Off Topic Coronavirus

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James Melville
@JamesMelville
· Oct 30
At COP26, Green Zone events are where the public can attend - vaccine passports are required. But COP26 Blue Zone events are where the world leaders and key corporate delegates will be congregating - and they are exempt from vaccine passports. Them and us. #COP26

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COVID-19
The UK becomes the first country to approve an antiviral pill to treat COVID-19

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COVID-19: Ireland's Co Waterford has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world - so why are cases surging?
New figures this week show that Co Waterford has both the highest vaccination rate and the highest COVID-19 incidence rate in Ireland. It's partly been put down to a change in people's behaviour, with the jabs having made some over-confident.

Stephen Murphy
Ireland correspondent @SMurphyTV

Saturday 6 November 2021 23:15, UK

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Image:Tom Gallagher spent 66 days in hospital after getting COVID, including two stints on a ventilator in intensive care

Why you can trust Sky News
Waterford, in south-eastern Ireland, epitomises the country's coronavirus conundrum. Why is there a surge in COVID-19 cases in a nation where around 92% of all adults are fully vaccinated?

A massive 99.5% of adults over the age of 18 in Co Waterford are double-jabbed. That's thought to be one of the highest rates of any region anywhere in the world.

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But, according to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, the county now tops the national infection league table, with a 14-day incidence rate of 1,294 per 100,000.

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Image:Restrictions in Ireland eased gradually over the summer as the vaccine rolled out
Tom Gallagher can't believe his native Waterford City is the current epicentre of Ireland's fourth COVID wave. Earlier in the pandemic, he was nearly killed by the disease.

Tom spent 66 days in the local hospital, including two stints on a ventilator in intensive care. His brother and sister also caught the disease.

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"I walk past the hospital all the time", he tells Sky News. "I look up at it and just think…there are still people in there with this virus."

Tom now suffers from long COVID, and scans have shown his lungs are scarred from his bout with the disease. The 55-year-old agrees that almost everyone he knows in Waterford has been fully vaccinated, but thinks that that has led to a degree of behavioural complacency setting in.

"It's like people think the vaccine is the full metal jacket, that you have total immunity", he says.

"But obviously you don't, you know. Who I pity is the grandparents still living at home worried sick about getting this thing, of getting this virus, because it's the vulnerable people who are still dying, people with underlying ailments."

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Image:Ireland had a domestic vaccine passport scheme for some venues until last month
The current wave of infections (with daily numbers at their highest since January) differs from last winter's because of Ireland's successful vaccination rollout.

Hospitalisation figures, and intensive care unit admissions, are stable and decreasing slightly in recent days. It's widely accepted the "vaccine wall" has driven serious illness and death figures down.

Some scientists feel that any public frustration with the high incidence rates is based on a misunderstanding of what the vaccines were supposed to achieve.

"The function of the vaccine is to stop illness and death, that's the primary goal, and the vaccines are holding up, it's great." That's the view of Professor Luke O'Neill, an immunologist at Trinity College Dublin, and one of the country's best-known scientific figures during the pandemic.

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Imagerof Luke O'Neill said the situation would be much worse without the vaccine uptake
Prof O'Neill says that without the wide take-up of vaccinations, the public health situation in Ireland would be far worse than the current worrying scenario.

"Without the vaccines, Ireland would be in a full lockdown now", he argues, "because Delta is so transmissible, the hospitals would be full of COVID patients and all of the evidence supports that."

The issue of waning vaccine efficacy will become more of a problem in the months to come, Prof O'Neill says, and he's in favour of the booster shot programme - still in its infancy in Ireland - being expanded.

Changing public behaviour is widely cited as one of the main factors behind the current wave. Much evidence for this is purely anecdotal, but some is backed by data - such as that produced by the Behavioural Research Unit at the Economic and Social Research Institute in Dublin.

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Molnupiravir is a promising and clever drug but we need more information




Professor Pete Lunn is the head of the BRU and says its latest surveys, conducted on a sample of 1,000 people, illustrate a change in the public's willingness to take risks.

