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Corona Virus spreading ... US official says no need to worry

Melensdad

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"The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday said there was no risk from taking AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine as some countries have paused distribution over blood clot concerns.

Despite no clear evidence of a link, countries including Iceland, Denmark and Norway have halted their use of AstraZeneca's vaccine following reports that it could be connected to blood clots."


"The World Health Organization said Friday that there is no reason to stop using the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, as a growing number of countries in Europe and elsewhere have moved to halt its use over blood clot concerns."


First I heard about this.
We don't have the Oxford/AstraZenica vaccine approved in North America so it doesn't make the news.

But I've been following this story, I am not convinced these are not simple coincidences. Blood clots occur for lots of different reasons. It appears that the cases of blood clots appearing in people who have taken the OX/AZ vaccine occurs at exactly the same rate that it occurs in the population at large.


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Looks like Europe is pretty much screwed. The UK broke away from the EU and one of the benefits of doing that is that breaking away allowed the UK to approve vaccines and administer them. The EU nations, even advanced nations like France and Germany, are mired in red tape and a slow vaccine approval process. That set everything behind, including ordering vaccines, so now the US is taking delivery of drugs it ordered LAST YEAR while the EU nations are will wait MONTHS to get more.

All while the new variants are increasing cases on the continent.


Europe Confronts a Covid-19 Rebound as Vaccine Hopes Recede

Slow vaccinations, outpaced by virus variants, and indecision by EU governments are deepening the continent’s gloom

By in Rome, in Berlin and in Paris​
Updated March 12, 2021 11:08 am ET
The European Union’s fight against Covid-19 is stuck in midwinter, even as spring and vaccinations spur hope of improvement in the U.S. and U.K.​
Contagion is rising again in much of the EU, despite months of restrictions on daily life, as more-virulent virus strains outpace vaccinations. A mood of gloom and frustration is settling on the continent, and governments are caught between their promises of progress and the bleak epidemiological reality.​
Virus infections and deaths have been falling rapidly in the U.S. and U.K. since January as inoculations take off among the elderly and other vulnerable groups. In the EU, however, new Covid-19 cases have been rising again since mid-February. U.S. infections and deaths, which were higher on a per-capita basis for most of 2020, have fallen below the bloc’s.​
In much of the continent, the spread of the more-aggressive variant first detected in the U.K. is behind the worsening of the pandemic, undoing strenuous efforts to rein in the virus since the fall with an array of restrictions that have brought the bloc’s economic recovery to a standstill.​
Governments and public-health experts say only a combination of accelerated vaccinations and gradual reopening can defeat Covid-19’s latest rebound. But the EU’s efforts continue to suffer from its slowness in procuring and approving vaccines, production delays at vaccine makers, and bureaucratic holdups in injecting available doses.
So far, there is nothing like the acute hospital crisis that overwhelmed healthcare systems in parts of Italy and Spain a year ago. Instead, the bloc’s public-health crisis has become chronic, with authorities struggling constantly to tamp down the flames. . . story continues at link above.​

 

Melensdad

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And Europe, which is totally screwing up its vaccinations, is now going into another round of LOCKDOWNS

I'm only providing the headlines and the first few paragraphs but you can follow the links for the full stories. Generally the European Union screwed the pooch and now their socialist leaders and locking the citizens in their homes.



Two-Thirds of Italians Set For Lockdown as Pandemic Worsens

(Bloomberg) -- The government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi is weighing stringent new restrictions on as many as two-thirds of Italians, with the regions encompassing the country’s largest cities possibly heading into lockdown amid a resurgence in the pandemic.

The tightening would bring Italy full-circle just over a year after it became the first Western country to enter lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Infections rose to a three-month high this week after the more contagious U.K. strain took hold amid a slow vaccine roll-out.

Draghi’s cabinet was due to meet at 11:30 a.m. on Friday to decide whether to automatically designate regions as high-risk “red zones” if they have more than 250 weekly cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to a draft of a new decree seen by Bloomberg. The draft is subject to change.

