BBC: China pneumonia outbreak: COVID-19 Global Pandemic

[Larry]

1 hour ago, TD_washingtonredskins said:

I don't doubt the right will take their shots, but can we all agree that politicians on both sides will be talking from a different playbook now? Like you said, the right will suddenly acknowledge Covid as a huge threat while the left will be all about opening things up much more than they were. 

 

Yes, I'm certain that there will be some amount of politically-driven  changes in rhetoric.  

 

I'd stay away from the "bothsiderism", though.  For example, I point out that under Trump, the Dems did not invent a special "unemployment rate statistic that is only used when a Republican is in the White House, and which we call 'real'."  

 

And as to the specific example you just tried to use, I will point out that under the present circumstances, the Dem plan is to impose more restrictions.  

 

Yes, no doubt the plan is that a day will come, when the Dems open things back up.  After conditions change.  And no doubt, when "reopening" is justified, the Dems will trumpet it.  But no, there position will not magically change at Noon today.  It will change when deaths and infections are much much lower.  

 

[TD_washingtonredskins]

53 minutes ago, Larry said:

 

Yes, no doubt the plan is that a day will come, when the Dems open things back up.  After conditions change.  And no doubt, when "reopening" is justified, the Dems will trumpet it.  But no, there position will not magically change at Noon today.  It will change when deaths and infections are much much lower.  

 

That's the part that I think you're being a little too naïve about. I don't expect Biden himself to change his stance. But we've already heard Cuomo and Lightfoot push for things to start opening in New York and Chicago...

 

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/we-simply-cannot-stay-closed-vaccinations-boosting-economy-top-cuomo-2021-agenda/2824237/

https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/01/14/mayor-lori-lightfoot-wants-to-reopen-restaurants-and-bars-as-quickly-as-possible-to-reduce-risk-of-underground-parties/

 

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

A nation holds its breath for Mayor Lightfoot’s re-opening plan!!

[China]

New study suggests those who recover from COVID-19 could have long-lasting immunity

 

A new study shows people who recover from COVID-19 could have long-lasting immunity.

 

The report published on Monday in the Journal Nature confirms previous research.

 

It shows bits of the virus stay in the body even after the initial immune system response.

 

These seem to induce production of b cells that churn out more antibodies.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Evil Genius]

Tbf, they also likely have long lasting heart and lung damage. 

[visionary]

 

[LD0506]

Tonight on FOX.....

 

[PCS]

 

 

 

[CousinsCowgirl84]

Well, at least he isn’t saying “don’t trust the vaccine”....

[TD_washingtonredskins]

30 minutes ago, CousinsCowgirl84 said:

Well, at least he isn’t saying “don’t trust the vaccine”....

Yep, that was still one of the more egregious things I heard during the debates. 

[Ball Security]

It’s laughable to think only 100k more are going to die from this.  
However, a good sign is that the 7-day average for new cases has declined considerably this week.  It’s still higher than a month ago, but it looks like the acceleration has tapered off.

[PCS]

 

[PCS]

 

[China]

What a refreshing change:

 

National-Strategy-for-the-COVID-19-Response-and-Pandemic-Preparedness

[China]

Covid outbreak that has infected 15 people in a small Chilean town started at a birthday party held for a CAT

 

Fifteen people in a small Chilean town have contracted coronavirus after attending a birthday party thrown for a cat.

 

It is unclear when exactly the party took place but local media reported that 10 people attended, all of whom became infected.  

 

The remaining five infected people connected with the outbreak are said to be family and friends of the cat's owner.

 

The cat did not contract the potentially fatal disease, Álvarez said. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Here are the 10 executive orders Biden signed to combat the Covid pandemic

 

Here are the executive orders Biden signed in his first two days in office to tackle the pandemic:

 

Masks
Hours after being sworn in as the 46th president on Wednesday, Biden signed more than a dozen executive actions in the Oval Office, including one requiring masks on federal property.

The president said Thursday he will also call on governors, local health officials, mayors and business leaders to encourage mask wearing and social distancing.

 

Travel
Biden is also requiring masks on public transportation, including trains, buses and aircraft. International travelers will need to present a negative Covid-19 test before entering the U.S. and will have to quarantine upon arrival. The executive order also directs other agencies to expand public health measures for domestic travel and cross-border land and sea travel.

 

Supply chain
Biden also directed agencies to use the Defense Production Act to compel companies to make supplies needed to combat the pandemic. That could include protective equipment like masks as well as supplies needed for Covid-19 tests and to administer vaccines. The Trump administration invoked the act last year to get U.S. manufacturers to make ventilators and other supplies.

 

State and local support
The administration is also seeking to accelerate the rollout of vaccines by providing more funding to local and state officials, creating more vaccination sites and launching a national public education campaign. The plan says the administration will also "surge the health care workforce to support the vaccination effort," which could include waiving some licensing requirements, for example.

 

Covid response office
To bolster trust in the government's response, the White House is establishing a "COVID-19 Response Office," charged with coordinating the pandemic response across federal agencies and establishing clear lines of communication down to local officials. The federal government will also conduct regular, expert-led briefings, the plan says.