"As restrictions have eased", he says, "there's been a gradual increase in social activity, coupled with a decrease in people taking day-to-day mitigation behaviours, like keeping two metres from each other and wearing masks.

"We can see a sharper fall-off in that behaviour in the last six weeks to two months."

Prof Lunn also says that the public's perception of risk can be misplaced. People feel safer with a group of friends in the pub than they do sitting on public transport, but data shows they're likelier to face exposure to the coronavirus while surrounded by people they know in an indoors sitting.

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Imagerof Pete Lunn examined the public's behaviour since restrictions were eased
Most agree there's a range of factors at work.

There was already a high level of the Delta variant in Ireland before the vaccine rollout picked up pace, allowing the variant to become well-seeded in the community before many had their first jab.

Others point to high levels of travel between Ireland and the UK, which has a much higher incidence of COVID.

For now, the government emphasises the lowered death and hospitalisation rates as proof that Ireland's eagerness to embrace the vaccines has paid dividends.

Authorities for now appear satisfied to tolerate incidence rates that will reach 4,000 new cases per day shortly, as long as hospital and ICU figures remain suppressed.

The government of Micheal Martin says it has no plans to reintroduce restrictions this winter, but it is also refusing to rule it out

 

Am I out of touch on this or not - my understanding was not that the vaccines stop transmission of the virus - but with the vaccines, if you are infected, the chances are better that you will stay out of the |ICU/morgue than without them. It is not going to give one full immunity

 

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Sarahbb

@sarahbbsunny
·
7h

Thanks for clapping me at 8pm every Thursday in 2020 but now having worked throughout the pandemic with no time off sick - I’m seen as scum because I choose not to be vaccinated. However, I’m still safe to treat patients for the next 5 months until I’m fired. Not about a virus.

 

whens the asteroid due
Bird flu outbreak: Protection zone declared in Warwickshire after disease detected
The protection measures will require anyone who keeps poultry in these areas to isolate the birds and strictly record the name and address of anyone who visits them.

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Alexander Martin
Technology reporter @AlexMartin

Monday 8 November 2021 16:18, UK

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Image:A 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone have been declared in Warwickshire. Pic: DEFRA

Why you can trust Sky News
A 3km protection zone and 10km surveillance zone have been declared in Warwickshire after an outbreak of the deadliest H5N1 strain of bird flu.

The protection measures will require anyone who keeps poultry in these areas to isolate the birds and strictly record the name and address of anyone who visits them.

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In the declaration signed on Monday, the Department for Food and Rural Affairs said: "The Chief Veterinary Officer has confirmed that highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 is present in England."

It follows a prevention zone being declared across whole of the UK last week to prevent the virus from spreading among poultry.

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Image:Bird flu outbreaks can devastate populations of poultry. File pic.
The H5N1 subtype of flu is considered to be a highly pathogenic and fast-mutating strain, making it challenging to immunise people against.


According to World Health Organisation data, between 2003 and 2021 there were 456 deaths caused by 863 infections, giving the disease a 52% case fatality rate.

This is much higher than the COVID-19 global case fatality rate of around 2%, although epidemiologists caution against establishing the fatality rate by diving the number of known deaths by the number of confirmed cases.

The H5N1 flu can and has caused severe economic damage for farmers. Outbreaks in East Asia have in some cases led to the deaths of millions of birds.

The measures in the 10km surveillance zone don't require people to isolate their poultry, but they must also keep detailed records of their movements and visitors.

Any movement of poultry or eggs out of the surveillance zone needs to be licensed by a veterinary inspector.

Similar outbreaks have been detected in Europe, with France raising its risk level to "high" on Friday as cases were reported in Italy, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

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Imagerevention measures to tackle bird flu were introduced last week. File pic.
More than 10,000 turkeys were culled at a farm in North Yorkshire ahead of Christmas last year due to an outbreak of a different strain there, H5N8.