The new decree would go into effect starting Monday and could effectively send many regions, including those surrounding Milan and Rome, into full lockdown. The restrictions would remain in force until April 6. During the Easter holidays, from April 3-5, all of Italy would be a “red zone,” except for the few areas at the least risk of contagion, according to the draft.





Germany declares a Covid ‘third wave’ has begun; Italy set for Easter lockdown

Sam Meredith


LONDON — The head of Germany’s public health agency on Friday warned that a third wave of coronavirus infections has already begun.
It comes at a time when the country has started to gradually relax lockdown restrictions, amid a government-led effort to speed up its vaccination rollout to as many adults as possible.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had previously warned the country could be caught in a third wave of infections if restrictive public health measures were lifted too quickly.
 

m1west

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Gee didn't see the mutation issue coming, its only been doing that with the flu for as long as there was a flu. Its only going to be at best 70% effective like the rest of the corona virus vaccines year over. Its here to stay just like the rest. The sooner the experts adopt that philosophy the sooner things will get back to normal. Its not going to be beaten and before its over everyone is going to get some strain of it. More people with conditions are going to die, but those same folks may die with the common flu or pneumonia with the conditions they have. The world can not survive a third, forth or fifth lockdown. Sounds harsh but that reality.
 

Melensdad

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Gee didn't see the mutation issue coming, its only been doing that with the flu for as long as there was a flu. Its only going to be at best 70% effective like the rest of the corona virus vaccines year over. Its here to stay just like the rest. The sooner the experts adopt that philosophy the sooner things will get back to normal. Its not going to be beaten and before its over everyone is going to get some strain of it. More people with conditions are going to die, but those same folks may die with the common flu or pneumonia with the conditions they have. The world can not survive a third, forth or fifth lockdown. Sounds harsh but that reality.
The key with ANY vaccine is to get it into peoples arm before the disease mutates. In the case of things like Chicken Pox and other things kids get vaccinated for, the vaccine was targeted to the disease's mutation at the time the vaccine was developed.

The seasonal FLU is actually different. There are multiple strains of it that are passed around the globe. The scientists look at what is dominant in SOUTH AMERICA in the spring and produce vaccines for NORTH AMERICA for distribution in the late summer/fall of that year.

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Here in the US we are all pretty darn lucky that Trump did what he did. Like him or not, his Operation Warp Speed got us vaccines in short order. His early travel bans, which the Democrats all criticized, probably helped slow down the introduction in the US, sadly it was not more widely enforced and done more quickly. Other parts of the world have really screwed up. England/UK did well. Russia has actually done reasonably well. But reports of the next wave ravaging people keep coming as the mutations surge.


'Covid is taking over': Brazil plunges into deadliest chapter of its epidemic

It was midway through February when André Machado realized Brazil’s coronavirus catastrophe was racing into a bewildering and remorseless new phase. “The floodgates opened and the water came gushing out,” recalled the infectious disease specialist from the Our Lady of the Conception hospital in Porto Alegre, one of the largest cities in southern Brazil.
Since then, Machado’s hospital, like health centres up and down the country, has been engulfed by a deluge of jittery, gasping patients – many of them previously healthy and bafflingly young. Among the recent admissions was a heavily pregnant 37-year-old who was brought in complaining of breathing difficulties and a cough. Doctors performed an emergency C-section to deliver the baby in a desperate bid to take the pressure off the expectant mother’s Covid-racked lungs.
“We’re trying to help people but this disease is much faster and more aggressive than the tactics we’ve been using,” Machado, 44, said of his team’s efforts to keep pace with a tripling of admissions.
“It’s like we’re flogging a dead horse,” he said, before adding: “This disease is going to kill many more people in Brazil.”
 

m1west

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The key with ANY vaccine is to get it into peoples arm before the disease mutates. In the case of things like Chicken Pox and other things kids get vaccinated for, the vaccine was targeted to the disease's mutation at the time the vaccine was developed.

The seasonal FLU is actually different. There are multiple strains of it that are passed around the globe. The scientists look at what is dominant in SOUTH AMERICA in the spring and produce vaccines for NORTH AMERICA for distribution in the late summer/fall of that year.