Data collection

Biden signed another executive order directing the response office and all federal agencies to improve federal data collection and sharing. It directs the CDC to publish a dashboard showing Covid-19 cases at the county level, "so that Americans can gauge the level of transmission in their own communities to make their own informed choices," the plan says.

 

New treatments

Even as the vaccination effort gains speed, the plan calls for continued research into treatments for Covid, especially antivirals like Gilead's remdesivir. Through an executive order called "Improving and Expanding Access to Care and Treatment for COVID-19," Biden established a new drug discovery and development program that emphasizes diversity in clinical trials.

 

That order also expanded programs designed to support patients recovering from Covid-19, the plan says, and increased the health-care workforce capacity.

 

Testing

In addition to new drugs, Biden's plan also places a renewed emphasis more testing. The president established a new pandemic testing board to discover new kinds of effective and rapid tests and scale them up quickly.

 

"To control the COVID-19 pandemic and safely reopen schools and businesses, America must have wide-spread testing," the plan says.

 

Reopening schools and businesses
Safely reopening schools and businesses is a key component of the plan. Biden signed an order on Thursday that directs the Department of Health and Human Services to collect data on school reopenings and the spread of Covid, allowing for more scientific research into the risk of putting kids back in schools.

 

Equity
And Biden, through another order, also established a "COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force" to ensure vaccines, treatments, masks and other resources reach everyone, including harder hit communities of color that have suffered from disproportionately high death rates in the U.S.

 

The new plan also calls on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to take on a larger role, setting clear guidance to employers on safe workplace practices and enforcement.

 

Click on the link for more

[China]

Biden on Covid-19 plan: "This is a wartime undertaking"

 

President Biden called his plan to tackle the coronavirus pandemic “a wartime undertaking.”

 

“Our national plan launches a full-scale wartime effort to address the supply shortages by ramping up production and protective equipment, syringes, needles, you name it,��� Biden said.

 

“And when I say wartime, people kind of look at me like ‘wartime?’ Well, as I said last night, 400,000 Americans have died. That's more than have died in all of World War II. 400,000. This is a wartime undertaking,” he said. 

Biden is signing an executive action to use the Defense Production Act to direct all federal agencies and private industries to produce everything needed to protect Americans from the virus, he said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[visionary]

 

[The Evil Genius]

 

[visionary]

 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

 

 

[visionary]

 

[gbear]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/19/single-covid-vaccine-dose-in-israel-less-effective-than-we-hoped

We need to be careful and deliberate.  There seems to be a growing sense that now there is a vaccine and we are protected when we get it.  Israel has had issues with people getting infected after the first dose.  It looks like the first vaccine only gives about 50% of the protection needed.  So please don't go out thinking yourself protected after the first dose.  That is how Israel had a large increase in COVID cases after they started rolling out the vaccines.  From my friend in Israel, they are having problems with people getting the vaccine and thinking they are good to go.  What isn't in that article is the protection from the second shot is not instant either.  It still seems to take about 2 weeks after the second shot for full protection to kick in.  That in combination with people thinking they are protected after 1 shot has lead to their recent large increase in cases.

 

In the face of this, we have things like Gov. Hogan demanding MD schools reopen by March 1 or else...However, there isn't enough of the vaccine to vaccinate the teachers at the moment (even a first dose).  They are being told try Feb 1.  Well, if all of them got their first dose Feb1 and their second dose at the earliest time on Feb 14, they would just get the protection in time to open March 1.  What do you think are the odds we will get the best case roll out with no days of delay?  This ignores kids as spreaders of the virus to their homes as we learn more about the more contagious variants currently spreading through the U.S.

 

We need to be careful.  The end is now in sight, but it is a spec on the horizon, a still distant destination.  At least we now have a direction to progress towards, but we have a long way to to get to heard immunity of 80%.  We need the steady increase of production and distribution of the vaccine.  As the Washington Post editorial today pointed out, Biden's stated goal of 100 million doses administered in the first 100 days is only 1 million a day.  To reach heard immunity levels of 80%, we would not reach our goal until the summer...of 2022.  The 100 million in 100 days needs to be the start up of an expanding effort to vaccinate our society.    

[zCommander]

On 1/20/2021 at 11:55 AM, The Evil Genius said:

Tbf, they also likely have long lasting heart and lung damage. 

 

Not ALL have any damage. My sister, her husband, their son, my niece and her husband and their two small kids got it. My sister and brother in-law didn't even know they had it. 

 

It really depends on a person and their immune system's ability to produce the antibodies and how quickly before the virus does any damage.

[The Evil Genius]

25 minutes ago, zskins said:

 

Not ALL have any damage. My sister, her husband, their son, my niece and her husband and their two small kids got it. My sister and brother in-law didn't even know they had it. 

 

It really depends on a person and their immune system's ability to produce the antibodies and how quickly before the virus does any damage.

 

 

Would you say we are at least 5-10 years though from fully knowing that? Hence my use of "likely".