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[elbows]

Not to mention the vague unsupported comments about the vaccines, I can't imagine there being similar comments about worries about vaccines in the UK, since many recent UK cases have also been amongst the fully vaccinated. I don't see why the article talks about "an apparent lack of confidence in their vaccines", since even if the Chinese vaccines are equally effective against the Delta variant (~60% against symptomatic infection), that would be insufficient to prevent mass infection.

In that regard I am the sort of person who will point and laugh while reading the following line from the article.

Health authorities have given public reassurances, even as they consider giving booster shots.

Wow they are so different to us, such a huge contrast with the UK situation where health authorities have given public reassurances, even as they consider giving booster shots.

 

[cupid_stunt]

All over SEA really, with Myanmar unsurprisingly looking likely to be the most fucked in the longer term. My colleague's mum and dad both died within days of each other last week, another lost her husband (aged 53)... everyone I know is affected in some way. Coup and COVID / COUPVID is a deadly combination.

Just seen a Sky News report on Myanmar, it seems worst than India at their recent peak.

Bo Sein and his team of body collectors have never been more in demand. Their ambulance used to carry the living. Then a third wave of COVID-19 hit Myanmar, and now everyone they pick up is dead.

Hour after hour, they collect the bodies of the infected: people who survived a military takeover, only to be defeated by coronavirus. There is no break in the calls for help from terrified and heartbroken relatives. Bo Sein and his team of Yangon-based volunteers cannot keep up with the demand.

"The corpses are lined up day and night," he says. "Some people have to keep the corpses in their houses for days until they can find a hearse to carry them so they become rotten."

The line of ambulances at the crematorium is a sign of the crisis. For hours they wait to deliver the dead. One crematorium in Yangon told us they are now carrying out around 300 cremations a day compared to the usual 50.

In Myanmar's COVID-19 outbreak, July was particularly grim. As cases surged, thousands were confirmed dead. Figures at the end of the month showed more than 60% of the country's total COVID fatalities had died in July.

COVID-19: People in Myanmar forced to 'keep corpses in their homes for days' amid worsening third wave

The inability of many doctors to work safely, coupled with a shortage of oxygen, medicine and a properly functioning hospital system, is making the country's third wave even more deadly.

news.sky.com

 

[flypanam]

Ireland is starting to vaccinate 12 to 15 year olds next week, which is great news.

Covid-19 vaccine portal opens for 12 to 15 year olds | NorthernSound

A leading professor of virology says it's an extremely positive move.

www.northernsound.ie

 

[zahir]

Thread on covid in Iran

 

[Teaboy]

Ireland is starting to vaccinate 12 to 15 year olds next week, which is great news.

Covid-19 vaccine portal opens for 12 to 15 year olds | NorthernSound

A leading professor of virology says it's an extremely positive move.

www.northernsound.ie

Dunno. On a thread where we're witnessing people dying in their thousands for want of access to vaccines news that wealthy countries are using them on kids is at best questionable. Obviously good if you live in Ireland. Same goes for the UK of course.

 

[Saul Goodman]

Dunno. On a thread where we're witnessing people dying in their thousands for want of access to vaccines news that wealthy countries are using them on kids is at best questionable. Obviously good if you live in Ireland. Same goes for the UK of course.

If you want a Covid mourning thread, go and start one. That's not what this thread is.

 

[elbows]

If you want a Covid mourning thread, go and start one. That's not what this thread is.

This thread is for any worldwide pandemic news or issue that people want to talk about. There are a few vaccine inequality threads too but its perfectly legitimate to talk about such things here.

 

[Saul Goodman]

This thread is for any worldwide pandemic news or issue that people want to talk about. There are a few vaccine inequality threads too but its perfectly legitimate to talk about such things here.

Exactly. I think it's great that kids are getting vaccinated now. They should have been done sooner, IMO.

 

[elbows]

Its an absolute disgrace that young people are vaccinated at a time when huge numbers of vulnerable people around the world, including health care workers, have not had the benefits of vaccination. I have a simialr opinion about the use of booster shots at this time.

But it is a complicated subject and unknowns about long covid and waning immunity mean that my stance is fraught with more complications than I feel up to properly discussing right now.

The rush to remove restrictions and return to something of the old normal further complicates the equation in countries with plentiful vaccine supply. It ensures the inequality will be magnified and backed by various justifications. Its still a disgrace.

