Coronavirus Thread VI: Are We Nearly There Yet? (READ OP)

[Vassenor]

If you are fully vaccinated then why wear a mask. I'm vaccinated so I won't be wearing masks anymore.

Because I'd like to not get ill every time I get on the subway? SARS-CoV-2 is far from the only thing that subways are a public health disaster for.

But being expected to wear cloth over your face is the worst form of oppression somehow.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

Because I'd like to not get ill every time I get on the subway? SARS-CoV-2 is far from the only thing that subways are a public health disaster for.

But being expected to wear cloth over your face is the worst form of oppression somehow.

I mean... haven't you learned from the last year and a half? "Pls wear a mask to keep your pathogens to yourself" clearly equals the bloody Holocaust in severity.
/s

[Samudera Darussalam]

I heard Malaysia is in the same boat. Take care.

Thanks

If you are fully vaccinated then why wear a mask. I'm vaccinated so I won't be wearing masks anymore.

Because I'd like to not get ill every time I get on the subway? SARS-CoV-2 is far from the only thing that subways are a public health disaster for.

This. Also, I can make funny faces at people without worrying that they will notice it

[The Huskar Social Union]

UK's Test-and-Trace Program has lost track of nearly 600 million covid tests

Boris Johnson’s £37bn Test and Trace service is facing fresh criticism after a damning new report found that it had lost track of nearly 600 million Covid tests.

The National Audit Office spending watchdog concluded that the system was still failing to “deliver value for taxpayers”, with a lack of any targets for self-isolation by the public and a continued reliance on private consultants.

Test and Trace, which was run by Tory peer Dido Harding, has already come under fire for its use of private firms Serco and Deloitte and its repeated failures in 2020 to track down contacts of people who had Covid. The latest report sets out a raft of problems, including paying for tracing staff it does not use, the use of emergency procurement powers that dole out contracts without competition and a lack of data sharing with local public health chiefs that hinders efforts to tackle outbreaks.

In the six months from November last year to April this year, it failed to reach nearly 100,000 people who had tested positive for Covid and as result failed to identify their contacts who could potentially infect others. The NAO also criticised Matt Hancock’s decision to absorb its functions into a new UK Health Security Agency, saying there was “a risk that the restructuring will divert NHS TandT’s attention away from efforts to contain the spread of the virus”.

It has given the government until October to sort out the problems, including how it will “best support citizens to come forward for tests and comply with self-isolation requirements” – a clear signal that the watchdog believes the public need higher payments to home quarantine.[...]The report found that only a small proportion of the Covid tests distributed have been registered as used.

Test and Trace had forecast that between March and May 2021, 655 million lateral flow tests would be used in the UK.

But up to 26 May, just 96 million (14%) of the 691 million tests distributed in England had been registered. “NHS TandT does not know whether the tests that have not been registered have been used or not,” it said.

NAO head Gareth Davies said Test and Trace had introduced a lot of changes since its last withering report, including mass testing, closer working with local authorities and initiatives to identify and contain variant forms of Covid.

“However, some pressing challenges need to be tackled if it is to achieve its objectives and deliver value for taxpayers, including understanding how many lateral flow devices are actually being used and increasing public compliance with testing and self-isolation,” he said.

Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier pointed out that the report had found that 45% of Test and Trace staff at its head office were still private consultants, despite Harding’s promises to reduce their number and to replace them with civil servants.

“Test and Trace employed more consultants in April 2021 than it did in November 2022. Despite being nearly a year old, nearly half the central staff are consultants,” Hillier said.

“Testing and tracing are likely to be around for some time yet and it’s hard to understand why these roles are not now permanent or fixed term contracts. The danger is that institutional memory will disappear as consultants walk off with their fat pay cheques.”
The latest report shows that although Test and Trace has introduced more flexibility into its contact centre contracts, across its testing and tracing activities it is “still paying for capacity it does not use”.

It’s “utilisation rate” – the proportion of time someone actively worked during their paid horse – had a target of 50% but in reality rates have been well below this since November 2020, peaking at 49% in January and falling to just 11% in February.