Bird flu affects a number of species of birds, including geese, ducks, turkeys and chickens.

Because birds do not always get sick if they are infected with the illness, seemingly healthy birds can pose a risk to people who come into contact with them.

It is spread through direct contact with infected birds (either dead or alive), their droppings, or secretions from their eyes or respiratory tract.

The virus is not transmitted through cooked food.

The NHS says poultry and eggs are safe to eat in areas that have experienced outbreaks, although the movement of poultry to slaughterhouses is still overseen by veterinary inspectors.

 

Surprised you missed this one Kiwi. We could always send Uber over to trial it...

 

damn
how did i miss that one
ubers already been
17 jabs so far

 

Just a little prick sir

 

From clapping to sacking - 18 months in the life of a nurse.
The anonymous account of a nurse on a virtual Covid ward.

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Laura Dodsworth
Nov 9 29

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This is a guest post from an anonymous nurse.

I care. It’s a reflex, and the reason why I could only ever have become a nurse. I don’t consider that this makes me a more virtuous human being. I certainly never wanted to be clapped for it. You can’t switch caring off. The role of the nurse is to relieve suffering. Sometimes this might mean making someone physically better, but not always – more often it is about making the individual feel better regardless of the outcome.

It was strangely fitting that on the 5th September, the day we were told that NHS staff might be forced to have the Covid-19 vaccine, I noted that 100% of the patients I look after as part of a Covid patient remote monitoring service were vaccinated. Not the majority of the patients, all of them.

The Covid patient remote monitoring service was set up in Autumn 2020, as a sort of virtual Covid ward, to monitor Covid positive patients remotely, facilitate early intervention should there be any deterioration in condition, offer support for symptoms and reduce the need for hospital admission.

This week, every single patient on the virtual ward is double or triple vaccinated.

A number of things struck me about the patients who were being referred to us. The first was that they were ill. This might seem obvious, but what I mean is that they were ill regardless of their Covid status. Many reported a deterioration in pre-existing conditions, citing difficulty in accessing medical care, chronic conditions not being managed etc.

Fast forward a year and this is an even more prevalent picture. Many patients have not seen a doctor for 18 months, blood tests are delayed, there has been no hospital follow up appointments, lost e-consults, hours spent waiting in phone queues and there is still fear of attending appointments. We often spend longer sorting out patients non-covid related health problems than their covid symptoms.

I’m not GP-bashing, merely stating that the present system is not fit for purpose and that the restrictions imposed over the last 18 months have had significant implications for public health.

The second thing that became apparent was the extraordinary role that nosocomial infections were playing in the cases and transmission of the virus, particularly during the autumn/winter surge. At times, over 80% of our patients had acquired Covid in healthcare. Sometimes this could be directly attributed to a recent hospital admission of the individual. Patients were admitted for falls, cancer treatment, blood transfusions, heart attacks and then, unfortunately, discharged Covid positive. These were often the sickest patients – the very people who we were all ordered to stay at home to protect.

Then they would infect their families and carers once they were home.

This is why the statistics for nosocomial infections are not representative of the true picture – one hospital admission for one individual could result in numerous cases within a household and beyond. This is not officially measured but, from my observations over the months, it is a huge problem.

I constantly flagged this up, but it wasn’t a popular observation in the NHS hierarchy. There were conversations in hushed tones. With the go ahead from my line manager I undertook unofficial audits of our patients so that I could demonstrate the scale of the problem. I was told that it was not well received and it was certainly not escalated.

If you have any understanding of the structure of our health and social care, it’s not difficult to see why and how this situation occurred. There are fewer hospital beds, insufficient staffing, lack of effective PPE, lack of/haphazard testing and even the structure of our hospitals all lend themselves to an unavoidable rise in nosocomial infections. Over the last 20 years, many smaller hospitals have been closed. Beds were incorporated into huge hospital ‘villages’ which are easier to manage because all facilities exist on one site, often under one roof. This suits many aspects of health care but it is an infection control nightmare, as highly infectious patients are under the same roof as those that are already sick and immunocompromised.