------------------------------------------------------


Here in the US we are all pretty darn lucky that Trump did what he did. Like him or not, his Operation Warp Speed got us vaccines in short order. His early travel bans, which the Democrats all criticized, probably helped slow down the introduction in the US, sadly it was not more widely enforced and done more quickly. Other parts of the world have really screwed up. England/UK did well. Russia has actually done reasonably well. But reports of the next wave ravaging people keep coming as the mutations surge.


'Covid is taking over': Brazil plunges into deadliest chapter of its epidemic

It was midway through February when André Machado realized Brazil’s coronavirus catastrophe was racing into a bewildering and remorseless new phase. “The floodgates opened and the water came gushing out,” recalled the infectious disease specialist from the Our Lady of the Conception hospital in Porto Alegre, one of the largest cities in southern Brazil.
Since then, Machado’s hospital, like health centres up and down the country, has been engulfed by a deluge of jittery, gasping patients – many of them previously healthy and bafflingly young. Among the recent admissions was a heavily pregnant 37-year-old who was brought in complaining of breathing difficulties and a cough. Doctors performed an emergency C-section to deliver the baby in a desperate bid to take the pressure off the expectant mother’s Covid-racked lungs.
“We’re trying to help people but this disease is much faster and more aggressive than the tactics we’ve been using,” Machado, 44, said of his team’s efforts to keep pace with a tripling of admissions.
“It’s like we’re flogging a dead horse,” he said, before adding: “This disease is going to kill many more people in Brazil.”
I know How all that works, the point is, kids still get chicken pox and people still get the flu and 10 years from now folks will still get some form of COVID vaccinated or not.
 

Melensdad

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Regarding covid, I just wish all the politicians would just shut up and gorilla tape fauci's mouth.
YUP

I liked him at the onset of all of this mess but as time went on I began to hate every word he spoke. Too much politician and too little science. I get that in the beginning nobody knew. But eventually he was proven to be a liar. And I even understand that doctors didn't know the facts but if they say they don't know and are making an educated guess I can respect them. He just lied. And got caught. And kept lying. He is more politician than doctor.

In the end Dr Scott Atlas, who most people considered a kook, was right far more often than he was wrong and we probably should have followed his advice. But he was discredited and Dr Fauci was a hero.
 

Melensdad

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This is some of the scary crap about this disease. Long Covid or Long Haulers, people who get mild cases but still are sick.





Scientists are putting new effort into understanding the troubling symptoms of long Covid. These patients are waiting. A year after the first wave of Covid-19 infections swept across the country, a group of patients is marking the start of an illness that never went away.​



Suffering from what’s often referred to as “long Covid,” an estimated roughly 10% to 30% of Covid patients continue to experience symptoms months after their initial diagnosis. Many had mild to moderate Covid cases at first, and didn’t require hospitalization. But months later, they are grappling with often-debilitating symptoms that can include brain fog, fatigue, shortness of breath, racing heart beat, and an inability to tolerate physical or mental exertion.

Doctors are struggling to determine what causes the symptoms, exactly how many people are affected and why some suffer while others recover. It’s unclear why women—generally younger or in middle age, who were previously healthy—appear to be disproportionately affected, according to the demographics of post-Covid clinics and support groups. But there is growing consensus that it is a significant disease that needs to be better understood.
In February, the National Institutes of Health announced a major initiative to study long Covid, backed by $1.15 billion in funding. “Large numbers of patients who have been infected with [Covid] continue to experience a constellation of symptoms long past the time that they’ve recovered from the initial stages of Covid-19 illness,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins in the announcement. He pointed to a survey of more than 3,700 self-described Covid long-haulers that indicated nearly half couldn’t work full-time six months after developing prolonged symptoms. The findings came from patient-led research that sprung out of a long Covid advocacy group called Body Politic.