 

[2hats]

CDC director confirms that the FDA is working with Pfizer and Moderna to provide a third booster dose to those considered to be moderately to severely immunocompromised (estimated to be just under 3% of the US adult population). Separately, Fauci has said that at this time no booster is expected for the [non-immunocompromised] elderly.

U.S. works with vaccine makers on booster dose for some -CDC director

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working with vaccine makers Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) to allow certain vulnerable people to receive a third booster shot of their COVID-19 vaccines to improve their immune response, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control...

www.reuters.com

 

[Indeliblelink]

This is worrying if true in any way. I've got two friends who've had kids in the last year, this can't be easy for them to read.

Children born during pandemic have lower IQs, US study finds

Researchers blame lack of stimulation as parents balanced childcare with working from home

www.theguardian.com

In the decade preceding the pandemic, the mean IQ score on standardised tests for children aged between three months and three years of age hovered around 100, but for children born during the pandemic that number tumbled to 78, according to the analysis, which is yet to be peer-reviewed.
“It’s not subtle by any stretch,” said Deoni. “You don’t typically see things like that, outside of major cognitive disorders.”

 

[Chilli.s]

This is worrying if true in any way. I've got two friends who've had kids in the last year, this can't be easy for them to read.

Children born during pandemic have lower IQs, US study finds

Researchers blame lack of stimulation as parents balanced childcare with working from home

www.theguardian.com

inevitable really. parents take the child minding aspect of nursery/school for granted most of the time. It's only obvious how much more than learning takes place there when not available.

 

[klang]

This is worrying if true in any way. I've got two friends who've had kids in the last year, this can't be easy for them to read.

Children born during pandemic have lower IQs, US study finds

Researchers blame lack of stimulation as parents balanced childcare with working from home

www.theguardian.com

I read a study somewhere that looked at the positive effects of having two parents around pretty much all the time for the first couple of years. Not many children in previous generations have experienced this level of security and belonging.
(I'm in a similar situation btw)

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

This is worrying if true in any way. I've got two friends who've had kids in the last year, this can't be easy for them to read.

Children born during pandemic have lower IQs, US study finds

Researchers blame lack of stimulation as parents balanced childcare with working from home

www.theguardian.com

That quote is a bit weird because if you're comparing tests for kids between 3 months and 3 years, you're not comparing like-for-like with kids born during the pandemic are you? Unless you think the tests are neutral regarding age, which seems a bit dubious to say the least.

 

[kabbes]

This is worrying if true in any way. I've got two friends who've had kids in the last year, this can't be easy for them to read.

Children born during pandemic have lower IQs, US study finds

Researchers blame lack of stimulation as parents balanced childcare with working from home

www.theguardian.com

Which demonstrates perfectly that IQ is in no way a measure of context-free “intelligence” and is indeed exactly the measure of cultural affiliation with the test-setter that its detractors always claim it to be.

 

[spring-peeper]

As more and more regions are requiring proof of vaccination, is it any surprise we are not seeing more of this:

US border agents in Tennessee have seized thousands of counterfeit Covid-19 vaccination cards | CNN

US Customs and Border Protection officers in Memphis, Tennessee, have seized thousands of fake Covid-19 vaccination cards so far this year.

www.cnn.com

US Customs and Border Protection officers in Memphis, Tennessee, have seized thousands of fake Covid-19 vaccination cards so far this year.

"Every night" officers are seizing shipments from Shenzhen, China, headed to New Orleans, Louisiana, containing dozens of blank counterfeit vaccination cards, CBP said in a press release Friday.

The cards have spaces where the recipient can write their name, birth date and vaccine information. The cards also come with a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention logo on the top.

"However, there were typos, unfinished words, and some of the Spanish verbiage on the back was misspelled," CBP said. "How else did they [CBP officers] know it was counterfeit? It was imported by a non-CDC or medical entity, and this was not the first time they had seen this shipper."

 

[Badgers]

As more and more regions are requiring proof of vaccination, is it any surprise we are not seeing more of this:

US border agents in Tennessee have seized thousands of counterfeit Covid-19 vaccination cards | CNN

US Customs and Border Protection officers in Memphis, Tennessee, have seized thousands of fake Covid-19 vaccination cards so far this year.

www.cnn.com

Was always gonna happen but fuck those cunts. Should be charged with attempting manslaughter

 

[_Russ_]

Quite telling also that the same people who avoid vaccination are quite willing to engage in criminality that could harm others

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

Quite telling also that the same people who avoid vaccination are quite willing to engage in criminality that could harm others

well, they do see themselves as "freedom fighters"

 

[MrSki]

Can anyone with a scientific background confirm or deny this is as bad as it sounds?

