandemic.

Months ago I heard that overweight people were more susceptible. But I don't remember if it was something observed here in Brazil.

However, I don't think our situation here is caused by this, but actually by people who don't take it seriously.

[Gfted1]

23 minutes ago, InsaneCommander said:

Studies like this are good because they can help fight the pandemic.

Months ago I heard that overweight people were more susceptible. But I don't remember if it was something observed here in Brazil.

However, I don't think our situation here is caused by this, but actually by people who don't take it seriously.

I dont think they are referring to the susceptibility of catching the virus, they are referring to getting so sick from it that you need to be hospitalized. Which seems to lean heavily* toward the fatties.

*see what I did there?

[Zoraptor]

That's the problem with having a virus and its disease have different names. There's no evidence- so far as I am aware- that obese people are more likely to be infected with SARS-CoV-2; but they're more likely to get its negative effects covid-19 and more likely for them to be serious. So whether they're moire likely to get it depends on whether you're talking about covid19 or the virus.

Most of these studies coming out recently are scientific/ statistical confirmation of stuff that has been known anecdotally for months. So you have myocarditis, obesity, effects on capillaries etc all being Published recently because they now have enough good data to confirm what was already 'known' and for there to have been proper peer review.

[InsaneCommander]

2 hours ago, Gfted1 said:

I dont think they are referring to the susceptibility of catching the virus, they are referring to getting so sick from it that you need to be hospitalized. Which seems to lean heavily* toward the fatties.

*see what I did there?

You are correct. I messed things up there.

What I had heard was indeed about the risk of the disease getting serious.

[BruceVC]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-mask-mandate-ken-paxton-threatens-lawsuit-austin/

Basically the Governor or Texas is threatening to sue the mayor of Austin insisting people keep wearing masks !!!

Texas, IMO, is being premature about saying masks arent needed anymore so I completely understand and support why the officials in Austin are refusing to follow this. But now to sue them because they are insisting on masks is egregious and contemptable ....leave people alone who want to wear masks and especially if the leadership of state or city decide this is correct

The science doesnt lie and  their are still numerous virus strains around and Texas still has a high infection rate, 10 % or so , and not enough people have taken the vaccine. This is not the time to remove the exigency of wearing masks

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by BruceVC

[Zoraptor]

6 European countries have suspended the use of Astra Zeneca vaccine following blood clots in those who received it. They are utterly incorrect to do so.

Now I know affirmative action is popular around the world, but putting the intellectually challenged in charge of vaccine supervision is going a bit far. Frankly, the regulators of Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Luxembourg, Latvia and Norway should be summarily fired for incompetence. In a month's time they'll be bemoaning the lack of trust in vaccines having contributed completely needlessly to it themselves.

22 30 cases of thrombosis in 3 5m people is slightly less than the expected amount, suggesting that if anything the vaccine prevents clotting (it doesn't, of course, but it's better statistical analysis than those clowns have made, with apologies to clowns for the comparison) especially when it's administered primarily to oldies who are intrinsically more prone to blood clots than the general population. If all 30 people outright died- and only one has- there would still be a net decrease in death rate vs not vaccinating by more than an order of magnitude. And finally, one of the symptoms of covid-19 with a fairly long half life is... blood clots. Anyone who has had covid19 then been vaccinated is at an increased risk not because of the vaccination, but because of having had covid. So not only is the prevalence slightly lower compared to pre covid times, you'd actually expect post covid prevalence to be higher due to covid causing blood clots.

Credit to the EMA for pointing most of that out, but they were far too polite about it.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Zoraptor

[ShadySands]

3 hours ago, BruceVC said:

and not enough people have taken the vaccine

But enough of the right people have

[HoonDing]

i only trust Sputnik

[rjshae]

1 hour ago, HoonDing said:

i only trust Sputnik

I hear the Russians are trying to push that message.

[BruceVC]

6 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

6 European countries have suspended the use of Astra Zeneca vaccine following blood clots in those who received it. They are utterly incorrect to do so.