A February study in JAMA found that roughly one-third of 177 people who’d largely had mild Covid cases reported persistent symptoms up to nine months after illness. Nearly 30% of nonhospitalized patients reported worse quality of life. Another recent study, in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, found that 66% of 118 patients with mild to moderate Covid had at least one symptom four months later. Nearly 40% reported a work impairment and 11% said they had to miss some work due to their symptoms.
“What we’re seeing is not one condition, it’s a whole series of things,” says Martin McKee, a professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who was the lead author of a World Health Organization paper on long Covidpublished in February. “This is a virus that affects the body in many different ways and the body reacts in many different ways.”
Some long Covid patients have seen gradual improvement with very slow and incremental rehabilitation or guided exercise programs but others say they don’t have the energy to start them.
im-311879

Some of Ms. Jensen’s symptoms have included neuropathy, arthritis and muscle pain.​

Photo: Nina Robinson for Wall Street Journal
Mount Sinai in New York was one of the first hospitals to establish a dedicated center for post-Covid care. Of the 800 patients enrolled in the center’s rehabilitation program, about 150 have undergone about four months of rehab, says David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation at Mount Sinai.
Nearly all of those 150 are improving but none are fully recovered, he says. He believes that most long Covid patients will need a minimum of six to 12 months of rehab.
The Sinai program involves doing breathing exercises to increase lung capacity so that patients can begin to tolerate gradual exercise reconditioning. “We’ve learned not to push patients too quickly,” says Dr. Putrino.
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has a program to treat Covid patients who are sick for up to three months and a separate program with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome specialists for patients who are sick longer.
“We’ve had patients who have had a full recovery, including patients who had very poor function at the start of treatment,” says Greg Vanichkachorn, an occupational and aerospace medicine physician at Mayo. Others have improved but are still experiencing symptoms a year later.

More on Long Covid​

Some doctors say pulmonary symptoms, such as exercise tolerance and shortness of breath, seem to improve more quickly with treatment than neurological ones. “It’s really the neurocognitive effects which seem to be lasting longer,” says Aruna Subramanian, a clinical professor of medicine at Stanford University.
Her group is conducting neurocognitive testing, as well as functional MRI’s in some patients. “The preliminary data there does show significant decreases in attention, executive function, memory and overall cognitive dysfunction,” says Dr. Subramanian.
Theories on the symptoms’ causes focus on whether they are autoimmune in nature, inflammatory, or both. Akiko Iwasaki, professor of immunobiology at Yale, says there’s evidence that long Covid could be caused by a viral reservoir; remnants of the virus in the body causing inflammation; or an autoimmune disease. She is also looking at whether the vaccines may improve symptoms in patients.
Dr. Iwasaki and Dr. Putrino are studying the immune response of long Covid patients. One possibility, says Dr. Putrino, is that Covid causes a massive inflammatory response producing a flood of cytokines, even in mild cases, which can be damaging to the body’s tissues and organs. Hospitalized patients undergoing the so-called cytokine storm get medications to tamp down their inflammatory response but patients at home might not even realize their body is going through one. “That could be a solid explanation of why less-severe cases are more likely to lead to this post-acute Covid phenomenon,” says Dr. Putrino. .... STORY CONTINUES AT LINK
 

mla2ofus

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There's been so much alleged expert opinions put out I'm getting skeptical about believing any of them no matter how much alphabet is behind their name.
 

Melensdad

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There's been so much alleged expert opinions put out I'm getting skeptical about believing any of them no matter how much alphabet is behind their name.
I've been long time saying its not about the risk of death, rather it is about the overrunning of hospitals and the long term effects.

Our hospital system in the US was never over run. It was stressed, but we managed very well.

But the long term effects are now the real issue that needs focus. I personally know people who have long term issues. It is not a joke, it is life altering shit. Most people who get Covid get over it. A modest % of the people who get it have some seriously long term problems. Bad enough they can't work, bad enough they sell their businesses.
 

EastTexFrank

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I too know people who suffered the long term effects of COVID. Unfortunately, there seems to be relief from the symptoms. Even though I was considered "high risk", it was the reported long haul symptoms of the disease that worried me more than actually catching the virus and why I was actually relieved after I got my second shot.
 

pirate_girl

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She is on our facilities Facebook page today.
The face of a survivor.
Playing Uno.
Can't tell you much more about her because of HIPAA.
?❤
20210316_180001.jpg
 

EastTexFrank

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I too know people who suffered the long term effects of COVID. Unfortunately, there seems to be NO relief from the symptoms. Even though I was considered "high risk", it was the reported long haul symptoms of the disease that worried me more than actually catching the virus and why I was actually relieved after I got my second shot.
I needed to edit my last post. The few people that I know who have long term effects from COVID aren't getting any better. They continue to struggle months and months after their "recovery". We just have to wait and see what the future holds.
 