The unit cost per contact traced went up from around £5 in October to £47 in February.

The NAO found that Test and Trace had used £13.5 billion of its £22.2 billion budget in 2020-21, an underspend of £8.7 billion. Of this, £10.4 billion went on testing, £1.8 billion on identifying and containing local outbreaks and £900 million on tracing.

Test and Trace told the NAO that the underspend is because a predicted high level of demand for testing in January and February 2021 did not materialise due to the national lockdown.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it had started a programme of research to understand the low rate of test registration and was working to increase public awareness of the need to register results and improve the ability to track tests.

“NHS Test and Trace has played an essential role in combating this pandemic and the NAO has recognised many of the rapid improvements we have made in the short lifespan of this organisation.

“The testing and tracing being delivered across the country is saving lives every single day and helping us send this virus into retreat by breaking chains of transmission and spotting outbreaks wherever they exist.

“While NHS Test and Trace continues to be one of the centrepieces of our roadmap to return life to normal, our new UK Health Security Agency is going to consolidate the enormous expertise that now exists across our health system so we can face down potential future threats and viruses.” The government insists that the system has successfully identified over 3.4 million positive cases and notified a further 7.1 million contacts, to tell them to self-isolate, since 28 May 2020. Rapid tests have picked up over 213,082 Covid cases without symptoms.

It claims that the high number of consultants was critical for accessing specific skills and abilities in order to deliver operationally. DHSC is also evaluating several pilot approaches to improve compliance with self-isolation.

Im just not shocked any more when it comes to UK government incompetence.

[Ifreann]

UK's Test-and-Trace Program has lost track of nearly 600 million covid tests

Im just not shocked any more when it comes to UK government incompetence.

Strong Britain. Great Nation.

[Australian rePublic]

One guy doing the wrong thing whilst dealing with overseas travellers has plunged millions Sydneysiders into lockdown and has prohibited millions more from being allowed to leave Sydney and go on holidays. The latest Covid outbreak caused by this one person has ruined the economy of regional NSW and interstate tourism areas as it's currently school holidays and borders are closed. One guy doing the wrong thing single-handedly ruined it for all of us. I wouldn't be surprised if someone finds out who he is and injures him or worse. In fact, no matter how hard they try to conceal his identity, I would be suprised if there isn't eventually some form of mob justice

[Ifreann]

One guy doing the wrong thing whilst dealing with overseas travellers has plunged millions Sydneysiders into lockdown and has prohibited millions more from being allowed to leave Sydney and go on holidays. The latest Covid outbreak caused by this one person has ruined the economy of regional NSW and interstate tourism areas as it's currently school holidays and borders are closed. One guy doing the wrong thing single-handedly ruined it for all of us. I wouldn't be surprised if someone finds out who he is and injures him or worse. In fact, no matter how hard they try to conceal his identity, I would be suprised if there isn't eventually some form of mob justice

Is this the person you were saying before should be named and shamed?

[Ethel mermania]

If you are fully vaccinated then why wear a mask. I'm vaccinated so I won't be wearing masks anymore.

Because I'd like to not get ill every time I get on the subway? SARS-CoV-2 is far from the only thing that subways are a public health disaster for.

The drop in influenza cases during covid makes this a very good arguement

[Kowani]

India warns of new versions of the Delta variant

India is warning about new versions of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus that are spreading around the country, containing a mutation that the original didn’t have.

Indian officials have dubbed new versions of the variant containing the mutation Delta Plus. Delta Plus—with the mutation causing concern designated K417N—has been detected in at least 11 countries, including the U.S., U.K. and Japan, according to government health agency Public Health England.

Indian officials have been closely monitoring the Delta variant, which fueled the country’s ferocious Covid-19 surge in April and May. India has detected about 50 cases of Delta Plus so far through genomic sequencing.

“There is no reason to think at this point it’s worse than Delta, but there is no reason to think it’s an innocuous variant,” said Dr. Anurag Agrawal, director of the CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, which operates one of the labs tasked with genomic sequencing of Covid-19 in India.