Now I know affirmative action is popular around the world, but putting the intellectually challenged in charge of vaccine supervision is going a bit far. Frankly, the regulators of Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Luxembourg, Latvia and Norway should be summarily fired for incompetence. In a month's time they'll be bemoaning the lack of trust in vaccines having contributed completely needlessly to it themselves.

22 30 cases of thrombosis in 3 5m people is slightly less than the expected amount, suggesting that if anything the vaccine prevents clotting (it doesn't, of course, but it's better statistical analysis than those clowns have made, with apologies to clowns for the comparison) especially when it's administered primarily to oldies who are intrinsically more prone to blood clots than the general population. If all 30 people outright died- and only one has- there would still be a net decrease in death rate vs not vaccinating by more than an order of magnitude. And finally, one of the symptoms of covid-19 with a fairly long half life is... blood clots. Anyone who has had covid19 then been vaccinated is at an increased risk not because of the vaccination, but because of having had covid. So not only is the prevalence slightly lower compared to pre covid times, you'd actually expect post covid prevalence to be higher due to covid causing blood clots.

Credit to the EMA for pointing most of that out, but they were far too polite about it.

Yes I agree and  I am disappointed its several Nordic countries that are doing this as they normally show prudence and logic on most matters

What I find strange is how they basing their decision on such a low percentage  and number of people who developed " blood clots " and that number is to be expected. SA also prematurely banned usage of AstraZeneca but we were also  facing an expiry problem due to the fact we dont have a proper vaccine deployment strategy 

But yes, very disappointing and people do need to get fired

 

[rjshae]

10 hours ago, BruceVC said:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-mask-mandate-ken-paxton-threatens-lawsuit-austin/

Basically the Governor or Texas is threatening to sue the mayor of Austin insisting people keep wearing masks !!!

Texas, IMO, is being premature about saying masks arent needed anymore so I completely understand and support why the officials in Austin are refusing to follow this. But now to sue them because they are insisting on masks is egregious and contemptable ....leave people alone who want to wear masks and especially if the leadership of state or city decide this is correct

The science doesnt lie and  their are still numerous virus strains around and Texas still has a high infection rate, 10 % or so , and not enough people have taken the vaccine. This is not the time to remove the exigency of wearing masks

The ugly/scary scenario would be for Texas and other unmasking states to start spiking again, right when the new strains are starting to take off here. He's taking an awful risk just to demonstrate his macho Republican bona fides. Giddy up.

[BruceVC]

1 hour ago, rjshae said:

The ugly/scary scenario would be for Texas and other unmasking states to start spiking again, right when the new strains are starting to take off here. He's taking an awful risk just to demonstrate his macho Republican bona fides. Giddy up.

Exactly what is being predicted, I was watching several doctors and epidemiologists on CNN in Texas who are saying the same thing and are genuinely worried

And this whole intransigence from the Texas governor is purely political, one of the reasons he wants to remove masks is because " its impacting the economic recovery "??

How anyone can make that corollary confuses me. Its irresponsible and premature and because of the various strains reckless and could cost more people their lives 

I wonder if you can sue the Texas governor for this type of decision...but I suppose how would you prove people died because he said " you dont need to wear masks " because you dont know exactly where a person could have been exposed to the virus?

So suing might be difficult even with the US culture of " we sue and litigate over everything and anything "  ?

 

[BruceVC]

8 hours ago, HoonDing said:

i only trust Sputnik

Hoonding can you imagine if Sputnick is proven to be most effective vaccine ....we might have to learn Russian !!!!

[BruceVC]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-pledges-faster-vaccines-and-normalcy-in-primetime-speech/vi-BB1evtlF?fb_comment_id=1171497172969462_1171569652962214%3Fc

So this is  some really good, potentially, news for our American members. Biden says their could be a return to normalcy by 4 July 

Of course he is asking all citizens to continue to adhere to virus spread prevention  best practice, like mask wearing, so we dont know how this rejection of best practice we are seeing in some states could interrupt this deadline but I am hoping the US can achieve this 

And I am little concerned with the overall vaccine rollout speeds. Compared to other countries, like Rwanda, UAE, Israel and the UK, the US is far behind for several reasons. Lets hope this will change and 4th July could become the best 4th July for Americans in living memory ...or ever 

 

[majestic]

Not sure where to post this, but I'll be rocking off to this for the rest of the night:

xD

Some background information.