 

[elbows]

Well Lambda causes concern because it has demonstrated an ability to dominate in some South American countries. And it has immune/vaccine escape potential. What isnt clear is whether it will outcompete Delta in countries where Delta currently dominates.

Its often not easy to determine which variants will actually dominate across the globe. 8 Lambda cases have been identified in the UK so far. Plenty of variants have remained at these sorts of low levels without dominating the infection picture or the headlines. But thats no cause for complacency, since even if the variant doesnt evolve in more notable ways in future, changing circumstances could potentially give it an edge when competing with the current dominant strain.

I pay attention to these variants but I dont fret too much about them unless they actually start to dominate the picture. There are good reasons to pay attention to Lambda, but I cant make predictions about it.

 

[elbows]

Here is a fair example of recent coverage of Lambda, but it isnt necessarily all that illuminating given the current stage of knowledge and spread.

Lambda COVID variant UK: All you should know about the new strain | BBC Science Focus Magazine

There have been no new cases of the Lambda variant in the UK over the last four weeks – but here's why the WHO is still keeping a close eye on its spread.

www.sciencefocus.com

 

[MrSki]

Thank you elbows for your considered response.

 

[2hats]

Lambda/C.37 has typically been crushed by delta/B.1.617.2 everywhere outside of Peru (where lambda has a large head start). Note in particular other South American countries except Chile, where perhaps lambda has its best 'chance'. Though B.1.621 may be one to keep an eye on there; it has started popping up in several places in recent weeks, having dominated Colombia for some time, but gradually, of late, delta and lambda have been pushing past it (might be worth watching to try to gauge relative advantage)*.

It looks like delta gained a foothold in the Philippines some months ago (note: paucity of and delays in sequencing, so likely hard to judge current direction of travel). But as ever, downstream outcomes can be greatly influenced by a small number of 'well placed, well timed' seeding events.

(Note: none of the above variants, indeed any variants, might necessarily have a significant biologically functional advantage over any other - apparent advantages might be largely happenstance and driven to varying degrees by some combination of one or more of human behaviours, prior immunity and environmental circumstances in the relevant geographical areas).

* e2a: Until recently there were issues with identification of B.1.621 in sequencing databases, so might take at least a couple more weeks for the real picture around that variant to start to become clear.

 

[Cloo]

The world situation feels so weird right now, I mean it always has been, but the response is now diverging so much.

UK apparently going 'Ladidadidah, vaccines will sort everything, let's just get on with it' in the middle of Delta. Parts of America going 'Oh shit, Delta, right shut things down', while other parts have been carrying on like nothing's happening. Starting to feel a little sorry for Aus and NZ for repeated hard (if short) lockdowns, although it must be said, they are dealing with infections in the hundreds and deaths in the double figures as a result, but you wonder how long they can keep it up?

I mean, one way or the other, the UK's response has been appalling and has cost both lives and the economy way too much.

I am wondering how India is doing now as the first place to experience Delta, and whether current situation tells us anything about future trajectory for other places where it's hit?

 

[Badgers]

I am wondering how India is doing now as the first place to experience Delta, and whether current situation tells us anything about future trajectory for other places where it's hit?

The UK media is quiet on this.

I work with a lass from India and another lass from Indonesia. They have very bleak news from their families

 

[Cloo]

Looking at figures, it seems like infection is chauntering along along a lower level, but still not as low as after previous peak - looks like hovering around 36k infections per day mark

 

[gentlegreen]

The Texas State Supreme Court upholds the governor’s mask-mandate ban, for now.

The court’s action is temporary, awaiting a final ruling. Some local officials said they would go ahead with mask mandates anyway.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Yossarian]

Ominous developments in New Zealand - the country was placed under a snap 3-day national lockdown after a single community case of COVID was detected - four more cases now detected, including a nurse and authorities say it's the Delta variant, connected to the New South Wales outbreak.

New location of interest as four new Delta Covid cases, Auckland Hospital nurse tests positive - all linked to Devonport tradesman

A fully vaccinated nurse at Auckland Hospital has tested positive.

www.nzherald.co.nz

 

[Chz]

I'm still of the opinion that it's the right way to handle things if you're an island.