K417N “is not a major significant mutation by itself usually,” said Ravindra Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at University of Cambridge. The mutation has also been found in versions of the Alpha variant, but failed to make that variant more dangerous, he said. “We should keep an open mind and not start panicking.”

India’s health ministry has classified Delta Plus as a variant of concern to get ahead of the situation, Dr. Agrawal said. Any mutation of Delta should technically be designated as a variant of concern, he said, after the World Health Organization classified the original Delta variant as such.

In India, the original Delta variant has crushed the competition, beating out the once-dominant Alpha variant, Dr. Agrawal said. But Delta Plus is holding its own against the original variant.

“It’s not being wiped out by Delta,” he said. But “it’s early days.”

[Tringapore]

India warns of new versions of the Delta variant

Uh oh!

[Salus Maior]

CDC extends eviction ban again

Less than a week before the nationwide eviction ban was set to expire, top health officials extended it for another 30 days to help tenants who are unable to pay rent during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Previously scheduled to end on the last day of June, the moratorium will remain in place until July 31, as ordered by Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The break for struggling tenants is “intended to be the final extension of the moratorium,” Walensky said Thursday.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has presented a historic threat to the nation’s public health,” the CDC wrote in its announcement. “Keeping people in their homes and out of crowded or congregate settings — like homeless shelters — by preventing evictions is a key step in helping to stop the spread of Covid-19.”

Ahead of the CDC’s decision to extend the ban, 41 of members of Congress wrote to President Joe Biden and Walensky asking to extend, and strengthen, the measure.

The letter, which got signatures from Democrats including Representatives Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Cori Bush of Missouri and Jimmy Gomez of California, called for more time to distribute the $46 billion in rental assistance promised by the American Rescue Plan.

“State and local governments need time, resources, and new guidance to deliver the rescue aid Congress provided,” the letter states, noting that millions of renters are still struggling to access aid and dig themselves out of debt.

“Evictions take lives and push households deeper into poverty, impacting everything from health outcomes to educational attainment,” the representatives wrote.

Racial justice issues presented by evictions undergird the fight. Data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities show that an estimated 14% of adult renters, or 10.5 million adults, are not caught up.

People of color who rent their homes are disproportionately affected by the inability to keep up with payments: 24% of Black renters, 16% of Latino renters and 15% of Asian renters said they were not caught up on rent, compared with 10% of white renters, according to the data.

Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, called an extension of the eviction ban “the right thing to do — morally, fiscally, politically, and as a continued public health measure.”

Expressing some ambivalence regarding the timeline for distributing rent relief was John Pollock, coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel.

“Any extension at this point is hugely welcome, but it’s hard to tell how quickly the rental assistance programs are going to get to the point where they’ve met the huge demand that is out there,” Pollock told CNBC. Landlords have opposed the national eviction ban in court, so far with little success.

The 11th Circuit is hearing one fight after a federal judge in Georgia denied a preliminary injunction of the moratorium in a lawsuit brought by the New Civil Liberties Alliance.

Caleb Kruckenberg, litigation counsel for the alliance, suggested the CDC’s latest eviction ban extension may not in fact be the last.

“CDC is using its own mess as justification for its continued power grab,” Kruckenberg said in a statement. “Even though CDC agrees that Covid is no longer the threat it once was, the agency extended its order because once the moratorium ends the courts will face a glut of cases that have been delayed for nearly a year. Meanwhile, innocent housing providers have gone without their income all along.”

Another fight against the nationwide ban, in Washington, D.C., saw a win for landlords in early May, when a federal judge struck down the moratorium, saying the CDC had overstepped its authority.

The same judge later issued stayed her decision, however, allowing the eviction ban to remain in place while the Justice Department appeals. The D.C. Circuit declined to lift the stay earlier this month, finding government would likely succeed on the merits of its appeal, and saying that the CDC was within its powers.