Edited March 13, 2021 by majestic

[BruceVC]

39 minutes ago, majestic said:

Not sure where to post this, but I'll be rocking off to this for the rest of the night:

xD

Some background information.

You predicted this, you said their was a rush to open the ski-industry for tourism purposes  and the Chancellor and  also been criticized for mishandling things 

[majestic]

17 hours ago, BruceVC said:

You predicted this, you said their was a rush to open the ski-industry for tourism purposes  and the Chancellor and  also been criticized for mishandling things 

Nothing much to "predict" there. Tourism makes up like 30% of the gross domestic product of Tyrol. Tourism is so powerful there they don't have lobbyists influencing the politicians... the lobbyists are the politicians.

The municipal council of Ischgl is made up entirely of mountain lift managers and hotel owners, and corporate fatcat Franz Hörl is actually a member of parliament. In uhm, addition to owning a hotel, managing a mountain lift company and being the head of the Austrian mountain lift association. Good thing they learned something from past mistakes though... not.

The French found a solution for problems like these a while ago, maybe it's time to dust it off.

Spoiler

 

Edited March 14, 2021 by majestic

[BruceVC]

7 hours ago, majestic said:

Nothing much to "predict" there. Tourism makes up like 30% of the gross domestic product of Tyrolia. Tourism is so powerful there they don't have lobbyists influencing the politicians... the lobbyists are the politicians.

The municipal council of Ischgl is made up entirely of mountain lift managers and hotel owners, and corporate fatcat Franz Hörl is actually a member of parliament. In uhm, addition to owning a hotel, managing a mountain lift company and being the head of the Austrian mountain lift association. Good thing they learned something from past mistakes though... not.

The French found a solution for problems like these a while ago, maybe it's time to dust it off.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

And I see you have SA variant, nasty. It spreads quickly but isnt more deadly

We have been  able to slow our daily infection rate from 16k/day to about 200/day as of yesterday and since we lack the adequate resources and vaccines  in our public healthcare that has been from literally the " normal " virus best practice which is always the same primary steps 

• Always wear your mask in public but we allow people to  take them off in restaurants
• Avoid crowded social functions like clubs, bars, funerals and weddings ( personally I think this is the worst virus spread vector )
• Practice social distancing where reasonable 

I never told you  but last year before the global lockdown my entire SA family ( about 20 people counting the kids )went skiing in Lech with about 12 members of my UK family. Everyone flew first to London from about 29 Dec-1 Jan 2019 and then everyone made their own way to Lech from about  4 Jan-15 Jan  2020 which is when everyone went home. 

I didn't go because I had just started my new job in  Cpt and I couldn't take leave. Anyway what no one knew is that time period was when  the virus was already slowly spreading in Europe but asymptomatically, so people didnt know they had the virus

Anyway SA " first " official case was on 1 March and it was  from a  family who went skiing in Italy but actually the virus was already in SA due to asymptomatic carriers. It made me laugh because in SA some people play the race card over everything and anything and their were honestly some initial comments on talk shows from some people who said " this virus only effects rich, white people who  go skiing in Italy, black people dont have to worry "  ( how biased because most South Africans actually go to Austria and what if you snowboard  )

Luckily my family were just ahead of the real spread in Europe so no one initially got the virus from that ski holiday but the point I want to make is how skiing holidays are real virus spread vectors. You think of the large breakfasts and eating lunches in those crowded mountain restaurants and then all the fun with  drinks after skiing in crowded bars 

So in other words, skiing tourism definitely isnt a good idea when the virus is spreading exponentially 

I am very sorry for Austria because all you were trying to do is sustain your economy which we all trying to do. But it was bad idea and now you dealing with the virus mutations and a spread of the virus 

But how are things now, I see the article you posted is 1 month old ?

https://www.thelocal.at/20210215/austria-how-did-the-south-african-coronavirus-mutation-come-to-tyrol/

[majestic]

7 hours ago, BruceVC said:

But how are things now, I see the article you posted is 1 month old ?