Melensdad

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I needed to edit my last post. The few people that I know who have long term effects from COVID aren't getting any better. They continue to struggle months and months after their "recovery". We just have to wait and see what the future holds.
This is one of the scary facts about this disease.

Yes most people seem to recover. But something around 10% only semi-recover. And they seem to be in miserable condition.

My friend, who got Covid almost a year ago, finally has recovered. At least mostly. I hope your friends do too.
 

pirate_girl

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Yes most people seem to recover. But something around 10% only semi-recover. And they seem to be in miserable condition.
Seems to be the case with my hunny bunny above.
We had many sent to St. V'S in Toledo, some came back on o2 ,a trach and vents.
ONE remains with us.?
We lost Richard not long ago.
He was a heavy smoker.
Right now there are perhaps less than 10 residents who are showing long term effects like the brain fog and a little weakness.
We have an awesome PT team, so we're gradually getting there.
We've opened up to more family visits lately.
The difference it has made is truly something to celebrate.
 

EastTexFrank

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Texas was at 55+. I was told that this week or perhaps next week it goes to 16+ so basically everybody can get it.
 

FrancSevin

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It s so sad to hear what this disease has done to so many people. Outrage at our government and our friends in china is more than warranted.

I feel lucky I live in Missouri. Common sense runs most of the State.


I am 74 and healthy. I mean age fifty energy and health. Yet, I get the flu every year. This even if I get a shot, I get sick. Every year.
Last year, January/February, when COVID-19 was just coming on, I was again sick. Sicker than I have ever been. So sick, I didn't go to work. Never happened before.

No proof but we suspect from the symptoms, it was possibly COVID.

As a former paramedic, I still keep the tools of the trade with me. So luckily, I had O2 on hand. It is the only reason I survived the night.

I take a lot of supplements now. Zinc, Sera Vitol, Aswaganda and Ageless Male. That and the wife and I are again having relations. I cannot believe the difference in my vitality. One, or all, of these are to blame.
I am completely off my hypertension meds, and Advair for COPD.
Best of all. For the first time in years,,,, I didn't contract the flu. Any Flu. Not a cold or any malaise.

So give my COVID-19 shot to somebody else. They need it more than I do. I'll wear the mask but only because I want persons around me to feel safe. Besides, we still have several thousand of them in the warehouse.

Stay healthy friends, Stay loved, Stay safe.
 
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Melensdad

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My daughter got her first shot today.

She got the Pfizer vaccine.

She is only 26, but qualified under the serious medical condition age exemption.

As a back up plan she also had another appointment set under the Medical Worker exemption because she is a licensed E.M.T. She will cancel that appointment to free up the slot for someone else.
 

pirate_girl

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Former President Donald Trump's club, Mar-a-Lago, has been partially closed due to an outbreak of COVID-19. The golf club and resort is located in Palm Beach, Florida, and now serves as Trump's primary residence.

A member of the club's staff tested positive, according to the Associated Press (AP), which led management to introduce a partial shut down of Mar-a-Lago's operations.
 

pirate_girl

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Did anyone else notice that President Trump is asking his supporters to get the vaccine ?
Wasn't it last week when some former presidents (and possibly the current and co.) were complaining because Trump didnt join them in that PSA of sorts about the importance of the vaccines?
 

Melensdad

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Thanks for the encouragement. Fever and chills all day today. Now it's going away.
I had the Moderna and had a short period of chills during the night. Honestly not sure if it was vaccine related or if it was due to the fact that I sleep under heavy blankets and often kick them off.

In any case, chills is a common side effect. As PG noted, its your body's natural reaction to fight foreign substances. It is how immunity is built up.
 
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