The landlord challengers cannot lift the stay now without an order from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Can they extend it forever? ;P

[Kowani]

CDC extends eviction ban again

Less than a week before the nationwide eviction ban was set to expire, top health officials extended it for another 30 days to help tenants who are unable to pay rent during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Previously scheduled to end on the last day of June, the moratorium will remain in place until July 31, as ordered by Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The break for struggling tenants is “intended to be the final extension of the moratorium,” Walensky said Thursday.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has presented a historic threat to the nation’s public health,” the CDC wrote in its announcement. “Keeping people in their homes and out of crowded or congregate settings — like homeless shelters — by preventing evictions is a key step in helping to stop the spread of Covid-19.”

Ahead of the CDC’s decision to extend the ban, 41 of members of Congress wrote to President Joe Biden and Walensky asking to extend, and strengthen, the measure.

The letter, which got signatures from Democrats including Representatives Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Cori Bush of Missouri and Jimmy Gomez of California, called for more time to distribute the $46 billion in rental assistance promised by the American Rescue Plan.

“State and local governments need time, resources, and new guidance to deliver the rescue aid Congress provided,” the letter states, noting that millions of renters are still struggling to access aid and dig themselves out of debt.

“Evictions take lives and push households deeper into poverty, impacting everything from health outcomes to educational attainment,” the representatives wrote.

Racial justice issues presented by evictions undergird the fight. Data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities show that an estimated 14% of adult renters, or 10.5 million adults, are not caught up.

People of color who rent their homes are disproportionately affected by the inability to keep up with payments: 24% of Black renters, 16% of Latino renters and 15% of Asian renters said they were not caught up on rent, compared with 10% of white renters, according to the data.

Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, called an extension of the eviction ban “the right thing to do — morally, fiscally, politically, and as a continued public health measure.”

Expressing some ambivalence regarding the timeline for distributing rent relief was John Pollock, coordinator of the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel.

“Any extension at this point is hugely welcome, but it’s hard to tell how quickly the rental assistance programs are going to get to the point where they’ve met the huge demand that is out there,” Pollock told CNBC. Landlords have opposed the national eviction ban in court, so far with little success.

The 11th Circuit is hearing one fight after a federal judge in Georgia denied a preliminary injunction of the moratorium in a lawsuit brought by the New Civil Liberties Alliance.

Caleb Kruckenberg, litigation counsel for the alliance, suggested the CDC’s latest eviction ban extension may not in fact be the last.

“CDC is using its own mess as justification for its continued power grab,” Kruckenberg said in a statement. “Even though CDC agrees that Covid is no longer the threat it once was, the agency extended its order because once the moratorium ends the courts will face a glut of cases that have been delayed for nearly a year. Meanwhile, innocent housing providers have gone without their income all along.”

Another fight against the nationwide ban, in Washington, D.C., saw a win for landlords in early May, when a federal judge struck down the moratorium, saying the CDC had overstepped its authority.

The same judge later issued stayed her decision, however, allowing the eviction ban to remain in place while the Justice Department appeals. The D.C. Circuit declined to lift the stay earlier this month, finding government would likely succeed on the merits of its appeal, and saying that the CDC was within its powers.

The landlord challengers cannot lift the stay now without an order from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Can they extend it forever? ;P

they're saying this will be the last time

because fuck, i don't know

[Dakini]

I kinda think the United States is reopening too soon, we still have so many pockets that aren't vaccinated and it would be so easy for COVID to make a huge resurgence (especially with all the variants). I personally feel safer because I'm vaccinated, but I'm gonna keep wearing my mask everywhere.

I did just fly to Texas yesterday, and everyone in the airport was wearing masks but it was so crowded

If you are fully vaccinated then why wear a mask. I'm vaccinated so I won't be wearing masks anymore.

I'm fully vaccinated, but I live in an area that doesn't have a high vaccination rate (thanks vaccine hesitancy) and masks are still required on public transport and in shops, so I wear one.

[Page]

One guy doing the wrong thing whilst dealing with overseas travellers has plunged millions Sydneysiders into lockdown and has prohibited millions more from being allowed to leave Sydney and go on holidays. The latest Covid outbreak caused by this one person has ruined the economy of regional NSW and interstate tourism areas as it's currently school holidays and borders are closed. One guy doing the wrong thing single-handedly ruined it for all of us. I wouldn't be surprised if someone finds out who he is and injures him or worse. In fact, no matter how hard they try to conceal his identity, I would be suprised if there isn't eventually some form of mob justice

While that guy may be responsible for an outbreak, I think it's irresponsible to say he's responsible for the lockdown as if there is no question of whether it was necessary. Kinda like how you can't lay all the blame for World War 1 at the feet of that dude who killed Franz Ferdinand, or how you can't say bin Laden made America invade Iraq.