As far as I know the golfing hypothesis turned out to be correct. Rich people flying to South Africa to golf in the middle of the second lockdown brought the South African variant to Tyrol, and Schwaz is now undergoing priority Pfizer/Biontech vaccination to field test how effective the vaccine is against the SA variant.

You should change your Geroge Bernard Shaw quote in your signature.

[BruceVC]

12 minutes ago, majestic said:

As far as I know the golfing hypothesis turned out to be correct. Rich people flying to South Africa to golf in the middle of the second lockdown brought the South African variant to Tyrol, and Schwaz is now undergoing priority Pfizer/Biontech vaccination to field test how effective the vaccine is against the SA variant.

You should change your Geroge Bernard Shaw quote in your signature.

People like that need to be prosecuted, I definitely dont support wealthy people using their money to bypass normal vaccine allocation or the same people thinking they above the same virus regulations we all have to adhere to. We have seen several politicians in SA thinking they above the rules and its very irritating and they should have been fired immediately 

[majestic]

Oh, by the way, it's hard to properly appreciate the genius of the video I linked unless you're familiar with the topic (and understand German well enough, but that's a different matter). There is very little original video material in it. Most of it is spliced together from various ads and actual apres ski party footage. It's obvious where Jan Böhmermann was greenscreened into the video, it's less obvious that these are actual ads, or in the case of the exploding mountain range some CGI that was used to explain what happened a while back.

Because a company just randomly went ahead and blasted part of a mountain off in the middle of a nature preserve to make some more room for slops and a new mountain lift. No safety regulations adhered to, no permission by either local or federal governments, nothing. Guess what happened? You're right. The paperwork was filled out ex post and approved.

Part of the lyrics, by the way, refer to the Kaprun disaster where corporate cost cutting killed 155 people and the following lawsuit resulted in zero convictions, because, to quote: God turned off the lights for a moment. Or in other words, nobody is to actually blame if inappropriate equipment fails and catches fire. Because God.

Spoiler

And people wonder why I despise the ÖVP/EPP. Corrupt f*cks need to be cut out like the gangrenous appendages they are.

 

Welcome to Austria, where satire ends and reality begins.

Edited March 14, 2021 by majestic

[Zoraptor]

You Austrians should just vote yourself the least corrupt country in the world, then such things would never happen*.

You certainly wouldn't be able to have a coal mine with plastic bags over the methane sensors explode killing 29 people, the owning company declare bankruptcy and the managing director be let off because the government- coincidentally, nothing to do with the huuuge political embarrassment a trial would result in- decide not to investigate the mine itself so the director was allowed a plea bargain 'compensation' payment instead that has since been found to be an illegal bung, and which didn't even involve all the insurance money. Also coincidentally, the government part owned the company at question, and the 'prosecuting' agency was also another government agency which would have been part liable for shoddy to non existent safety oversight.

Oh yeah, actually on topic, we've got a review on for our bulk drug buying agency Pharmac at the moment. Coincidentally, one of the main beneficiaries if it goes bye bye is Pfizer, who have given us preferential access and a 'great deal' for its vaccine despite having had about a dozen covid cases here in the last six months. Eagerly awaiting the decision to axe Pharmac and move to a US model following absolutely no payola and lobbying.

Personally I'd rather have Sputnik/ Janssen/ AZ/ Novovax and $250 million in the bank rather than Pfizers overpriced offering.

*Pike River Disaster, Supreme Court Ruling on 'plea bargain' since the wiki article is missing it for some reason.

[Darkpriest]

Food for thought

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/backlash-rich-countries-vaccinate-person-second-poor-nations-alleging-vaccine-apartheid