The PPE provided for the average staff member was and is a joke. The big suits, F95s and goggles were reserved for ITU. The rest of us had plastic aprons and blue masks, which is probably why so many healthcare staff have ended up with Covid. In one area of the hospital there was literally a red line taped on the floor – those on one side were in full PPE and those on the other in a paper mask and pinny – to control a virus primarily spread through aerosol.

Vaccination started in earnest in December and I was offered mine in the first ‘wave’. I have had numerous vaccinations and boosters as a nurse. I’ve worked in healthcare long enough to understand the prevalence of iatrogenic harm, but you look at the evidence and conclude that the risks are small enough and the benefits great enough to be worth it. In this case, personally, I had some reservations.

The Covid vaccines have been developed to reduce symptom severity rather than to provide sterilising immunity, and I am relatively young and in good health. Crucially, I have had Covid-19 and have antibodies. I am confused as to why previous infection is not being taken into consideration when assessing individual need for vaccination especially as all available data showed negligible risk of reinfection.

Vaccines do not stop transmission. That’s clear to me as a nurse. Why would we introduce a vaccine passport? Why would we mandate vaccinations to access venues or public places or make it a requirement for jobs? Why should I lose my job if I decide not to be vaccinated?

I feel appalled at the idea of a two-tier society.

Informed consent is the bedrock of good clinical practice. You document that consent has been obtained for every procedure. How would you obtain informed consent from someone who you know has had no choice but to be vaccinated else they’ll lose their job? How do you consent a child who has been told that if they don’t have the vaccine they wont be able to go to a football match or out for dinner? Plenty of adults have been vaccinated because of the potential risk to their freedoms rather than any potential health benefits. This is ethically wrong and scientifically unsubstantiated.

I have been a nurse all my working life. I care. It’s a reflex. But if vaccines are forced on NHS staff, I want no part of it.


if you can prove you have antibodies why must you have the jabs

11 hr agoLiked by Laura Dodsworth
Hi, Thank you for this. I'm a Physiotherapist in the NHS. I caught covid whilst being moved to the covid wards during the first wave. As I'm metabolically healthy I was fine. I have been part of the react trial since. And 18 months later I still have antibodies. I find it madness that I'm now faced with having to decided about the vaccine or my job. I have large concerns about the risks of these vaccines. The yellow card, vears and WHO data on side affects is rather scary. The letter I received from the react trial clearly states antibodies were found in my blood "as if I had recently had the vaccine"! I'm very saddened by yesterday's announcement.

 

Michael #LiveFreeOrDie #TakeOffYourMask

@MThebrexitparty
· 18h
The government have a bit of a dilemma...
They have to convince the unvaccinated that the jab does work
at the same time as convincing the vaccinated it doesn't work so they get the boosters...

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The concept of vaccines really isn’t that difficult. They all vary in their effectiveness, as has been known for ages. Anti-vaxxers constantly cling to this myth that they’re meant to be 100% effective. Meanwhile, you’re considerably more likely to get sick and/or die if you haven’t been vaccinated at all.

We’re still at about 1000 deaths a week here. Fortunately, Covid got done on Freedom Day so we can pretend it’s not happening.

 

Amazed by some of the low rates of vaccination in europe
UK only at 67%
Thought the numbers would have been much higher

 

I think we are closer to 80% kiwi

 

From the BBC

 

From the NHS website

 

Cases rising sharply here....... today we had 5483 new cases and over 18000 cases in last 5 days...... it seems that the cases are across all age groups except the over 80's who in the last couple of weeks have received their booster jabs.....There are roughly 300k un-vaccinated people in Ireland and the health body are recommending that working from home is re-introduced to stop transmission and also to cut down on social activities especially meeting up with other households.....

Not looking good at the moment......

 

How incredibly grim.

 

Are you telling me that I can't trust the BBC