Not saying bin Laden didn't suck big time, but the War on Terror was not a reaction mandated by the laws of physics.

[North Washington Republic]

Can they extend it forever? ;P

they're saying this will be the last time

because fuck, i don't know

Because rent can’t be going unpaid forever?

[Ifreann]

they're saying this will be the last time

because fuck, i don't know

Because rent can’t be going unpaid forever?

Ah, but it can.

[Kowani]

The Delta variant swamps Russia

Two weeks after 82-year-old Kirill Kruchkov died of Covid-19 in the Tula region, 200 kilometers south of Moscow, his family received a phone call from Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s state consumer protection watchdog.

“They told us lab tests showed that grandpa died of the Indian strain. I was very confused. He hasn’t been to India,” said his grandson Mikhail, who shared documents showing the results with The Moscow Times.

Like most Russians, the Kruchkov family had heard little of the Delta variant, a highly infectious strain of the coronavirus, first registered in India.

On June 3, a week after their grandfather’s death, Russian officials said just over 1,000 coronavirus infections involving variants had been discovered in Russia, only 24% of them involving the Delta variant.

But it is Delta that is now believed to be behind the explosive rise in infections and hospitalizations in Moscow.

According to government figures, Russia’s capital on Saturday registered 9,120 new coronavirus infections in 24 hours, a record high for a second consecutive day. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that the Delta variant accounted for nearly 90% of the new cases.

“We are starting to go through this story again but with more severe consequences,” Sobyanin told state TV, referring to the intensifying epidemic.

Facing “explosive growth” in the number of infections, officials are setting up new hospital facilities “every day and we barely manage,” he warned.

In response to the spike in cases, officials introduced unprecedented mandatory vaccinations for service workers in the capital.
Previously known as B.1.617.2, the Delta variant was first discovered in India in February, where it contributed to a devastating wave of infections that started in the spring.

Delta is considered the most contagious variant of the coronavirus yet. Studies have shown that it is at least 40% more transmissible than the Alpha variant first detected in the United Kingdom last year, which in turn was about 50% more transmissible than the Wuhan strain

What makes the Delta variant especially dangerous, doctors in hospitals across Moscow said in interviews last week, is that it does not seem to respond as well to treatments previously used on Covid-19 patients.

“The drugs we have been using throughout the pandemic are getting less effective, we have to use large doses,” said Anton, a doctor treating Covid patients in Clinical Hospital Number 52, who asked for his last name to be withheld due to new legislations forbidding medics from talking to the media.

Studies in India have already indicated that antibody drugs and Covid-19 vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant.

“What we did before just isn’t working anymore,” said Yekaterina, a medic working at Moscow’s Clinical Hospital Number 50.

On June 10, the chief doctor of Moscow's flagship Covid-19 hospital, Denis Protsenko, told the Echo Moskvy radio station that patients were not responding to previously effective treatments.
Moscow Mayor Sobyanin last week said that officials “did not expect the virus,” saying the arrival of the delta variant had caught the country by surprise.

Vasily Vlassov, an epidemiologist and former adviser to the Russian Health Ministry, disagreed, saying signs of a third wave had been creeping in for a while.

“Clearly, this was expected,” Vlasov told The Moscow Times.

“This is a result of having virtually no restrictions for months while the virus was around.”

Until last week, Russia had few coronavirus restrictions, with concert halls, nightclubs, and restaurants full to capacity. Earlier this month, Russia hosted the St. Petersburg annual economic forum, and the city has also welcomed thousands of foreigners from across the world for the Euro 2020 football championship.

However, a graph of Covid-19 hospitalizations from the capital’s flagship Kommunarka hospital shows that hospitalizations in Moscow have been high for months.

As Russian officials rarely study and publish data on virus variants, Vlasov said, it remains unclear how and when Delta started to spread in the country.

Early in May, Russian local officials confirmed the first cases of Delta within the country’s borders after a group of Indian students arrived in Ulyanovsk between April 17-30. The national headquarters of Rospotrebnadzor later denied the presence of the Delta strain among the students.

And despite the virus raging in India, Russia ran flights to and from the country at least twice a week throughout 2021. Passengers on flights arriving from Delhi were not told to self-isolate in Russia. The official Twitter account of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine said on June 15 that it is more effective against the Delta variant than any other vaccine that has so far published results on the strain. It also said it has submitted results for publication in an international peer-reviewed journal to be published shortly

Vaccine experts told The Moscow Times it is not possible to assess Sputnik’s efficiency without sufficient data, but questioned the assertion that it is “the best.”

“I’m very skeptical of any claims that suggest Sputnik V is the absolute best vaccine,” said Jeremy Kamil, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport.

Studies so far have shown that Western vaccines are highly effective at preventing hospitalization with the Delta variant after two doses, with mRNA-based vaccines, like Pfizer being slightly more effective than adenovirus vector technology vaccines, like AstraZeneca and Sputnik V.

A real-world study undertaken by Public Health England showed the Pfizer shot was 96% effective against hospitalization after two doses, while the AstraZeneca shot was 92% effective.

Russian and foreign vaccine experts said they also believed Sputnik V was likely to be effective against hospitalization and death with Delta.

“Sputnik does seem to be a pretty good vaccine,” said Kamil.

“All the public needs to know is that both adenovirus and mRNA vaccines have shown effectiveness against severe infections,” he added.
More worrying for Russia, however, according to experts, is early research indicating that Delta appears to transmit faster, even among fully vaccinated groups.

In India, Delta was responsible for most “breakthrough infections” — infections that occur after full vaccination — among healthcare workers.

The U.K. has also seen a spike in infections, despite having almost 80% of its adult population vaccinated. However, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.K. have not proportionally increased with the rise in infections, which points to the effectiveness of vaccines.

Mayor Sobyanin warned on Sunday that Russians should expect infections even after two vaccine shots.

“The level of immunity in order to protect oneself from the Indian strain needs to be twice as high as from the Wuhan one. Therefore, we see reinfection, we see illnesses in those who have been vaccinated,” he said. Russia, which has only vaccinated 13% of its population, is now presented with the daunting challenge of fending off the infectious Delta variant in a country that at its current pace will take over a year to reach herd immunity.

"We need to get vaccinated as quickly as possible because then a barrier will be built, a shield," Sobyanin added.

Early reports published by health officials last Friday show that vaccination in Moscow has increased fourfold since it was made mandatory for service workers. But with only 23% of Russians supporting compulsory vaccination and a third of all medics refusing the jab, the Kremlin appears to be facing an uphill battle to get its nation mobilized for vaccination.

[Vassenor]

Because rent can’t be going unpaid forever?

Ah, but it can.

[The East Is Red intensifies]

[Hakinda Herseyi Duymak istiyorum]

I'm vaccinated

[San Lumen]

Because rent can’t be going unpaid forever?

Ah, but it can.

No it can’t .

[Washington Resistance Army]

Ah, but it can.

No it can’t .

But it can. Landlords aren't needed in society.

[San Lumen]

No it can’t .

But it can. Landlords aren't needed in society.

And apartments and businesses space is supposed to be occupied for free?

[Washington Resistance Army]

But it can. Landlords aren't needed in society.

And apartments and businesses space is supposed to be occupied for free?

Sure. The state has more than enough money to be able to provide everyone with free housing.

[San Lumen]

And apartments and businesses space is supposed to be occupied for free?

Sure. The state has more than enough money to be able to provide everyone with free housing.

If it was that simple don’t you think we’d do that?

[Washington Resistance Army]

Sure. The state has more than enough money to be able to provide everyone with free housing.

If it was that simple don’t you think we’d do that?

Because we're a capitalist society and money matters more than lives. Hence why you were so willing to throw tons of lives away to keep businesses open.